As we begin what promises to be an outright ugly, downright disgraceful, unavoidably demoralizing, and quite possibly violent election year, I find myself nostalgic for friendlier, genial times.

Remember when Ronald Reagan was asked about his age in a debate with Walter Mondale in 1984? In response, Reagan, then 73, showed no irritation, just a broad, genuine smile:

 I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.

Easily the best joke and loudest laughter in the history of presidential debates, and no one laughed harder than Mondale, then 56, a former vice-president, US senator, and Minnesota attorney general. Historians mention it as among the most “iconic” moments in presidential debates. A stand-up comic today would call it a “mic drop.”

The quip has to be my generation’s most vivid memory of the Reagan-Mondale race. Those paying attention at the time will hasten to add that the issue of age was never raised by Mondale or any leading Democrats. They–we–had enough substantive issues with the Hollywood actor-turned-corporate frontman. The issue of age began in the press, and when it gained traction with the public, the press ran with it.

Nimarata Nikki Randhawa was twelve when Reagan cracked his joke. She was called by her middle name from the cradle, and at age 24 she married a commissioned officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard to become Nikki Haley. At 39 she became that state’s governor, and at 47 she was appointed America’s ambassador to the United Nations by a man who now condemns her as “a tool of liberals” and calls her “Nimarata” with the same racist ridicule that four years ago dripped from several Republicans’ pronunciation of “Kamala.”

Tomorrow, Haley will turn 52. As a presidential candidate in this year’s Republican primaries, she hopes to beat a heavy favorite who will turn 78 in June. If she succeeds, she faces an incumbent who is 81. Listen to her ads that have been running in what TV execs call “the Boston market” in these weeks before the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 2, and you might wonder if she thinks her road to the White House is nothing more than a numbers game.

That’s a risky strategy for someone who just 18 months ago, at the chipper age of 50, complained about rising prices for holiday parties by taking the percentage increase over Biden’s first year in office of six items such as soda at 13.2% and ice cream at 9.6% and adding them to decry a whopping, though warped, 67.2% inflation.

Only a youngster could inflate inflation, and if he or she did it in school, any math teacher would quickly correct it. But it’s the younger voters who will likely outnumber those of us who remember Democrats and Republicans laughing at each other’s jokes. In Iowa and New Hamphire they have been telling reporters over and again that they will vote for Haley “because she is young” and “it’s time for a new generation.” They rarely ever cite an issue for a reason, and when asked about one–the environment, gun violence, reproductive rights, Ukraine, Gaza–they shrug and offer something along the lines of, “She’ll listen to all sides” and “she’ll have good advisors.”

In addition to age, she has yet another advantage in drawing younger voters who see and hear only the surface: As several Iowans declared, “It’s time for the first woman president.” That’s quite an accomplishment for a candidate who dog-whistles in every speech, “Let’s face it: A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris.” Nothing about Harris to justify the jab, certainly no mention of Harris’ age, just the image: Harris is African-American.

Young people miss this because they stay on the surface. Ask those same young people voting for her in the early primaries where they stand on most issues–most glaringly, reproductive rights–and Haley’s appeal beyond the initial youthful attraction is impossible to figure. Until you realize that the pictures are all they see, and her folksy twang–not the evasive pretzel-logic of her double-talk–is all they hear.

Haley, who was already spending ample time in the Granite State with its “First in the Nation” primary in mind, may have gained the idea from a mayoral race here on New Hampshire’s border. Yes, right there in Newburyport, which I can see out my window, in 2021 when Haley began making the rounds, an upstart 45-year-old native son announced a campaign that pitted him against a well-seasoned 70-year-old city councillor.

The councillor, as you’d expect, knew the issues in detail and spoke with clarity and precision. The upstart, a la Haley, spoke with excitement that covered a vagueness on the issues about which he kept promising further research. The councillor won the primary by a landslide. Had the upstart taken all the 9.5% votes cast for a third-party crank, a Trumper, the councillor would have won, but there was still a run-off.

Apparently, the upstart knew he needed something new, something that would jolt. Or, perhaps it was just his supporters, or enough of them to harp on his opponent’s age. It worked, albeit just barely. The upstart won by 22 votes. Two years later, we are wondering why the city now lurches from controversy to controvery as experienced public servants are replaced, re-assigned, or pressured to quit because the mayor wants, in his own phrase, “all new people.”

Whether she paid any attention to this Massachusetts seacoast town or not, Haley has put this plan on steroids. Unlike our local upstart, she says it herself in ads that begin with her voice-over, “I’ll just say it, Joe Biden is too old…” Before long, she starts warning us of the prospect of two old men on the November ballot, and the names Biden and Trump are interchangeable, a duo not at all dynamic.

As most pundits have noted, lumping the two together is Haley’s back-door attempt to appeal to Trump’s base. She appears to be attacking Biden, and only by coincidence is Trump nearly as old. She conflates Trump’s obsession with the last election with a single clip from Biden addressing it to claim that both are living in the past–no matter how many advances Biden has made and continues to make regarding employment, wages, and even the Republican-cherished stock market. This won’t fool anyone in Trump’s cult, nor will it fool anyone who has paid attention all along, but the gambit is working with independent voters just now beginning to consider the choices.

Nikki Haley is rising in the polls because she has turned the Republican primaries into a contest of generations. Hence, she emphasizes term limits with no mention of the founders’ intention to keep that decision in the hands of the public. It’s in the Constitution, a provision called “elections.” But term limits are a way to justify paying less attention to what Congress does. Perhaps without realizing it, young voters are attracted to term limits because it would be a law that does their thinking for them. In their own word, an app.

If she wins the nomination, the race to November will not be political or ideological, but generational. Boomers vs. Generation X.

We Boomers have endured quite a lot of derision, resentment, and ridicule over the last few decades, most notably a few years back during the “OK Boomer!” fad. In November, we may be on the ballot. Will voters see and hear no more of a difference than age? Or will they look and listen long and hard enough to recognize a soulless, humorless, human algorithim programmed to say whatever the focus group in front of her at the time wants to hear?

If it’s the latter, they’ll also be looking at and listening to an old guy with a quick wit, unafraid of jokes, and able to laugh even at himself. Question is, will his–our–generation laugh along with him?

Those were the days, my friend, let’s bring them back again.

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