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https://news.sky.com/story/senate-repub ... e-12928264

Twenty seconds Mitch McConnell was gazing into space like he'd just seen a basilisk. You cannot tell me that this guy is making independent and informed decisions.

America, I love you most of the time, but your politicians are ridiculously old. A lot of other countries simply would not allow this to happen. You've barely even had Gen X in power at this point.

And take a gander at this one: Dianne Feinstein 93 years old and yet has voting power. She doesn't even look as though she knows where she is. Again, she isn't making independent and informed decisions, I can promise you that much. Her aides are signing the paperwork as her.



In all seriousness, this is part of the reason why Millennial and below often feel so dejected and politically homeless. None of these people know what its like to be us, have experienced life as us, and can possibly know how to solve the problems that affect us.

clearspira wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 8:59 am https://news.sky.com/story/senate-repub ... e-12928264

Twenty seconds Mitch McConnell was gazing into space like he'd just seen a basilisk. You cannot tell me that this guy is making independent and informed decisions.

America, I love you most of the time, but your politicians are ridiculously old. A lot of other countries simply would not allow this to happen. You've barely even had Gen X in power at this point.

And take a gander at this one: Dianne Feinstein 93 years old and yet has voting power. She doesn't even look as though she knows where she is. Again, she isn't making independent and informed decisions, I can promise you that much. Her aides are signing the paperwork as her.



In all seriousness, this is part of the reason why Millennial and below often feel so dejected and politically homeless. None of these people know what its like to be us, have experienced life as us, and can possibly know how to solve the problems that affect us.

That's just the first incident. Another happened recently. And he didn't just freeze. Everyone who's been in contact with people who had it happen to them knows, that those instances were very clearly strokes. A part of him literally died in front of the cameras. Twice. At least a little karma happening in his case. Maybe he shits and pisses himself the next time he's in the limelight. One can only hope.
But anyways, those happenings are very likely related to an accident he had a short while ago. He fell and hit his head, resulting in a concussion. Happened shortly before his first public stroke.

As for the age, I don't think any democracy currently runs a limit in regards to maximum age. Most politicians have the decency to retire before they crumble to dust when being flashed in photo-ops. Republicans not so much. It's literally a party of mummies in every way which nearly explains why they want to raise the voting age... Personally, I am in favour of checking old people regularly for their physical and mental status. We don't think teenagers or babies have a right to vote, as we consider their mental facilities too underdeveloped to truely, fully grasp what their decissions lead to. It's fair to apply the same measures to everyone else as well. I can't stand how we allow clearly incapable people to helm a car. We shouldn't let them helm a country either.

As much as I'm normally on board for dunking on Republicans both parties in the US are like that, full of people who took their seat in the 80s when they were in their thirties or fourties and never vacated. Feinstein there is a Democrat, for example.

I don't know about maximum ages or how that would work in practice but we desperately need term limits in this country.

So none of this is actually looking at their records? Just too old by age for your approval?

BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 11:57 am So none of this is actually looking at their records? Just too old by age for your approval?

We as a society are not ready for this conversation. But its a conversation that is coming and in which we need to have. Because at some point in the near future, 100-120 year life expectancies will be the norm. Do we actually sit here and say that whole generations will not have a chance to reach the big chair because someone is still sitting in it from eighty years ago?

Society has always progressed one coffin at a time. Old people with their old ideas die off and young people with new ideas come along to replace them. Imagine if someone from the Victorian age was still making policy decisions on LGBT issues, abortion, religion, race, free speech? Because with 120 year lifespans, that is now actually a legitimate thing that could happen.

Either way, i know this much: when you've reached the point where your crooked body is being wheeled in for votes or your brain is literally dying live on air, that is the moment where some kind of term limit needs to be invoked for the greater good.

clearspira wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 8:11 pm

BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 11:57 am So none of this is actually looking at their records? Just too old by age for your approval?

We as a society are not ready for this conversation. But its a conversation that is coming and in which we need to have. Because at some point in the near future, 100-120 year life expectancies will be the norm. Do we actually sit here and say that whole generations will not have a chance to reach the big chair because someone is still sitting in it from eighty years ago?

In a democracy, this wouldn't necessarily be a problem. New voters vote for new electees, which the voters think represents their ideas the best. The troubles come, when the old generation is wide and the younger generations become ever more narrow on the population pyramid. Unfortunately that is the exact problem in most developed countries. A wide generation is at the helm, coming from a time where most families had 5+, while the upcoming generations barely hit 1 child per family. The interests and habits of the old become overwhelmingly influental and calcify societal structures and governments. In Germany, it's CDU and SPD, relics of a past that just doesn't exist in the modern german society anymore (at least outside the retirement-homes and homes nearing that age), essentially exchanging chancellorship every 16 years, despite neither having a broad majority. The vast majority of the younger generations vote overwhelmingly green, but gets fobed with a creaky seat on the far end of the table, while being made responsible for everything bad or percieved bad that happens.

I imagine it is much the same in the UK, the US and so on, exacerbated by a voting system that only benefits the majority vote and completely drowns the voices of the minorities.

I have always been a full supporter on age and term limits on politicians. Yes we don't need policians who no longer mentally there anymore. At this point I wouldnt mind if we did a one for one swap of Feinstein and McConnell. One Right and Left politician being sent out.

McAvoy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 1:32 am At this point I wouldnt mind if we did a one for one swap of Feinstein and McConnell. One Right and Left politician being sent out.

If this were twenty years ago, I think that would have already happened. But now? Hell, no. Better a death on the House floor then to give any quarter to the opposition. It's all one big game of chicken, these days.

McAvoy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 1:32 am I have always been a full supporter on age and term limits on politicians. Yes we don't need policians who no longer mentally there anymore. At this point I wouldnt mind if we did a one for one swap of Feinstein and McConnell. One Right and Left politician being sent out.

Term limits I can see. (Please include the Supreme Court in that change.)
But an age limit. I think they need removal not further inclusion. I think part of the reason politicians come in older is we have a minimum age for some positions. And with many cases decision making is not simply an age related effect. I think a mental health check by a guaranteed neutral physician is a better option.

I say this because I have met people in their eighties that are fully aware and keep themselves informed. Then see people in their forties that are losing their memory but can seem charming.

McAvoy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 1:32 am At this point I wouldnt mind if we did a one for one swap of Feinstein and McConnell. One Right and Left politician being sent out.

I don't think it would matter any. It's not like Kentucky would elect anyone that different and California would be the same.