On Aug. 30, 81-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell froze for about 30 seconds during a press conference in the Capitol. Unsurprisingly, this has happened before. The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who passed away while in office on Sep. 29 at the age of 90, made headlines earlier this year for giving up her power of attorney to her daughter and not seeming to be fully functioning in her job.
Incidents like these mark a frightening trend that doesn’t seem to be going away as aging politicians continue to cling to power.
This year, the average age in the Senate is the oldest it’s been since the signing of the Constitution. The two frontrunners for the 2024 presidential election — Donald Trump and President Joe Biden — are 77 and 80, respectively.
If there’s one political issue everyone must agree on right now, it is that electing politicians from our grandparents’ generation is detrimental to our democracy and the functioning of our government as a whole. This de facto gerontocracy locks out new, younger voices from being heard in politics, while often maintaining less urgency over the most pressing issues that younger people will live with 50 or 75 years from now.
Both sides have taken note of the issue of aging politicians, especially the right-wing, with many presidential candidates advocating strongly for age limits, competency tests and other measures. And yet, we still seem to be perpetually re-electing the same politicians, with no end in sight.
Look no further than the 2024 Republican primary — despite all the combined campaigning efforts of 9 other nominees, Trump, the oldest candidate, has more than 58% of the voter base supporting him as of Oct. 13.
How did we end up in this situation in the first place? On the most fundamental level, it comes down to one issue: the entrenchment of career politicians.
In 2022, every single incumbent in the Senate won their re-election. Larger trends show that over the past 60 years, no less than 85% of all representatives get re-elected every election cycle, with the number often exceeding 95%. Our own Congressional Representative Anna Eshoo, who is only a month younger than Biden, is entering her 30th consecutive year in Congress.
The existence and popularity of these candidates speaks to the frightening ways in which the political system plays out these days. Hard-drawn party lines claim all in their path and and tend to ostracize anyone who dares to break with those lines (see Liz Cheney, Joe Manchin), and because each side holds their own homogeneous set of beliefs, voters end up choosing based on whoever has been in office the longest and therefore has the largest and most decorated track record instead of who can actually bring change.
This self-perpetuating cycle effectively crumbles the government’s system of checks and balances. Gridlock, which was originally intended as a tool to filter out selfish and extreme bills from ever reaching the desk of the president, has now taken on the exact opposite role.
Older senators can single handedly stop historical climate change bills or erect a blockade against almost all military promotions for their own self-preservation, however devastating those actions may be. Many of these politicians, who have shown an obvious lack of urgency, can’t possibly see the results of their actions, leaving our generation to suffer the consequences.
Their political power also prevents the small group of younger voices from both parties from advancing any legislation that truly is made for the people. Take Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two polar opposites in terms of political leanings, who introduced a bill in May to end stock trading by members of Congress.
Younger blood like them are clearly pointing out the entitlement and selfishness that has started to seep through the older ranks of Congress, made clear by instances like Nancy Pelosi’s conveniently timed stock trades. Unfortunately, Ocasio-Cortez and Gaetz’s bill was quickly forgotten and overshadowed, despite the clear bipartisan support of the issue.
This suppression runs deep — the faces of our government aren’t the only ones perpetuating this pattern. From policy advisors, department officials and cabinet members to unreasonably wealthy lobby and campaign groups, it becomes more and more clear that the mere opportunity for young voices to enact change doesn’t even exist.
Even though the effects of this trend is seen most clearly within the legislative branch, the campaign trails of these lawmakers reek of similar problems. While almost all of our congressional representatives are exceedingly old, most of them also possess substantial wealth, with more than half of lawmakers being millionaires and the richest having net worths exceeding a hundred million. That means they can easily outspend up and coming politicians with relentless campaigning through ads and events.
Ultimately, we are left with a complex problem that seems impossible to combat. Ever since a 1995 Supreme Court ruling found that maximum age limits or term limits for Congress were unconstitutional, we have been left with only one option — to wait this round of politicians out as they slowly release the grip on their seats through death and retirement.
Some recent events have shown a glimmer of hope, as when Sen. Mitt Romney stepped down earlier in September, calling on both Trump and Biden to do the same.
We can already see younger members slowly fill in these spots. Sen. Jon Ossoff was recently elected in Georgia at the age of 36, making him over 50 years younger than the oldest member of the Senate. Rep. Maxwell Frost and Ocasio-Cortez, 34, have taken center stage as some of the youngest people to join the House of Representatives, with Frost, 26, being its first Gen-Z member.
Still, politicians like McConnell have shown no sign of ending their careers, and even then events like the passing of Feinstein only prove how unpredictable this solution can be. With the help of unrelenting lobbyists and a broken-beyond-repair political system, these institutions remain our country’s most prestigious nursing home, with no end in sight to their ever-aging populations. Meanwhile, the planet is still warming, mass shootings terrorize citizens across the country and more than a few in Congress continue to stuff their own pockets with rampant insider trading.
