Thursday, August 31, 2023
The Problem of the Elderly Senators
Mitch McConnell is 81 years old-- an age when many people are pretty spry and strong of mind and heart. Some others suffer cognition issues, though. And it's a mistake to choose those people as our leaders.
The over-age Senator is not a new thing-- Strom Thurmond was in the Senate until age 100. And though his advanced age prevented him largely from doing the awful things he did earlier in life, it did not make much sense to have him as an elected leader.
It's not just Republicans, of course. The Senator aging most poorly in office is probably Dianne Feinstein of California:
This whole discussion, of course, brings up the inevitable question of the advanced ages of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who would be well into their 80's during their next term if elected. However, neither of them seem to be suffering the infirmities observable in Feinstein and McConnell.
At the root of it all is the power of incumbency, which seems to outweigh nearly everything else. It seems that we prefer the familiar over the effective, a dangerous tendency.
