‘Power is enticing, it’s hard to give up’: US politics’ age problem
The average American retires in their early sixties, but by the time most are on the golf course or tending a vegetable patch, the US’s political class is only just getting started.
The average American retires in their early sixties, but by the time most are on the golf course or tending a vegetable patch, the US’s political class is only just getting started.
The average senator is almost 65 and, at 80, President Biden is the oldest occupant of the White House in history.
A new book has raised more questions about his age, revealing that he has told aides he is “tired” in office.
Franklin Foer’s The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future is likely to renew concerns that he is too old to run for a second term, which would end after his 86th birthday.
“It was striking that he took so few morning meetings or presided over so few public events before 10am,” Foer writes.
“His public persona reflected physical decline and time’s dulling of mental faculties that no pill or exercise regime can resist.”
Democrats claim it is unfair to single out the president in this way. Donald Trump, his probable opponent in a rematch of the 2020 race, will be a far from sprightly 78 by next year’s election.
The two White House favourites are not alone. Mitch McConnell, 81, appeared to freeze during an event this week - just over a month after it happened at a press conference in July.
McConnell leads the Republicans in the Senate, but even he is not the party’s eldest statesman.
Senator Chuck Grassley was born six years before the start of the Second World War and is adamant that he will stand again for a fresh six-year term next year. Should he retain his Iowa seat, which he has held without serious challenge since 1981, he would retire at 96, assuming he doesn’t run again.
The House of Representatives fares little better with 15 of its 435 sitting members aged over 80.
“Whether it’s members of Congress, President Biden, or before him, President Trump, we’re edging towards historic levels of age among our elected officials,” says Casey Burgat, assistant professor at George Washington University’s graduate school of political management.
“It’s hard to run for office and win, so once you do some of those barriers are removed. There’s more money available from donors for incumbents and you have a track record to campaign on. Also, power is enticing. It’s hard to give up.”
A poll for the Associated Press this week showed that 77 per cent of voters think that Biden is too old to serve in the White House. By contrast only 51 per cent say Trump is past it. Yet most polls tend to put Biden slightly ahead in a straight contest between the two, suggesting perhaps that age is just one thing voters are willing to consider.
“If you show most people Biden’s legislative agenda and accomplishments, they might well say that it is the work of a successful president, irrespective of age,” says Burgat. “People when they vote have a binary choice. Do they wish he was younger? Yes, but it’s relative to what they are choosing against.”
Biden often becomes irritable when his age is raised. “You think I don’t know how f***ing old I am?” he is reported to have said to an official last year. But Ronald Reagan often turned it to his advantage, famously saying that he would not make an issue of his opponent Walter Mondale’s “youth and inexperience” during the 1984 presidential campaign. He won by a landslide.
Moreover, the longer a member of Congress serves, the more likely they are to find themselves on important committees that can help them direct federal resources to their own state or district. This gives them an advantage over younger challengers that only grows with time.
American society is ageing dramatically so perhaps it is no wonder that the people it votes for look and sound more like the electorate.
Voters “find comfort in people that look, act, think and experience the same things they do,” Burgat says. “This is particularly true in America because older people vote at disproportionate[ly] high rates”.
Some states have tried to introduce term limits for their elected federal officials, but this has been struck down on several occasions by the Supreme Court, where justices are appointed for life.
Commentators point out that the presidency is the only job in Washington that is limited to two terms and that Congress and the Supreme Court should follow suit.
“Why not have term limits in Congress?” says Alvin Felzenberg, who worked in the White House for both presidents Bush and has since become a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
“We did it with the president. Clinton knew, Bush knew, Reagan knew that they could only serve two terms and they made their plans accordingly. Why not do it in Congress? We need new blood in every job.”
The Times
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