Concerns Over Geriatric Politicians

 

by Pa Rock

Geriatric Citizen Journalist

When James Madison and his wealthy white male colleagues drafted the Constitution for our new nation back in the 1787, they did yeoman's work and created a document that has survived with relatively few modifications for nearly two-and-a-half centuries.  

One of the issues that the Constitutional Convention dealt with was setting qualifications for the elected officials who would run our national government, and one of the primary qualifications that they wrangled with was age requirements to serve in the House, Senate, and Presidency.  The delegates set a clear hierarchy of minimum ages that have lasted through the centuries.  A representative must be at least 25-years-old in order to serve in the House, a senator must be a minimum of 30-years-old, and the president must be thirty-five or older.

What the delegates did not consider, however, was maximum age limits for service in government.  Maximum age limits might have been a touchy concern that the delegates did not want to address.  Convention delegate Benjamin Franklin, who was eighty-one at the time of the Constitutional Convention, was so infirm that he had to be carried into the sessions in a sedan chair.  Old Ben might have taken personal offense at talk of maximum age limits for those elected to run our government.

And today it is still a very touchy issue.

This past week the San Francisco Chronicle carried a very long article focusing on what it termed the "mental acuity" of California's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein.    That piece, which was based on accounts provided to the Chronicle from colleagues of the senator and people who have had recent contact with her, predictably stirred a hornet's nest of quick responses, both supportive and critical of the long-serving public official.

The article noted that colleagues and co-workers of the senator were saying that are days when she functions relatively normally,  but there are also days when the 88-year-old Feinstein has trouble following conversations.  Some told of having to be constantly "re-introduced" to her during meetings, while others said that she would berate staff for not briefing her on things which they had just briefed her on.   Overall, the reports painted a picture of a political leader who was operating in a fog.  The examples were plentiful, and they were devastating.

The Chronicle led its coverage on April 14th with:  "If Feinstein is mentally unfit, Democrats need to tell her openly.  And she should resign."

The following day the city's other major newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner , shot back with an editorial which was headlined:  "Sen. Dianne Feinstein gets the job done.  Leave her the hell alone."  The Examiner went on to speculate that most of the criticism of Feinstein was coming from "progressive" Democrats.

San Francisco's other aging political giant, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seemed to take the Chronicle's  critical article on Feinstein personally.  Pelosi pointed out that Feinstein has recently lost her husband to a long battle with cancer.   She called Feinstein a "workhorse for the people of California,"  and said that the attacks on her were "unconscionable" and "ridiculous."   Pelosi herself is eighty-two and is currently weathering calls for her to step down from her leadership position at the end of the current Congress.

Senator Feinstein has reportedly quit holding town hall public meetings, and she is constantly attended by aids.   She has denied any impairment and seems intent to serve out her current term which ends in January of 2025 - at which time she will be ninety-one.

Dianne Feinstein is currently the oldest serving U.S. Senator.  She is 88-years-old and will be eighty-nine on June 22nd.  The second oldest U.S. Senator is Charles Grassley of Iowa, who is also eighty-eight and less than three months younger than Feinstein.  Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma are each eighty-seven, Patrick Leahy of Vermont is eighty-two,  and Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are each eighty-years-old.

All seven of those United States senators (two Democrats, four Republicans, and one Independent) are wandering about on the thin ice of the aging process, and all seven should put the country first and step aside from their decades of entrenchment in our nation's capital.  

Call that ageist if you must, but that is how this seventy-four-year-old feels about things.  My cognizance of my own increasing limitations makes me aware of their increasing limitations as well.  The attainment of eighty-years-of-age would be an excellent stopping point for elected public officials, and seventy-five would be even better!