Why are American politicians so old?

Yes.

Only rich white people allowed.

R2 meant to type: Only rich, white old people.

Bullshit....Kennedy was young, Clinton was young, Obama was young...its mainly the GOP that are old white men.

You're a typically myopic Brit, aren't you, dear?

[quote]R2 meant to type: Only rich, white old people.

And you meant to type: Only STRAIGHT rich, white old people.

There should be an age limit, I don't need an 80+ year old making decisions for me.

In America we eat our young...

Yes, you do. We know everything.

Only seniors vote here in the US. They only trust the olds.

Politics tends to attract high energy type A people. who love to work (especially when the spotlight is on them) and hate to retire. The pay is decent, and the benefits are excellent. Like a lot of impulses in American culture, it can sometimes, I think, be traced directly back to that high school yearning to be on student council calling the shots...

"Only straight, rich, white, old MEN!

If millennials could vote on Twitter. Maybe we could get some young people in there.

Because only old people get out and VOTE. The youngsters talk politics and swear by their ideals, but when it comes to going out and actually voting, they stay home.

[quote] its mainly the GOP that are old white men.

uh...

People are living longer, and politicians have good healthcare plans.

Mainly rich, white, old, conservative men.

However, would you really trade a Nancy or RBG at this point? Imagine if Obama had tried to replace her only for #MoscowMitch to pull another stunt.

It's a puzzle, OP, why vitality is so little a factor.

The only explanation I can offer - partial at best - is that the Democrats have something of an "it's her/his turn" approach that often sees political machines support candidates well past their expiry dates because, well, she/he won't have many chances after this one, and they came up through the ranks and missed other opportunities...

Party officials will back a name that was once promising but now faded in the way that the weak links in a children's competitions are pushed forward for the sake of their participation rather than for the benefit of advancing a team score. This is compounded by a weakness for vaguely Kennedy-esque "dynasty" candidates as their last hurrah and America's mediocre hope.

The three Democratic front runners, Biden, Bernie, and Bloomberg are all 78! What’s up with that? It’s like the Silent Generation is no longer silent.

The 78 club is the anti-27 club, Rule 1: don't die young. Rule 2: wait.

This drives me nuts too. Isn’t there anyone under 60 who could have run and gotten some momentum going (not counting Pete because of the gay)? We absolutely must win this or we’re fucked for 50 years.

Well, they stopped teaching Civics in public schools in the 90s, so basically no one under 40 in this country really knows how the government is supposed to work. I don't know what's going on with the +/- 50 year olds, but Gen X was basically a Fuck You generation that was always a lot more comfortable bitching than doing.

Did the Boomers say fuck Mexican history?

It seems to me that you have a perfectly intelligent, young, viable candidate in Buttigieg who is currently in the lead and instead you all are arguing about a bunch of 78 year olds. Seems strange to me. What a waste.

Older politicians and older voters use the excuse that "we need somebody who is experienced." Well, of course by virtue of their age, older politicians will always be the most experienced in the room, but as long as they keep hogging the limelight, they deny younger people from ever gaining any of this experience.

I'm no spring chicken myself and I'm of the belief that we need younger leaders. Some of these older people won't ever see the repercussions of their actions.

You people could have supported Beto but didn't, so it's too late to bitch now.

So many of these people just need to go. Grassley, Richard Shelby, etc. These people are not imparting wisdom and experience. They're just toxic relics from another era and they are no longer relevant.

The US is essentially a gerontocracy.

Because Boomers have a massive chip on their shoulders about anyone younger than them being in a position of power.

It may seem that way now,OP, because the incumbent. President and his front-running opponents are all over 70. And it may have los been true in the past (as in forty years ago and beyond). But, if you analyze the last forty years historically, pretty much all ages above 35 are fairly well represented in Congress. Also, of the last eight presidential terms, six have been filled by men below 60. Only the judicial branch is composed of the elderly and wise. But that’s what’s needed there.

Our politicians are owned by corporations And billionaires . They don’t like change.

We desperately need term limits. 5-10 years sounds about right. No grandfather clause either. Shake the Etch A Sketch, so to speak. It's a public service JOB, not a retirement home.

They need to install age limits for congresspeople and the president.

It does seem strange that Bloomberg and Bernie (both 78) seem like the front-runners to take on Trump (who'll be 74 by November).

R34 Biden as well. They're all so old they don't even count as boomers.

The problem with these older white politicians is that their only other option is to retire. After being the focus of attention and everyone listening to everything you say, the idea to move to a retirement where nobody pays you attention or listens to you is not very appealing.

I too wish that there were more younger Dem candidates across the board. The only ones I see are the white younger Republicans.

I'm hoping all of this insane BS the past few years gasses some people to take the wheel.

r36 that's also true of old Boomers in the business world. They have no lives outside of their careers so they keep hanging on because it's the only way they get attention and the only way the feel "important." They could've retired years ago and lived very nicely, but they would have nothing to do and nobody to kiss their asses.

In the Senate, the "perverse incentive" of seniority means that people literally fossilize in their high-backed chairs. The Grassleys and Feinsteins accrue power in direct proportion to their aging in place.

Back in the days of the Founding Fathers people were lucky if they even lived to be fifty. If they had known how much longer people would live in the future, they probably would've put limits on how long a person could hold office. That's why we have lifetime appointments for the Supreme Court, they just didn't know that one day people would be living longer than dirt.

OP

Money, pure and simple. Old people have money, money buys political clout in the US

[quote]The problem with these older white politicians is that their only other option is to retire.

Here's how pols feel about giving up their jobs...

Bullshit. There are plenty of young men & women in congress. Congress is the starting ground for a career in national politics. You might stay in congress, you might try to move to the senate. You might use it as a stepping stone to K Street.

The reason why you see old people is because seniority determines rank. The older you are, the more likely you’re on an important committee & the more likely you’re the leader of that committee —> the more likely you’ll get your face on tv or in another media outlet.

Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Lee Zeldin, eg, are all Trumpsuckers & they’re not old.

The Squad isn’t old either

Politicians have always been old because it’s very hard to beat an incumbent. But if you are asking about the current presidential field, you cannot underestimate the effect of 30 years of Democratic wipeouts. In 2010, something like 3000 Democrats lost their seats in state house and State Senate races. There are more Democrats than Republicans but Democrats don’t come out to vote in mid term elections and while we pay attention to the results of House and Senate races (yay we won 41 seats in 2018!) We now have over 30 years of terrible midterm elections where young up-and-coming Democratic politicians get wiped out and are unable to advance. we now have over 30 years of terrible midterm elections where young up-and-coming Democratic politicians get wiped out and are unable to advance. It also has to do with the nationalization of races meaning that if you are a state representative who is a Democrat, even though your job is mostly municipal, meaning you are dealing with things that are not hot button issues, people come out and just vote straight ticket now and that hurts Democrats more than Republicans. Republicans also have a far stronger apparatus that is funded by billions of dollars every year in terms of lobbying and think tanks. So when a Republican finds them self out of office, they can find a job that pays well to continue hanging around the system until something opens up to let them run again. Democrats Are forced back into the private sector because their interest groups, which do exist, don’t have nearly the money to support those kind of lobbying jobs.

Once they get into office they cling to that sweet, sweet power until you pry their shriveled old hands off it at their last dying breath.

See: Supreme Court justices

This 2020 election would be so much better if ALL of the 70 something year olds were BANNED from running!

Ageism is so stupid. Nancy has been VITAL in fighting this nightmare.

This happened when the Trust Nobody Over 30 group became the Screw Everyone Under 60 group.

Boomers and GenX politicians made a mess of Washington. Look at the horrible fucking mess right now in congress.

We need term limits in Congress. We don't need McConnells and Grahams serving for half a century.

Our old politicians refuse to step down. We had an old Senator in Florida (a pretty good guy) he would not step down. Then this crook Rick Scott was voted in, probably because the old guy would not step down. The new guy is a grifter , just like Trump.

It's true they skew old but both Bush, Jr and Obama were middle-aged at the time they were president. They still are, actually.

R38 is correct.

More broadly, the US system is built in to reward gerontocracy at every level: - the US is such a big country it takes time to gain sufficient name recognition to be elected a governor or senator, you usually have to have a career in state government or your state house or senate first. - The system of seniority gives voters an incentive to keep returning the old fossils: the more seniority they have, the more power to steer pork dollars towards their states - the electoral system is so expensive that it becomes hard to unseat an incumbent, who has the advantages of name recognition and established relations with pressure groups and deep-pocketed donors. - gerrymandering has reduced the numbers of seriously competitive seats in the House and given many representatives a job for life.

What's interesting is that the pressures this has produced has had an opposite impact on the Presidency: voters are so sick of the inertia of Congress that they reward political candidates who claim to be 'outsiders' untainted by Washington. Almost all of the successful Presidential candidates since Watergate have positioned themselves as in some way outside the system: Carter and Clinton were young and fairly unknown governors from the South, and so outside the liberal mainstream, Obama was the first black President. GW Bush was a Yale educated President's son but managed to present himself successfully as a Texan hick. Trump is old but very much an outsider in terms of coming from outwith the two-party setup and never having served in elected office. Even Reagan, despite also being old and the former governor of California was something of an outsider in that he was well to the right of the political consensus of the 60s and 70s.

Looking at the current democratic candidates, Buttigieg seems to best fit the Carter/Clinton mode: young, from a red state, politically centrist, some degree of charisma. But interestingly, Sanders probably comes closest to a left-wing equivalent to Reagan: old, established in electoral politics, but on the fringes of his party (let's not have the 'he's not really a democrat' arguments again) despite recent indications that the political centre is moving to the position he has long staked out. That's why Sanders has the potential to have a transformative Presidency, like Reagan did.

[quote] Do Americans hate young politicians?

It's more like old politicians can't let go of the power they have in their political positions. And the young ones get courted by lobby groups to work for them. To me it's more of what sort of power they are after (influence or money).