The American population is also aging; they prefer sticking with "old favorites" rather than trusting younger legislators pushing ideas they don't understand.
I have to disagree with you on that. The youngest member of the new Congress will be Cawthorn, age 25 and he's a Republican. Out of the 7 youngest Senators, 5 are Republicans, (unless I miscounted ) The. youngest Senator is currently 40. I think one needs a lot of life experience before taking on some of these roles, so that's probably a good thing.
I don't think people vote due to a person's age. They vote for the people who they know and like. If that's what you meant by old favorites, then I tend to agree. While Feinstein and a few other older members may very well be losing it, age isn't the real problem imo. The real problem imo, is that we don't have term limits. That goes for judges as well as members of Congress. If we had term limits, we wouldn't have people in office for 40 years. We wouldn't have SCOTUS judges staying in office until they died, unless one died before they reached their life expectancy.
And, new ideas, whatever you meant by that, has little to do with age. Sanders is one of the older members of the Senate yet he is often considered the most progressive member of the Senate. Some of the younger members of the Senate are very conservative. New ideas aren't usually associated with conservatives. And new ideas don't necessarily equate with age. I despise ageism. It's often considered the last acceptable form of prejudice.
I simply don't like generalizations made based on a person's age. For fuck's sake, I had two patients who died in their 40s from Alzheimer's disease. While not as common as dementia in old age, early onset AD is a lot more common than most people realize. So, even if Senator Feinstein is showing signs of mental decline, can we stop with the ageism? I've known some very sharp people who were in their 90s, oddly enough, and some dull ones in their 20s. I once knew a 94 year old man who read a lot of books and could discuss them very intelligently. He was a very progressive atheist. He was amazing.
So, again, imo, the problem is that we allow people to stay in these positions for far two long. 12 years would be a good limit for anyone in Congress or as a justice. Lifetime appointments are insane, imo. The founders probably had no idea how many people wouldn't be willing to give up their power. Being in Congress shouldn't be a lifetime job, imo. But, it would be extremely difficult to make the changes we need due to the lack of cooperation from both sides, and the difficulty in changing the constitution, when that would be required.
In the meantime, we are going to have to accept that we have too many "old favorites" running the country. But hey. I just voted for Ossoff, who is in his 30s. He will be the youngest senator if elected, and I'm old. I have no problem with anyone's age, although I would have preferred voting for someone with more experience. I haven't found any of Ossoff's ideas to be "new". Even concepts like M4A or UHC aren't new ideas. Nixon even talked about UHC, but the concept wasn't at all popular at that time. Carter saw that we needed to do something about the environment during his term, but was met with resistance, and Nixon was the one who started the EPA. New ideas doesn't necessarily equate with age. Feinstein may be exhibiting signs of cognitive deterioration, but that doesn't mean that all old people are also in mental decline. Some old people start new hobbies, new businesses or new jobs when they are over 70.
Can we stop with the stereotyping of people based on age!
