by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Tennessee's senior United States Senator, Lamar Alexander has made a good decision. Yesterday the 78-year-old politician announced that he would not seek a fourth six-year term in the Senate in 2020 when he will be eighty. What is sad is that his move came as a "surprise" to America's political pundits.
If Alexander had run in 2020 he would have likely been re-elected to a fourth term, one which would have ended when he was eighty-six - or when God intervened - whichever came first. He would have spent six more long years aging on the government dime while crafting laws that would impact the lives of younger, more vital Americans with whom he would be growing increasingly out-of-touch.
Yesterday I came across an editorial piece on the internet which argued for letting geriatrics serve in government as long as they are able. The author cited Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Nancy Pelosi as being examples of older people who are very skilled and proficient at their jobs. And that is undoubtedly and unmistakably true.
What was not addressed, however, was the fact that elderly people are subject to sudden and dramatic changes in ability. One day they are leading the free world and the next they are confused and heading toward life in a care facility. Worse yet, most of the aging is not sudden and dramatic - it just quietly slips up on them, day by day, almost unnoticeable, but with a cumulative impact that colors work and life decisions. That's why some of us choose to retire, so that our growing decrepitude impacts as few others as possible.
Yes, anybody can go off the rails at any age, but it is far more likely to happen when you are eighty than when you are forty.
The United States is still a surprisingly young country. The median age across our nation is 37.9 years. For those of you too long out of a statistics course, that means if everyone in this country was lined up according to age, from youngest to oldest, the person at the exact center of that line would be 37.9 years old. The most common (mode) age in the United States in twenty-six. More people in this country are 26-years-old than any other age.
And the life expectancy in the United States as reported one year ago this month was 78.6-years-old, almost the exact age of Senator Lamar Alexander - and a hair younger than Nancy Pelosi - and that average age has been dropping over the past couple of years.
The United States Constitution carefully sets out minimum age requirements for Representatives (25), Senators (30), and President (35), but does not address the notion of maximum ages for holding office. Eventually an amendment limited the President to two terms, but other than that there are no legal limits to the amount of service elected officials may give to our national government.
So basically members of Congress (the House and Senate) have to meet a certain minimum age, but, once elected, can serve until they are hauled off of the Floor wearing a toe-tag. I would argue that we would have a more vital and truly representative Congress if the minimum age for all offices were lowered to the federal minimum voting age - and a seniority cap was placed on service, perhaps equal to whatever the current life-expectancy happens to be. That might even encourage members of Congress to promote programs that would extend life in these United States!
(Right now one of the brightest and most dynamic in-coming members of the next Congress, Alexandria Octavio-Cortez, could not even run for President in the next election because she would still be too young. And we certainly wouldn't want the United States to be run by someone with that much clear vision and energy, would we?)
If the minimum age for running for Congress was eighteen, some of those young activists from Parkland, Florida, would have been on the ballot last month - and chances are good that they would have been elected.
The other option for removing dead wood from Congress would be term limits. Setting maximum age limits, lowering the minimum age to serve, and instituting limits on the number of terms a member could serve would all involve changes to the Constitution. Amending the Constitution is a complicated process, and well it should be. But as our national leadership gets grayer and grayer, something needs to change.
It's time for people my age - 70 and over - to climb in the back seat of the government jalopy and let the young folks drive. Maybe with youth at the wheel we will actually get somewhere!
Citizen Journalist
Tennessee's senior United States Senator, Lamar Alexander has made a good decision. Yesterday the 78-year-old politician announced that he would not seek a fourth six-year term in the Senate in 2020 when he will be eighty. What is sad is that his move came as a "surprise" to America's political pundits.
If Alexander had run in 2020 he would have likely been re-elected to a fourth term, one which would have ended when he was eighty-six - or when God intervened - whichever came first. He would have spent six more long years aging on the government dime while crafting laws that would impact the lives of younger, more vital Americans with whom he would be growing increasingly out-of-touch.
Yesterday I came across an editorial piece on the internet which argued for letting geriatrics serve in government as long as they are able. The author cited Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Nancy Pelosi as being examples of older people who are very skilled and proficient at their jobs. And that is undoubtedly and unmistakably true.
What was not addressed, however, was the fact that elderly people are subject to sudden and dramatic changes in ability. One day they are leading the free world and the next they are confused and heading toward life in a care facility. Worse yet, most of the aging is not sudden and dramatic - it just quietly slips up on them, day by day, almost unnoticeable, but with a cumulative impact that colors work and life decisions. That's why some of us choose to retire, so that our growing decrepitude impacts as few others as possible.
Yes, anybody can go off the rails at any age, but it is far more likely to happen when you are eighty than when you are forty.
The United States is still a surprisingly young country. The median age across our nation is 37.9 years. For those of you too long out of a statistics course, that means if everyone in this country was lined up according to age, from youngest to oldest, the person at the exact center of that line would be 37.9 years old. The most common (mode) age in the United States in twenty-six. More people in this country are 26-years-old than any other age.
And the life expectancy in the United States as reported one year ago this month was 78.6-years-old, almost the exact age of Senator Lamar Alexander - and a hair younger than Nancy Pelosi - and that average age has been dropping over the past couple of years.
The United States Constitution carefully sets out minimum age requirements for Representatives (25), Senators (30), and President (35), but does not address the notion of maximum ages for holding office. Eventually an amendment limited the President to two terms, but other than that there are no legal limits to the amount of service elected officials may give to our national government.
So basically members of Congress (the House and Senate) have to meet a certain minimum age, but, once elected, can serve until they are hauled off of the Floor wearing a toe-tag. I would argue that we would have a more vital and truly representative Congress if the minimum age for all offices were lowered to the federal minimum voting age - and a seniority cap was placed on service, perhaps equal to whatever the current life-expectancy happens to be. That might even encourage members of Congress to promote programs that would extend life in these United States!
(Right now one of the brightest and most dynamic in-coming members of the next Congress, Alexandria Octavio-Cortez, could not even run for President in the next election because she would still be too young. And we certainly wouldn't want the United States to be run by someone with that much clear vision and energy, would we?)
If the minimum age for running for Congress was eighteen, some of those young activists from Parkland, Florida, would have been on the ballot last month - and chances are good that they would have been elected.
The other option for removing dead wood from Congress would be term limits. Setting maximum age limits, lowering the minimum age to serve, and instituting limits on the number of terms a member could serve would all involve changes to the Constitution. Amending the Constitution is a complicated process, and well it should be. But as our national leadership gets grayer and grayer, something needs to change.
It's time for people my age - 70 and over - to climb in the back seat of the government jalopy and let the young folks drive. Maybe with youth at the wheel we will actually get somewhere!
No comments:
Post a Comment