Randi Kreiss

Local man feels the Bern as he turns 70

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I married an older man, and this week he is turning 70. He is very old. And it is so cool.

Apparently, white hair and sensible shoes are in. We have a 68-year-old woman who is likely to be our next president, and we have a scrappy 74-year-old guy snapping at her heels.

On the Republican side, the issue of age pales in comparison with the more pressing considerations of sanity, intelligence, integrity and demeanor. Sen. Ted Cruz is only 45, but his own colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham, joked that if Cruz were murdered on the Senate floor and the trial were held there, no one would vote for a conviction. Quite the non-endorsement endorsement.

Donald Trump, of course, is 69, but age isn’t the issue with him. He is truly timeless, in that he runs on his own operating system, from his own planet, according to his own rules and with laser-like determination to exploit any available bias of race, religion or gender.

Among the many bizarre aspects of Election 2016 is the phenomenon of young people driving the Bernie Sanders election machine. Kids voting for the first time, young working people and college students have made millions of donations to www.feelbern.com, breaking all kinds of records. And making history.

No one, including Sanders, expected to raise the kind of money that has flowed in without accepting donations from “super PACs” and big corporations. (Some people argue that he has received money indirectly from corporate donors, but that argument is for another time. He has written a new page in the “How to Run for President” manual.)

So here’s this old guy who would be 75 years old when he took office, and young people are pushing to get him elected. They support him and believe in his ideas and trust him and look to him for leadership. They don’t care that he has no clue about foreign policy. They don’t care that he couldn’t possibly implement some of the programs he advocates.

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