[pugsville]

The US has many (IMHO too many) pretty elderly politicians. There is a question of fitness to office,

The problem with any system of doctor evaluations is whose doctor and how the process almost cannot fail to be political.

It;s really hard to have a fair open process that decides if politicians can sit in congress. It is inevitably (IMHO) become very partizan political football,.

It's not (well for me) a partizan issue. Bernie Saunders, Trump, Biden, Mitch McConnell and others,

A simple Age cut off is easy. There is no judgement. It should catch most of the problem (but not all of it) It would disbar some problem quite good representatives, but how else to deal with the problem in simple process.?

Thoughts?

[late]

Biden's done a good job.

[Patrickov]

Biden's done a good job.

This is not that different from a Putin-apologist saying "Putin is doing a good job".

I do think Biden is robust, but what happened to Queen Elizabeth II and what is to happen to Jimmy Carter means that, having people aged over a certain threshold greatly increases the risk of them popping it in the middle of their terms or such.

Of course, one can always argue that dying in office is not that much of a problem because a mature democracy does not rely on one person anyways.

[wat0n]

Why 70 and not 65 or 75?

[late]

This is not that different from a Putin-apologist saying "Putin is doing a good job".

I do think Biden is robust, but what happened to Queen Elizabeth II and what is to happen to Jimmy Carter means that, having people aged over a certain threshold greatly increases the risk of them popping it in the middle of their terms or such.

Of course, one can always argue that dying in office is not that much of a problem because a mature democracy does not rely on one person anyways.

Except that Putin is destroying the country, and Biden is leading a robust recovery.

So as long as we are ignoring reality, can I have a pink unicorn?

[late]

Why 70 and not 65 or 75?

Why why?

[wat0n]

It's kind of arbitrary, isn't it?

An underage person can be argued to be too immature to hold that type of position, based on developmental psychology. But for the old, it seems to depend a lot more on the person than on age itself.

Biden, for example, is old and sometimes forgets things. But I wouldn't say he's unfit for the presidency, and I also don't think his administration has been particularly bad (or good), I'd rank it as around average.

[XogGyux]

Age is just a number. Nobody can truly say that Marjorie Taylor Greene is more fit to represent US in congress than Bernie Sanders. You might not like the policies or one or the other, but as an individual, regardless of policy or ideology, one is a complete attention-seeking lunatic.

I think what we need is term limits. I don't know the numbers but I suspect that the old people in politics, most of them made it decades ago and became old while on the job, rather than being elected as an old person. If there was a term limit, I believe congress will naturally shift towards a younger version. While I think older people have a more moderate temperament, are wiser/ more experienced and thus have an advantage for leadership, it is equally true that younger people have a more significant investment in the future of a nation, thus higher stakes (they will be alive for longer and have to deal with the policies, shit or good, for longer). All of that to say, I don't think either group should get a preference based on age.

I think term limits also take care of taking the carrot out of the front of the politician... No longer the goal is to get reelected forever, but instead, they might start to care on future employability, on having a decent legacy so they can write a book about how they fought for human rights and how they introduced the healthcare legislation that everyone now enjoys, etc. Do you think Ted Cruz could afford to be the blithering asshole he is if he knew he needed to find some other job when his term was up?

[late]

I think what we need is term limits.

It takes years to learn how to do the job. Which means a couple days after they find out where the bathroom is, they are thrown out.

It's been tried elsewhere, with mixed results.

Lobbyists love it...

[XogGyux]

It takes years to learn how to do the job. Which means a couple days after they find out where the bathroom is, they are thrown out.

It's been tried elsewhere, with mixed results.

Lobbyists love it...

There is a reason our elective officials are elected amongst the general populous. Nobody goes to college to learn governance. If we valued that sort of education/experience, we would have tracks of education that leads to senator or representative, governor, president, mayor, etc. We don't. There is little value of them knowing where the bathroom is for doing their job and certainly they can be hired hundreds and thousands of staff not to mention experts in distinct fields (e.g. economics, public health, industry, chemistry, cybernetics, etc) to assist them into making well-informed decisions. Their job shouldnt be that difficult, they should just have to listen the arguments of experts one way or another, and then have trained non-elected staff members come up with the written law, and then finally just vote on it. These people don't even read the laws the sign so I take your excuse to allow them to stay in power longer without any meat.

[pugsville]

Why 70 and not 65 or 75?

Arbitrary choice. Any number could be considered. It;s about the general principle I could just said age X.

[late]

they should just have to listen the arguments of experts one way or another, and then have trained non-elected staff members come up with the written law, and then finally just vote on it.

These people don't even read the laws the sign so I take your excuse to allow them to stay in power longer without any meat.

K street has expanded over into J...

Amusing, but silly.

[XogGyux]

K street has expanded over into J...

Amusing, but silly.

I don't understand your slang.

[late]

I don't understand your slang.

J Street is where lobbyists have their offices. The number of lobbyists grew considerably during the Bush 2 years, spreading over onto K street. The businesses and groups that hire lobbyists don't do it out of the goodness of their heart.

They spend millions to get billions...

Term limits simply will not work in DC. Having had this idiotic conversation before, I am not going to tell you what will work. You don't want it bad enough to do it.

[XogGyux]

Term limits simply will not work in DC. Having had this idiotic conversation before, I am not going to tell you what will work. You don't want it bad enough to do it.

Isen't that what Pofo is all about? Having endless idiotic conversations. You seriously believe a mandatory retirement is not an idiotic conversation that has not been had before? You think it has a greater chances of passing vs term limits? Naive. They are both as likely (or actually, unlikely) to pass as the other, except one of them at least addresses the main issue of corruption, the other is just a silly age discrimination. I generally do not support mandatory shit based on age.

[late]

Isn't that what Pofo is all about?

I see it as an opportunity to bring the obvious to the oblivious.

The underlying problem is corruption. K street has learned to dole out money a little at a time. So they regularly get face to face time with the pols they handle. Someone that is friendly and keeps giving you money is hard to say no to...

The first step is increasing the salary. This is where the people that love corruption jump ship...

There is a series of follow on steps, like ending the revolving door, but you've jumped ship.

[MistyTiger]

I think politicians should undergo stress tests and retake a civic exam. It's like how older people have to retake their driver's license exam and get their eyes checked. Also, some jobs require a stress test so why not try it for politics too?

[Politics_Observer]

We should be careful about age discrimination. Elderly people have a lot of life experience that those of us who are younger do not have. Moreover, the elder have a lot to give and so if they want to serve as politicians or work, let them serve as politicians and work. As long as they have good performance, that is all that matters.

[selfpubnick]

It's not a bad idea although politicians will always find a way to crawl back in.

[late]

In the Commonwealth Saga, my 2nd favorite scifi book series, biology had been brought to heel. As long as you could afford it, you could live as long as you wanted. A couple hundred years was typical, but the insanely rich (the richest owned an entire planet, and had a wine estate the size of Texas) had too much fun to bother with something as boring as dying.

That guy that owned his own planet, none at the executive level (and there were thousands) were younger than 5th generation. This was math, not skill. The young could have great lives, but replacing the elders was simply not a possibility.

As with most things, I seek balance, like Lady Justice with her blindfold and scales...

But it's not hard to see the conservatism built into the system. That isn't skill, just math, getting there first is half the fight.

I'm open to ideas, even if I am not impressed with term or age limits. In fact, Biden is an eloquent argument that age shouldn't be a barrier. His experience has enabled him to avoid pitfalls his predecessors would have fallen into. And many of them did just that.

To the reactionaries in the crowd, no, I just don't think the knee jerk reaction is likely to our best option.

The Brits have a tradition of making room for young talent. It's not enough, but it's a good place to start talking.