Summary
Rep. Annie Kuster, a 68-year-old Democrat from New Hampshire, retiring after 12 years in Congress, cites a desire to “set a better example” and create space for younger leaders.
Her decision comes amid growing public concern about aging politicians, with about a quarter of lawmakers over 70. Kuster’s successor will be Maggie Goodlander, 38.
Democrats are increasingly elevating younger leaders following setbacks in 2024, which some attribute to the perception of aging leadership, including President Biden’s controversial reelection bid.
Calls for age limits remain popular but face significant legislative hurdles.
They are our fucking employees. We should be able to choose the terms of their employment. Seems like a pretty fundamental tenant of a fucking democracy to me.
We should have made a provision for National referendum For things like this.
Well, we cannot even stop them from insider training. Then there is the problem of all the legalized bribery…I would think age limits faces much more of an uphill battle, even without the moral quandary it poses.
What moral quandary? No one but pedophiles complains about the fact that age minimums for certain activities exist. Cognitive function is a bell curve and old people are on the back end of it. That’s just a fact of life. What is controversial about it?
Well, with age also comes wisdom, so forcing people out when they might be hitting a stride is rather immoral (and foolish) if you ask me.
It’d be one thing if we were to start applying cognitive tests beyond a certain age…I’d hate to lose the likes of Bernie just based on a number. If someone is sharp and able-bodied well into their nineties or even later, what is the point in pushing them out?
But again, as I say, even this line of reasoning is rather static and fixed in time. This kind of discussion may age very badly if/when age extension/age reversal comes online, and I don’t want us setting something up that will likely come off extremely anachronistic just based on one of the last remaining prejudices that, at this point in time, is still permissible and even fashionable in polite company - and that is ageism. The rules of government are rather famous for not keeping up with the times and it seems foolhardy to try to put something into place that may very quickly become ridiculous.
With age comes wisdom, but at our politician’s ages, so do issues like dementia and Alzheimer’s
Possibly, but also maybe not. You have to treat people as individuals. That’s what cognitive testing would be good for, in any case.
Bernie is 83. He’ll be 89 when he most likely retires. I say as long as he is of sound mind and body, I want people like him in there. If he was forced out at some arbitrary cutoff, we would have missed out on decades of his input.
Not everyone ages equally.
Only in the same way your landlord or your bank is your employee. The positions have been monopolized by a handful of cartel brokers and the real job of administering is in the hands of corporate lackeys puffed up through billions of dollars in sales and marketing. Liberal democracy has been defanged by market forces.
There’s no such thing as a “national referendum”, legally speaking. We don’t vote on legislation, just on bureaucrats. And the bureaucrats we get to vote on are selected first by the donors, then by the party, and only finally by the general electorate.
Nobody we elect has any incentive to cap the age or number of terms they hold office. Why would they vote against their collective best interests?
It would still be age discrimination. The way to go is term limits.
If there can be a minimum age, there can be a maximum age.
How would it be age discrimination? There are plenty of fields where you are no longer able to work at a certain age such as being a pilot or air traffic control. If we can’t trust a 70 year old pilot to fly a couple hundred people then why the hell can we trust a 70 year old politican to steer the entire country with policy?
There is no age limit for pilots. As long as you pass the health checks you can keep flying.
https://www.faa.gov/faq/what-maximum-age-pilot-can-fly-airplane
You can keep flying, just not commercially after 65.
The problem is people like, “their,” geriatric. Ed Markey is my Senator, and he says he’ll be seeking reelection in two years when he’ll be 80. Even though I think he’s been a pretty good Senator, I want him to retire at the end of term, but I’m probably in the minority, and it will be an uphill battle to primary him if he doesn’t choose to step down.
We can do an article V convention to amend the constitution with these limits in order to circumvent DC politics entirely. But they will tell you that it’s an incredibly dangerous thing to do, and could cost us democracy itself!…I say we go for it anyway.