“Oh, well, a touch of grey kind of suits you anyway. That was all I had to say, and it’s all right.” – Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia

There are a lot of themes you could choose when it comes to the political year 2024.

In most years I would choose the major policy issues, shifts in what make up the bases of the major political parties, or close political races for high-level offices.

We have examples of all of those this year, but politics in 2024 may always stand out to me due to its unusual connection to age. If you need an abacus or two to count up your journeys around the sun then grab the handles of your walker, slowly rise from your seat, and take a bow. This year is for you.

Politics has always tended to attract more participation from those who are long of the tooth.

Younger adults are generally more focused on establishing themselves professionally, reaching a level of economic stability and keeping their young children from sticking their fingers into electrical outlets.

Statistically, these are less likely to be concerns for people as their age advances leaving more time to think about the state of affairs in government and society. The more you think about these issues, the more likely you are to become involved in trying to affect them.

Some people worry this leads to the views of older Americans being overrepresented in government. While this is probably true, I do not see it as anything requiring correction.

Highly motivated and politically committed young people can still be elected. Alabama’s junior senator, Katie Britt, is a good example of this. She was elected at age 40. The same is true for Barack Obama being elected president in 2008 at age 47.

Additionally, age can be a virtue as it provides life experience and wisdom to those who serve in elected offices. Changes to policies are more likely to be incremental and less extreme if decided by people who are better equipped to understand the consequences of changes.

However, worries about the age of people holding powerful government positions roared to center stage in politics this year. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pounced when then-opponent Joe Biden had several verbal gaffes during what turned out to be their only debate. His blunders only continued in the weeks afterward.

Biden celebrated his 78^th birthday a couple of weeks after election day in 2020. He took the mantle of oldest serving president the day he was inaugurated, bypassing Ronald Reagan, who was a couple of weeks shy of turning 78 when he left the presidency.

Not so surprisingly, neither Republicans nor Democrats seem to remember the stances on age they held only a few months ago.

Democrats now believe a president’s age is problematic since they shifted to a younger candidate in Kamala Harris. Republicans now believe age is no issue for Trump despite him being a few months older than Biden was at this time four years ago. Perhaps both sides are just experiencing a senior moment.

Even closer to home, Gov. Kay Ivey has continually faced questions about her fitness to lead the state due to her age and health problems over the past few years.

Ivey celebrated her 80^th birthday this week and getting stuck with the nickname Gov. MeMaw, whether it is used warmly or derisively, will naturally inject questions about age into conversations about job performance.

She will be 82 when she turns over the keys to the governor’s mansion in a little more than two years from now and appears to have no plans to step aside before then.

Not all age-related news this year is necessarily bad, though. You may have heard former president Jimmy Carter made history on Oct. 1, when he became the first former president to reach the age of 100.

While Carter had some foreign policy victories as president, the latter part of his term was mired with domestic and international problems he could not overcome leading to Reagan’s election in 1980.

Carter’s legacy changed, however, as he was able to leverage a long lifespan to overcome an unsuccessful presidency – the defining period of life for nearly every other man to hold the office.

Carter is now known for the life of service he led after his presidency through his Sunday School lessons back in Plains, Ga., his work with Habitat for Humanity and his commitment to peace initiatives worldwide.

It is fitting he becomes the first centenarian former president.

So let’s all raise a tumbler of our finest spirits to our chronologically mature Americans. It has been quite a year already. We can chase it down with our daily serving of prune juice.