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What if our oldest president’s legacy was uplifting the youngest Americans?

President Joe Biden speaks as he welcomes children to the White House for "Take Your Child to Work Day," Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The grim figure blocking President Biden’s path to a second term isn’t Donald Trump: It’s Father Time.  

As Biden launches his 2024 campaign at age 80, nearly 7 in 10 registered voters say he is “too old for another term.”   

Reassurances that the president’s stiff gait “has not worsened since last year” aren’t going to change that. But there is a winning strategy hiding in plain sight: Embrace an agenda that prioritizes America’s youngest citizens. 

Biden is old, but his platform doesn’t have to be.   

The political benefits are clear. Biden’s support is weakest among the youngest Democrat voters: Only a quarter of those under 45 say they will “definitely” support him in the general election. The president needs to energize this block to capitalize on his incumbent status. And centering his campaign on young people can help counter perceptions that he is over the hill and out of touch. 

Yet, the real upside of a youth-first agenda is to the nation as a whole. Focusing our resources on young people is the surest way to achieve the strong America we all desire because the major challenges we face as a country are most effectively and cheaply addressed by engaging in prevention and targeted childhood interventions.   

When it comes to combatting poverty, promoting health, reducing crime and encouraging productivity, there is no “free” option. You pay pennies on pre-K, prenatal care and family support or many dollars on prisons, heart disease treatments and unemployment initiatives. It’s not about choosing kids over the elderly: It’s about providing all children with what they need to thrive so that they require far less — and contribute far more — when they get old.   

Drawing our attention to kids also promotes wise policy because the things that tend to harm children — from pesticides to solitary confinement to truck exhaust — also tend to harm adults, but since kids are more sensitive, attending to them allows us to catch threats we might otherwise miss, to the benefit of all.  

Part of the practical appeal of a child-first platform is that it applies to every area of policy and provides a unified and galvanizing plan of action. It is not another beige campaign slogan — “Stronger Together,” “Build Back Better,” “Finish the Job” — designed to be meaningless and unoffensive. It’s a rallying cry and a substantive plan for governing. 

Here are just a few of the key planks: 

A platform like this can provide the Democrats with what they have been searching for since the end of the Obama presidency: a concrete, accessible and appealing vision for the future of our country.   

And it answers the question that Biden poses in his first campaign video: “whether in the years ahead, we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer.” As he intoned, “Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they have to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights.”     

The rights of this moment are children’s rights — ensure them, and our collective prospects are bright.

Adam Benforado is a law professor at Drexel University and the author of the new book, A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All.”