Back in December, there was a race for committee leadership in congress that exposed the flaws in our gerontocracy. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (age 35) ran for the house Oversight Committee lead against Gerry Connolly (age 74), a guy most of us had never heard of, who looked his age and was particularly cadaverous since he had been suffering from esophageal cancer. If they had any plans for the future, Ocasio-Cortez was the obvious choice…but the equally old Democrats all voted for Connolly. This was insane, short-sighted, and stupid, and additionally was incredibly selfish of Connolly, but I guess power demands its perks. Democrats said he was “feisty”. “Feisty” is kind of a death sentence as far as I’m concerned.
Now Connolly has predictably died.
In addition, since Trump’s ascendancy to peak corruption in January, two other aged Democrats have flopped over dead of old age: Raul Grijalva (age 77) and Sylvester Turner (age 70), both of whom had been diagnosed with cancer. The Democrats are losing representation and votes to inescapable mortality. All of them may have been the very best liberal politicians, but good intentions do not impress the grim reaper.
We cannot make an unconstitutional decree that people above a certain age may not run for office, but the Democratic party could decide to purge the party leadership of all those ancient gomers at, for instance, the age of 65. They wouldn’t be kicked out of the building, but they would be required to make room for a younger generation. I think that would revitalize the party, and encourage people to retire at a reasonable age.
I’m 68. I can say this. I’d be accommodating if I were forced to step down from my position, IF the US provided for a livable retirement wage (retiring senators and representatives have no worries there) and IF the US supported the educational system well enough that they could maintain staffing (again, congress is never going to be left short-staffed).
Take the hint, Chuck Schumer (age 74).
Remember Ruth Ginsburg, she could have / should have left the court well in advance of the 2016 election. I understand working past 65, but staying until you get sick and die just sullies any possibility of a legacy.
I”m 76 and concur with you.
The Democratic Party’s seniority bias has led to a relative dearth of real representation in Congress for “Gen-X”. Yeah, we are getting more representation at the state level, but there, we’re considered the ‘seniors’ now.
When the top candidates in 2020 were Biden, Warren, and Sanders, plus the Congressional leadership being Pelosi and Schumer, it just felt a bit like i’m 50 years old and still living in my parent’s basement.
soc25 @ # 1: … Ruth Ginsburg… could have / should have left the court well in advance of the 2016 election.
As she herself pointed out, the case of Scalia’s seat being held open for almost a year after his death by Sen. McConnell illustrates exactly why her resignation would not have held back the rat bastards by a millimeter.
And if I retired now, it would be at least 2,3 years before they’d hire a replacement, if that.
Corporate sellouts have been clawing onto power, and playing clear-and-hold against insurgent candidates with different ideas. Being predictably favorable to corporate supremacy is more important than anything else. Big piles of money win against smaller piles of money. This is what that strategy looks like several decades later — the Democratic party brings to mind the Mormon church hierarchy both in its cadaverousness and its anti-democratic nature.
@4 Pierce
RGB should have retired in 2009.
@3 acroyear
You have Ted Cruz and the Tea Party Republicans. Isn’t that good enough? ;)
I’m only half-joking. Generation X is the most reliable voting base age-wise for Republicans these days.
With our new and improved (= even more fucked up than the last one) conservative government here in Germany there’s a strong push from politicians, managers and the press that we all have to work more hours and years to keep the country prosperous.
Just a few hours ago my mother ranted about a long report in the local paper about a more than 80 years old guy still happily working as a delivery driver. She is 75 now and retired from here job as a kindergarten teacher 10 years ago and I still remember how relieved she was to finally stop working a job she had not really been able to deal with physically and mentally for many years.
I had to talk my husband into retiring at 68. Otherwise, I believe that he would have just kept right on going.
Once he researched and found that financially, it would be the optimal time, he began getting a bit more interested and then retired at the end of 2024.
I’m afraid that it might have been a bit too late for us to do the traveling that we were planning, since my disabilities are quickly worsening. I do still hope to see Scotland before I die!
Scotland is a lovely place! I’d like to visit again myself, but I fear my traveling days are over (not by incapacity, but because Trump has wrecked everything.)
One of my Senators is older than me, and has mostly been doing a generally pretty good job. But, the individual is older than me, and I’m not the powerhouse I used to be. Probably would do fairly well with one more term….but best to not run for another term and start playing “Retired Senator and political commentator”.
And if there was no one willing to force you out, would you keep your position until you rot in your chair? I believe that’s part of the problem. There’s no one bold enough to tell these old fuckers they’re too old and need to retire. And they’re not going to go on their own.
A lot of it’s a flaw of the Congressional system that allocates power based on seniority. It provides a big incentive to hold on as long as they can. They have survived decades as minor members just to get ranking positions, they are not going to give those up easily.
Committee positions, committee chairman and other Congressional offices should have term limits. You can serve in congress as long as you want but you can only be on the armed forces committee for so long. The seats and positions are allocated by rules set by Congress so changing them isn’t nearly as hard.
If it is a systemic issue with Congress, how are Rs managing to prune their aging members?
Senators over 80: 3 R, 3 D
Senators over 75: 3 R, 11 D
Reps over 80: 3 R, 12 D
Reps over 75: 10 R, 29 D
My grandfather took three goes to finally retire – each time he officially retired from one place he’d quickly get bored and start a new job. By the time he finally retired and stayed retired he was well over 80.
But he didn’t just keep taking the same type of job again and again. The original retirement was from a job that required a lot of time and brainpower, running a very large organisation with thousands of staff and plenty of media interest etc. The next job was (I think) as Chairman of a medium-sized company. He still did a fair amount of the taking to politicians and media stuff, but the day-to-day running of the company was all the CEO. And I think he also worked 4 days a week rather than 5. The final job was as Chairman of a non-profit. He worked 3 days a week and took fairly long lunches, and any media interviews would have been organised by someone else. But he had lots of experience throughout his career that he’d happily pass on to whoever dropped into his office for a chat, and he’d built up all these relationships with state and federal politicians and rich potential donors that he used in all sorts of useful ways for the non-profit.
All your ancient politicians need to take a leaf out of my Grandpa’s book and try a shift to a different kind of job. I’m sure there’s a non-profit out there that would really love Schumer as a Chairman, and he could write lots of letters to the president from there pleading for funding!
Are they dying younger?
@13 direlobo: The tea party radicals pushed out some of the oldest members, driving the average down. Plus, right now there seems to be more natural churn in the Republican party. The Republicans run more primary campaigns against their own party. The hard right has no loyalty to individuals, turning them out if they moderate their position or otherwise anger the right.
“The hard right has no loyalty to individuals”… unless the individual is Donald Trump. :|
I don’t disagree with anything you said, although I’ll mention that Connolly was my rep for his entire term until I moved a couple years back. Ancient, certainly. Should have cleared the path for the next generation, absolutely. But he WAS one of the good people – fighting for (and voting for) pretty much all the right stuff. I never like 100% of the way anyone votes, but I think his record was reasonable close to good. But I can’t argue with the decrepitude of our representatives for sure!