Why are US politicians just so old? - everyone making major decisions for the country is a senior citizen way past retirement age

[Betonhaus]

How has the US managed to have all of their major politicians be like 80 years or older? There's very few decision makers that are middle aged or younger, just some senators like AOC that are young dumbasses.

 

[PFM]

When you're a corporation and you've invested millions into a politician, you generally want them to continue being in office so you don't have to start over.

 

[Betonhaus]

When you're a corporation and you've invested millions into a politician, you generally want them to continue being in office so you don't have to start over.

yeah but they're out of warranty and there's no replacements queued up

 

[McMitch]

The way it used to work is, at the height of their career, politicians would select their replacement. They would groom that replacement during the downswing of their career before letting the replacement get elected after the politician was ready to retire. Occasionally you would get politicians addicted to power who never retired, but they still were grooming their own replacement. However, when you’re grooming your replacement, you don’t want someone who is smarter than you; otherwise they’d replace you before you were ready. When you repeat this cycle over 250 years, you end up with politicians who all at the same time are stupid enough to think they’ll never die and have zero reason to train a replacement. The US also suffers from the culture of Boomers, of which many these aged politicians belong, believing they will never die and have no reason to benefit later generation.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

If you have charisma, can lie without hesitation, have no dignity and just want to enrich yourself at the expense of the country, why not? It's not like anybody in Congress actually works, they just have staff and lobbyists that do everything for them while they campaign and collect bribes.

Sometimes it's such a captured district thanks to gerrymandering that they don't even bother to campaign.

 

[Halfnium Bomb]

From what I've heard, most people actually calling the shots, writing the bills, etc. are actually fresh out of college 20-30 year olds, while the paleolithic specimens in the Senate and House just do as they're told.

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

Does it matter what age they are if the only reason they're there is to rape your kids?

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Because Congress doesn't have term limits.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Pretty much boomer mentality, they'll die long before they let others take the reigns.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

Old people really don't die like they used to and it makes things screwy.

The way it used to work is, at the height of their career, politicians would select their replacement. They would groom that replacement during the downswing of their career before letting the replacement get elected after the politician was ready to retire. Occasionally you would get politicians addicted to power who never retired, but they still were grooming their own replacement. However, when you’re grooming your replacement, you don’t want someone who is smarter than you; otherwise they’d replace you before you were ready. When you repeat this cycle over 250 years, you end up with politicians who all at the same time are stupid enough to think they’ll never die and have zero reason to train a replacement. The US also suffers from the culture of Boomers, of which many these aged politicians belong, believing they will never die and have no reason to benefit later generation.

Pelosi actually tried that but AOC cucked her replacement and caused an uproar. She's since retired for her health but I can't imagine she doesn't look back on it and wish she could wring that birdbrains neck.

 

[SpergioLeonne]

The age of US politicians is an indication of the capture of the electoral process. Due to a variety of factors from campaign finance to access media, you never hear much about any of the challengers, and the national committees for either party pretty much exist to punish interlopers for challenging people like Nancy Pelosi and Litch McConnell. (That was a typo, but a divine one, so I’m keeping it)

 

[Meat Target]

From what I've heard, most people actually calling the shots, writing the bills, etc. are actually fresh out of college 20-30 year olds, while the paleolithic specimens in the Senate and House just do as they're told.

There's a GOP-aligned organization called American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC for short) which has lawyers and lobbyists write up drafts of bills, then submits them to the politicians.

That's perfectly legal, but still ethically questionable. You don't really hear much about ALEC except from loudmouthed BlueAnon kooks who see it as a right-wing equivalent of George Soros.

I assume the Democrats have similar behind-the-scenes organizations, otherwise they'd be raising more hell about it.

 

[Betonhaus]

There's a GOP-aligned organization called American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC for short) which has lawyers and lobbyists write up drafts of bills, then submits them to the politicians.

That's perfectly legal, but still ethically questionable. You don't really hear much about ALEC except from loudmouthed BlueAnon kooks who see it as a right-wing equivalent of George Soros.

I assume the Democrats have similar behind-the-scenes organizations, otherwise they'd be raising more hell about it.

...isn't that basically a shadow government?

 

[Meat Target]

...isn't that basically a shadow government?

I could see why one could argue that.

But I think it's legal because, like the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, it's considered protected First Amendment activity, which includes "the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances".

Plus, most proposed bills die in the cradle, and the ones that make it to the President's desk have been through a gauntlet of amendments and negotiations. I don't know how much of the original drafts that ALEC submits actually get signed into law.

Their existence isn't necessarily a secret, they just don't get a lot of publicity.

 

[Anasûrimbor Kellhus]

it is because they are a wicked and perfidious generation. To do what Washington or Cincinnatus did is beyond them and their pride and delusions.

 

[Betonhaus]

I could see why one could argue that.

But I think it's legal because, like the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, it's considered protected First Amendment activity, which includes "the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances".

Plus, most proposed bills die in the cradle, and the ones that make it to the President's desk have been through a gauntlet of amendments and negotiations. I don't know how much of the original drafts that ALEC submits actually get signed into law.

Their existence isn't necessarily a secret, they just don't get a lot of publicity.

I don't think many of the regular citizens know about these organizations, let alone communicate thei grievances and concerns to them. They probably don't even know who is writing these laws that the politicians just rubber stamp. They don't get talked about and they're effectively an open secret. If I'm including the Democrat-affiliated organizations, the line between them and a shadow government is very thin.

 

[Meat Target]

I don't think many of the regular citizens know about these organizations, let alone communicate thei grievances and concerns to them. They probably don't even know who is writing these laws that the politicians just rubber stamp. They don't get talked about and they're effectively an open secret. If I'm including the Democrat-affiliated organizations, the line between them and a shadow government is very thin.

And even if they did, 99% of people wouldn't care. People don't truly give a shit about issues that don't affect them directly.

As much as our government sucks and needs to be put in its place, much of its business is agonizingly boring and irrelevant to Joe Citizen.

 

[LeChampion1992]

Baby boomers are the reason why America's politicians are so fucking old right now. Remember back in the 1980s and 1990s the baby boomers were supposedly the breath of fresh air in politics. When boomers like Tony Blaire, Bill Clinton, and dubya took over they were barely turning middle age. The guard of politics in many ways was stuck in WW2 and the cold war.
These people had a chance to shape a new generation and did now they're clinging onto power as no one who is young is taking control from the boomers as they're too crazy, weak, or stupid to lead.
This has also led to a paradigm where everything is still remembered by 1980s/1990s political paradigms. This is why the far left is saying white surpremacy is a big threat when it's been dead since Waco.

 

[Twinkletard]

The majority of people who actually vote is elderly. The younger a person is, the more likely they'll be disaffected and tuned out of a process they have no hope in.

Says a lot about the country.

 

[AgendaPoster]

Predictability, ability to work within the system, lots of accumulated dirt that could be used against them if they misbehave, easy to manipulate.