The president was asked whether he thought another Democrat could defeat former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner in the 2024 election.
I love John Fetterman, but he did have a mild stroke and spent a month in treatment for depression while in office. He’s great, but I don’t think he is President material. I don’t hold either of those things against him, and mental health is important, but no way do you convince the public that all is fine
Genuinely serious where you draw the line when it comes to the health of a candidate.
Someone with three previous heart attacks?
Someone with anxiety?
I ask that last one as someone with anxiety and a trigger being stress. To me those are not ableist concerns. Though the previous commenter could have used a better phrase than “presidential material.”
I’m responding as a hiring manager for a big tech company.
I am not allowed, by law as well as very strict company policy, to ask any questions relating to the candidate’s health. I can’t know whether they’ve had four heart attacks, plan to get pregnant in the next six months, had a history of psychological issues, or anything like that. I think that most people would generally agree that’s a very good thing.
There are certainly roles where physical performance is key to the job, and so they’re able to take that kind of thing into account.
I guess what I’m saying is that, while your concern is of course valid, it feels different because we tend to see the president as someone with more of a job than, say, a senior software engineer. Okay, that’s fair in a very real sense. But I think that it’s different between the president and a prime minister, and that’s where it gets interesting. I think there’s an idealization of the role of president. And, bizarrely, that’s one reason Trump was so wrong but so beloved by so many.
I love John Fetterman, but he did have a mild stroke and spent a month in treatment for depression while in office. He’s great, but I don’t think he is President material. I don’t hold either of those things against him, and mental health is important, but no way do you convince the public that all is fine
That’s some ableist shit right there. The other representatives just hide their problems.
Yeah, the general public is ableist, and racist, and sexist, and several other -ists.
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Genuinely serious where you draw the line when it comes to the health of a candidate.
Someone with three previous heart attacks? Someone with anxiety?
I ask that last one as someone with anxiety and a trigger being stress. To me those are not ableist concerns. Though the previous commenter could have used a better phrase than “presidential material.”
I’m responding as a hiring manager for a big tech company.
I am not allowed, by law as well as very strict company policy, to ask any questions relating to the candidate’s health. I can’t know whether they’ve had four heart attacks, plan to get pregnant in the next six months, had a history of psychological issues, or anything like that. I think that most people would generally agree that’s a very good thing.
There are certainly roles where physical performance is key to the job, and so they’re able to take that kind of thing into account.
I guess what I’m saying is that, while your concern is of course valid, it feels different because we tend to see the president as someone with more of a job than, say, a senior software engineer. Okay, that’s fair in a very real sense. But I think that it’s different between the president and a prime minister, and that’s where it gets interesting. I think there’s an idealization of the role of president. And, bizarrely, that’s one reason Trump was so wrong but so beloved by so many.
Ableism is ok as long as the target is a progressive.