The Old People that Rule America
By LAUREN LEE ‘26
What could the invention of Velcro and the formal recognition of the independence of India possibly have in common?
Well, these two events both occurred after the birth of our 46th and current president, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., and our former president, Donald John Trump. And Senate Minority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell III. And the late Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein, who served as a United States Senator from California from 1992 until her death in late September of this year. These people are not even young enough to be baby boomers. They are part of the Silent Generation.
Of all the Congresses since 1789, the current one has the second-oldest Senate and third-oldest House of Representatives, with an average age of 63.9 and 57.5 respectively (NBC News). The average age of the American public, on the other hand, is 38.8.
In April of 2022, The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article bluntly headlined, “Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is now mentally unfit to serve, citing recent interactions.” Kopan and Garofoli begin by describing an interaction between Feinstein and an unnamed California lawmaker. Despite having had countless conversations with the former senator in their fifteen-year working relationship, the lawmaker had to reintroduce themself multiple times. This was not an isolated incident. Staffers and other senators told The Chronicle that Feinstein’s memory was rapidly deteriorating and that it appeared she could no longer fulfill her duty to represent the people of California.
Throughout her career, Senator Feinstein has achieved remarkable political breakthroughs. She was the first female mayor of San Francisco. She was the first woman elected to the Senate from California. She was a fixture of California politics.
At the time the article was written, though, she was 90. She was the Senate’s oldest member. She had taken a two-month absence during which she was treated for shingles and encephalitis, a rare complication that causes swelling of the brain.
She refused to entertain the idea of resigning before her term would end in 2025.
Feinstein died on September 29, 2023, and her death created a vacancy in the Senate at a time when the Democrats held the slightest majority in the chamber.
It is not to dishonor her memory as a lifelong champion of liberal causes that I choose to discuss her age and deteriorating memory in the same breath as her many accomplishments. It is, instead, to make very clear the disturbing phenomenon in American politics wherein old people maintain that they are best fit to govern our country. 59 percent of House members were born before the 1970s, a time when the average American worker could afford to buy a car, a time when the average American couple could afford to start a family — a time that is alien to most Millenials and Gen Z-ers. You cannot in good faith govern a society that you do not know. How hypocritical is it to celebrate aging political figures who in their prime had the courage to engage with radical ideas and push for the reconstruction of the status quo and stand between the young people of today and that same opportunity?
To serve in the Senate, one must be 30 years or older — to serve in the House of Representatives, 25 years or older. The recent failings of our oldest members of government have raised an important question: Is now the time to instate similar restrictions governing age maximums?
In our democracy, we must answer that question with our voices. It is appalling that there is no maximum age limit for Congress.
