age limits > term limits

there's no way you could realistically or fairly enforce them, so this isn't a serious suggestion, and i'm not really in favor of demanding everyone resign at 70, but the average age of a house member is significantly older than the average american, and the senate is worse.

it is not ageist to point out that one way in which america is very unrepresentative is that american leadership — in government, as well as business — is *significantly* older that the average american is. it's not just a government problem.

part of the problem is that we don't have good support structures for people to transition out of the workforce and i want to see those significantly improved, because i want people like me to be able to get out of the fucking way for someone graduating from high school this year

for everyone who thinks this is only about feinstein, i would recommend you go back and look at patrick leahy's questioning of amy coney barrett from [checks notes] this week

a job for which there are only 100 positions should not primarily by filled by people who are within 1 year of the age in which the average american retires

think about it this way for a moment — which is harder for you to imagine?

1. a 27 year old being elected to the senate
2. a healthy, popular 67 year old voluntarily retiring from it

forgot that you have to be 30 to be a senator, which is equally arbitrary and stupid.

so, think about it this way — which is easier for you to imagine?

1. a 30 year old being elected senator
2. a healthy, popular 70 year old voluntarily retiring from the senate

the answer to that one's even worse.

i think there are many, many, many ways in which people with a lifetime of experience enrich our whole society and i think we should value them much more than we do, but that does not mean that i want to be governed by them until i am one of them.

i swear, elected government is the only job in america where we think people can be just as effective in the job when they are 80 years old as they were when they were 40 years old.

also, both house and senate democratic party leadership demonstrate that when someone does not have a reasonable expectation that they will eventually retire or die or lose, they do not put any meaningful effort into mentoring their replacement.

i feel like some of this is our warped, protestant, work-until-you-die way of approaching the world. if i were king i'd enforce a mandatory, lavish retirement for every person at like, 55, and you'd have to make a damned good argument to stay on any later, and make it annually.

obviously, people like doing what they're doing long past that age, and there's nothing wrong with that, but when we're talking about elected legislators, they work for us. they aren't entitled to these seats for life, but that's more or less what incumbency grants.

the reason i don't like term limits is because i wish we treated congress as we do any other job, which is that gaining and acquiring experience is good and should be encouraged. but there are limits to that, and this week's been a good example of them.