Agress: An ode to the old: When did we stop respecting our elders?

When Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, signed a major Infrastructure bill in 1956, he was 65 years old — definitely a senior. And when Ike, as he was affectionately nick-named, left office in 1961, at age 70, his approval ratings throughout the country were sky high. Everyone still “liked Ike,” as his early campaign buttons suggested. Eisenhower was venerated for being a senior; I remember the word “grandfatherly” being used. President Ronald Reagan, too, was respected for his age. Today, sadly, many young people believe President Joe Biden, who just turned 80, is over the hill. When he won the passage of his own critical infrastructure bill in 2021, he received nothing like the credit Ike was given.