TRAIN CONDUCTORS, healthcare professionals, engineers, NFL players, members of the military. What do they all have in common? They are administered a cognitive test by prospective employers prior to hiring to ensure that the candidate for the job has the mental capacity and fitness to handle the job. Yet for the most important job in the United States, and arguably the most important job in the world, there is no such metric.
We believe that it is time for candidates for the presidency of the United States to submit to a cognitive test prior to appearing on a ballot. There are already certain qualifications for the presidency. A president must be 35 years or older; they must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, and they must have resided in the United States for the previous 14 years before taking office.
These are safeguards that are in place to ensure that the chief executive has a certain level of life experience that they bring to the job and that their loyalty to the United States is unqualified. Adding a cognitive test to this list of qualifications just adds another level of certainty to voters that the president is fit for office.
Our nation, throughout its history, has enjoyed brilliant presidents, truly qualified to handle the pressures associated with such a demanding job. Abraham Lincoln saving the Union, Franklin Roosevelt navigating both the Great Depression and World War II, JFK’s cool head during the Cuban Missile Crisis. These were presidents who surrounded themselves with able advisors, understood the gravity and impact of their actions, and who ultimately met the moment.
Looking back at these inflection points we often marvel at the good luck we have had at having the right person in office at critical junctures.
The modern presidency comes with even greater responsibility: managing the large federal bureaucracy and conducting foreign policy being the two most important. We saw during COVID in 2020 and most recently during the response to the two hurricanes in the southeast the importance of properly managing federal agencies. And in an increasingly volatile world, we need a steady hand managing foreign relations, leveraging the strength of the United States to help resolve international conflicts before they boil over into chaos.
We simply cannot roll the dice and hope that the president we elect is cognitively sound enough to handle this kind of pressure.
At this point in our history, we have the means to determine a candidate’s mental fitness for the job and we absolutely should do so. Traditionally, candidates for office in recent years have provided detailed assessments of their physical health to the public. Subjecting prospective candidates to a cognitive test ensures that those stepping forward to accept such great responsibility are of sound mind as well.
Polling conducted in August indicated 85 percent of voters favor candidates taking a cognitive test. Republicans are even more likely to support a cognitive test than Democrats—89 percent to 82 percent.
It is not too late, even in this presidential election, to implement a cognitive test for the candidates. Our hope is that in the next three years Congress embraces the wisdom of ensuring the chief executive is mentally fit to hold the job and implements a test that will give Americans peace of mind. We may disagree on issues and style, but a mentally fit president is an idea we can all get behind.
Anahita Dua is a vascular surgeon in Boston and the founder and chair of Healthcare for Action.
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