Capit-old

Welcome to the “ otherwise known as God’s waiting room. I’ve written about our burgeoning gerontocracy a few times in this newsletter but with the events of the past few weeks, and at the risk of sounding ageist, it seems fitting to do so again.

When members of senior leadership have to publish proof of life photos with the daily newspaper to prove (unconvincingly) he’s not a skin puppet, your government is too damn old. When the president can’t remain conscious for the entirety of a twenty minute press hit with the president of Ukraine, your government is too damn old. When the president pro tempore of the senate was born the year FDR took office, your government is too damn old.

It may surprise you to know that I don’t lump the late senator from the great state of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, in the same category. 71 is a perfectly reasonable age for a sitting senator. Don’t get me wrong, hopefully at that age you’re thinking about wrapping up your tenure, but seeing as how Lindsey didn’t have any grandkids, or hobbies, I understand why he stuck around. I would have been delighted if he chose to retire his unique brand of sycophantic politics years ago but his ability to do the job wasn’t an issue, until it was.

We have a floor on congressional and presidential age requirements, why not a ceiling? It’s 25 for the house, 30 for the senate and 35 for the presidency, let’s cap all three at, I don’t know…75? Does that sound reasonable? Fifty years of eligibility seems like plenty.

“But, Drew…” you cry, “…changing legislative age restrictions would require a constitutional amendment, shouldn’t we just adopt term limits? Wouldn’t that take care of the issue, for the most part?”

I answer your question with a question, why not both?