Reply #7: Grumpy and out of touch -- yes. But elderly, age, senior -- those are not

[JDPriestly]

good subjects for political jokes. It's just not smart.

It's no smarter than making jokes based on race or gender. In her L.A. public high school, my brilliant but very blond daughter (the only blond in her class) was utterly humiliated by dumb blond jokes. Oh, so funny. After all, blonds are not a minority???? And she wasn't dumb. So, she was fair game for jokes. Is it any wonder that she has lost contact with her high school classmates?

If you want to do something good for your candidate, think before you make jokes at the expense of a huge and important group of voters.

Age is just another one of those conditions that the Supreme Court referred to as "immutable," meaning you are born with the trait and can't change it -- like race. Your age may change, but you are born when you are born and you can't change it.

And, by the way, wait until you, too, are older. The world changes very fast. Before you know it, you too just may be grumpy and out of touch. But you probably won't think of yourself as grumpy and out of touch, and you won't think it is funny when someone else does.

I can't resist adding that it isn't just older people who are grumpy and out of touch. Anyone who has raised a teenager can tell you that they, too, can be grumpy and selectively out of touch.