No. Octogenarians should emphatically not be our ruling class. With some notable exceptions like Bernie, pretty much all the “good” ancient politicians and government officials have, in one form or another, been a huge part of the problem at one point or another:
Pelosi driving Congressional campaign policies to aggressively kneecap progressives as much as possible
Warren turning on her progressive allies in her primary campaign in 2020
RBG refusing to retire when it was actually strategically advantageous (in the context of
Biden’s deeply frustrating habit of waiting until the most “politically advantageous” time to attempt to enact policies that will have real and meaningful impact on millions of people’s lives (canceling student debt), ignoring that people are struggling to meet ends meet for the months or years leading up to that magical “politically advantageous” point in time. Also the handling of Gaza, which I need not explain.
etc.
I am not trying to be a negative nancy, or ageist. I am simply pointing out that to ignore the fact that old people are by simple fact of their age and drastically different life experiences in many cases, are out of touch to one degree or another with the rest of the population. To pretend otherwise is to ignore a strategic weakness that is inherent to politicians who are that old.
Not to mention: I am not okay with living in a gerontocracy, which is kinda what massive swathes of our legislature have become.
My point exactly. Any who are cognizant, should stick around to help out the younger members rising up through the ranks. They’re not there to replace them, but also they should not be thrown away just because of a biological counter, wasting their decades of knowledge and wisdom.
The problem is that the ones who do stick around are almost never (again, excluding Bernie specifically - I view him as a clear outlier in this context) the ones who should stick around.
Is there another politician in their 80s (or even 70s) who you think is an outlier in the same ways that Bernie is? Because I’m struggling to think of one.
Is there another politician in their 80s (or even 70s) who you think is an outlier in the same ways that Bernie is? Because I’m struggling to think of one.
Well, I’ve been only talking about Bernie, and not others.
Having said that, any professional politician who is as cognizant as Bernie, and could do the job, should be allowed to do the job. Not arbitrarily gated.
And please, don’t take my stance as one that does not want new and ‘fresh blood’ in Congress, in fact I would really love to see many more younger people run for office.
My point is just to be fair when judging someone capable of doing their job, not arbitrarily.
Bernie can do the job, and if you believe in his politics, it would be really good for the country if he did.
Don’t get me wrong - I think Bernie is great, and I agree: if there was another very old politician that gave me Bernie vibes, I’d probably support them too.
No. Octogenarians should emphatically not be our ruling class. With some notable exceptions like Bernie, pretty much all the “good” ancient politicians and government officials have, in one form or another, been a huge part of the problem at one point or another:
I am not trying to be a negative nancy, or ageist. I am simply pointing out that to ignore the fact that old people are by simple fact of their age and drastically different life experiences in many cases, are out of touch to one degree or another with the rest of the population. To pretend otherwise is to ignore a strategic weakness that is inherent to politicians who are that old.
Not to mention: I am not okay with living in a gerontocracy, which is kinda what massive swathes of our legislature have become.
My point exactly. Any who are cognizant, should stick around to help out the younger members rising up through the ranks. They’re not there to replace them, but also they should not be thrown away just because of a biological counter, wasting their decades of knowledge and wisdom.
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The problem is that the ones who do stick around are almost never (again, excluding Bernie specifically - I view him as a clear outlier in this context) the ones who should stick around.
Is there another politician in their 80s (or even 70s) who you think is an outlier in the same ways that Bernie is? Because I’m struggling to think of one.
Well, I’ve been only talking about Bernie, and not others.
Having said that, any professional politician who is as cognizant as Bernie, and could do the job, should be allowed to do the job. Not arbitrarily gated.
And please, don’t take my stance as one that does not want new and ‘fresh blood’ in Congress, in fact I would really love to see many more younger people run for office.
My point is just to be fair when judging someone capable of doing their job, not arbitrarily.
Bernie can do the job, and if you believe in his politics, it would be really good for the country if he did.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Don’t get me wrong - I think Bernie is great, and I agree: if there was another very old politician that gave me Bernie vibes, I’d probably support them too.
But there’s not. And that’s my entire point.
Fair enough.
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