By now, you may have heard the news that President Joe Biden is old — so old Even some Democrats Calling for him to step down from the presidency.
But Biden is certainly not the only old high-ranking American politician. His main rival, Donald Trump, is 78, the average age in the US Senate Above 65 years of age. In fact, American politicians have aged so much that the United States has Dubbed a gerontocracy – systems of government where power is concentrated among the elderly.
There is nothing wrong with older people holding positions of power. If voters want experienced officials to lead the country, those officials are likely to be older than the average worker. What is troubling, however, is how over-represented older Americans are in national politics and how this can lead to a political class that is out of touch with the many challenges young people face.
This concern only increases when politicians share little information about their health. For example, the late Dianne Feinstein clung to her Senate seat for the last few years of her life, even as she reached the age of 90 despite severe anxiety. About his mental health and clear signs of cognitive decline, including memory loss. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, appear frozen He made several public appearances last year before finally announcing that he plans to step down from his role. and more recently, Biden’s missteps and disastrous debate performance The 81-year-old president has raised concerns about whether he is actually capable of campaigning, should he give up official duties.
Many Americans are frustrated with the fact that they have had their choice for president in the last few election cycles Candidates are older — so old that everyone would have been the oldest president in history. (Biden is the oldest president ever; Trump, if elected, would break that record by the end of his term.)
But part of the reason voters seem to have so little choice is that one of the main pipelines to the presidency is Congress, which itself is aging. In fact, the current Congress The oldest in American history.
Many senior politicians have called for simple solutions. with age limit.
But having too many older politicians is a symptom of deeper problems with our democracy, which will not be solved simply by banning older people from running for public office. Democracy should be representative and having younger people in the legislature can lead to a government that fails to adapt to a changing world.
Why are American politicians so old?
The simplest explanation for why America’s elected representatives are getting older is that so is the American population as a whole. Median age in the United States 39 nowAccording to the US Census Bureau, increased from 30 in 1980And there are baby boomers Being in the workforce Much longer than previous generations.
While that may explain why elected officials are getting older, it doesn’t necessarily explain cases like Feinstein’s or McConnell’s or Biden’s — people serving into their 80s while struggling with public concerns about their health — or why About a quarter of Congress Consists of members over 70 years.
It is there that the signs of the erosion of democracy begin to appear.
Because if voters want to elect an 80-year-old, they should have the right to do so; Having older politicians would be a result of a democratic process. In reality, many Americans don’t really have that much choice.
This is because there are procedural barriers to any real contestation, mostly allowing incumbent members of Congress to stay in power as long as they please. (Biden, after all, served 36 years in the Senate before becoming vice president in 2009.)
Congress has been elected for the past century Being less and less competitive. And in recent years, the vast majority of House races have been won by a 10-point margin or more. In 2018, for example, only 44 of the 435 congressional districts were considered toss-ups — that is, decided within a 5-point margin — According to advocacy group Fairvote. In 2022, it was even less, with 36 House elections considered competitive.
As competition has decreased, the average age of members of Congress has increased. In 1981, for example, the The average age of a US senator was 52 years; In 2022, it was 65.
There are two main reasons why House elections are so uncontested: polarization and gerrymandering. As Americans became more polarized, they became more loyal to their political parties. This means that fewer and fewer Americans Their tickets are split — voting for, say, a Democratic presidential candidate in addition to voting for a Republican candidate for the House or Senate — makes congressional districts safer during general elections. And more importantly, partisan gerrymandering, where lawmakers draw congressional districts to benefit one party, making competitive elections even rarer.
This means that most congressional elections are largely decided by primaries. Once someone wins a primary in a very safe Democratic or Republican district, for example, the general election becomes nothing more than a formality. But there is another obstacle to real competition during primaries, which leads to politicians serving longer terms: The power of power.
Incumbents tend to have a large advantage over their rivals for a variety of reasons, including name recognition. party supportAnd Promotional cash. Indeed, you hear of some surprising upsets from time to time — like in 2018, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), then 29, defeated Joe Crowley, who had served in Congress for two decades — in their primary for incumbent. Losing is actually extraordinarily rare. According to the Brookings Institution, Only a few are responsible Each cycle loses their primary.
Massachusetts is an example of a state whose lawmakers are infamous Faces little competition: In 2022, none of the current members of the US House of Representatives faced a primary challenger.
The result of such a system is that incumbents can hold onto their seats for decades – or until they decide to retire. This means that while voters can technically vote for whomever they want, they have little say over who appears on their ballot and whether there are any serious alternatives to choose from.
The solution is not age restriction. This is giving voters more choice.
Politicians in the United States are antiquated by design. Third parties are often encountered starting with campaign financing Insurmountable impediment to appear on a ballotIncumbent politicians can stay in office as long as they want.
Surveys show that Most Americans support imposing an age limit On federal lawmakers, and have some effort In recent years Try to implement them. But while age limits would certainly eliminate the possibility of too many older people in office, they also have many problems: for starters, they are discriminatory, preventing people from participating in certain areas of democracy simply because of their very nature. People do not age equally, and while one person may begin to show signs of cognitive decline in their 70s, another person may be perfectly capable of functioning at the office well into their 80s. Deciding on an age cutoff based on scientific averages of physical and mental health can also be relatively arbitrary, especially as treatments improve and life expectancy lengthens over time.
The second problem with age limits is that they do not address the underlying problem, which is that there is little competition in elections.
That’s why efforts should largely focus on making elections fairer and more competitive: by reducing the guarantee that a candidate will win an election, turnover in Congress and elsewhere will be higher, and younger people will be more likely to get elected. . This will help create a reality where elected officials are more representative of their constituencies.
To get there, lawmakers should focus on Democratic reforms that include limiting partisan gerrymandering, making running for office more affordable, giving deep-pocketed donors less influence and improving ballot access.
These technological reforms may not immediately rejuvenate Congress and certainly won’t solve the current crisis of confidence facing Biden, but they will make this era of gerontocracy less likely to happen again.
They will also give voters the opportunity to elect whoever they want – whether it’s a young up-and-comer or a retiree looking to return to the workforce after serving their country in public office.
That’s what voters should ultimately have: choice.
