Are US politicians too old? Voters weigh in
Are US politicians too old? Voters weigh in
A recent health scare for Mitch McConnell has raised concerns about the age of America's politicians.
A recent health scare for Mitch McConnell has raised concerns about the age of America's politicians.
Too owned is the bigger problem.
Hell, Bernie's old, but he still has his marbles.
I would suggest it isn’t the absolute age… but the overall health. Trump. Feinstein, Bitch McConnel. They’re not too old. They’re too senile.
I guess this makes Strom Thurmond a pioneer?
It's both. If you don't have term limits, that considerably reduces the risk of a newbie with morals coming in, rejecting your lobbying money, and putting your whole operation in jeopardy. If you can keep them around for a long time, they gain power as they gain seniority and so do you.
In theory, yes.
In practice, look at the term-limited Florida Legislature. They're every bit as corrupt. New faces, but same owners.
Woohoo... A whopping four people interviewed. That said, it's interesting that the BBC has a Republican and two independents saying there should be some kind of disqualifier, like a term limit or competency tests, while the Democrat's statement seemed to amount to, "age is just a number". That doesn't seem to track with what I've seen. From what I've seen, very few people are saying, "age is just a number" in the context of politics anymore (I've legitimately been seeing republicans starting to question not just Biden, but other elderly politicians, regardless of party).
Seems like the interviews were cherry-picked. Big surprise there...
What a shit sample size.
Even toothpaste surveys uses a minimum of ten dentists.
"Voters weigh in"
You mean like how they do every other November? When they put those geezers in office?
People tend to just vote for the incumbent, which is how we’ve got senators so old they’re stroking out on camera and have conservators, because they refuse to yield power or retire. This is why we need term limits.
If not term limits we really should have age maximums to go with the minimums that already exist. People over 70 shouldn't be making policy decisions they likely won't be alive to see tye affects of.
Can’t imagine it has anything to do with all the laws that disenfranchise college students and young adults not living in the same town as their parents.
Seriously how the fuck do I get out this small town T-T
I was gonna go to state school, cuz I can afford it, but it's down the street like 30 minutes. And that town sucks just as badly.
So I just... didn't. 🥲
Yes.
I don't think the issue is that politicians are old or not. You may be old but still have fresh ideas. The problem is that without term limits those fresh ideas become stagnant and start to smell of prune juice farts and old tapioca pudding.
you might reasonably assume that if they were too old they'd vote for younger ones
The problem is demographics. Boomers have been the largest voting bloc and that’s only really changing now that they’re getting old and dying. (Currently boomers are 59-77 years. Biden and them are technically silent generation.)
Gen x is to “quiet” to make a big fuss and boomers don’t respect millennials (nevermind gen z) so they’re never going to vote for some one younger than themselves.
It was until ‘19 that boomers were finally outnumbered by a different generation.
The gerontocracy runs the political parties. The party determines the candidates. You will rarely see a candidate on your ballot that wasn’t approved by them. And they will only approve of other old people and those that agree with their policies… which are inherently conservative in nature.