You can’t expect someone to put up with the demands of being a SPAD for thirty years (long hours, low pay, bullying, sexual harassment) before giving them a crack at a safe seat. LOL
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
I have been making the point for some time that we laughed at the USSR 40 years ago, yet the US has arrived in a similar place. Still, at least Brezhnev and co didn’t have the problem of campaigning…
Apparently Biden will not be appearing at any events in person between now and 3 November! This is partly to avoid questions on Hunter and the corruption etc, and partly because almost nobody turns up at his events. (There are usually more Trump supporters than Biden supporters).
Whatever you think about Trump, he is able to get out there to two or three rallies each day. I watched some of his rally in NH yesterday. As always, it was packed out, with thousands of people outside wanting to get in. I then watched him visit a farmer’s market in Maine. With the possible exception of Bill Clinton, I have never seen any politician receive such adulation.
The issue with the Soviet Politburo was never that it was full of old men, it was that they ran a poorly functioning system that was contemptuous of facts and competence. Just as so many of the woke jackasses would have us introduce today – scrap facts and competence, and introduce a system based on “justice” (their conception, of course), quotas and feelings.
Something like 99,8% of people below the age of 55 will recover from Covid. For the young it is less deadly than normal flu. Even Trump, at 74, recovered in a heartbeat albeit, of course, with the best healthcare in the world.
Joe Blow
3 years ago
OF COURSE the older are not necessarily wiser. But wise older people almost always have the benefit of greater knowledge of the value of things that younger people might not appreciate – such as the incredible importance of institutions, the vital significance of history and the dangers of revolutionary thinking.
Yes, but he is good at quotas and virtue signaling (except when he wears blackface…)
cbarclay
3 years ago
Why were the old Soviets so desperate to hang onto power rather than enjoy the comforts of retirement? Two main reasons: out of office they would suffer many of the deprivations suffered by ordinary Soviets and they feared that once in power the younger generation would put them on trial for their crimes. The first reason does not apply to the American gentocrats. The second reason probably does. Biden’s corruption has recently been exposed yet again. Obama does not want a Trump second term as investigators would turn to who exactly authorised the FBI to spy on Trump’s 2016 campaign. Then there is the Clinton Foundation and the evidence slowly emerging of who allowed Epstein to get young girls to keep their beds warm.
And today we are learning that Hunter was keeping his bed (or couch) warm with a minor. And that this was – allegedly – covered up by his mother and father. (Apparently they have the sms messages).
The MSM blackout and Social Media censoring has backfired with a Streisand effect drawing even more attention to Biden being stuck between a rock and a hard drive – Apparently a popular google search has become ‘can I change my vote’ from the mail in Democrats – The now likely Tump victory will see many swamp dwellers get a nice dry cell and many of them in previously revered institutions – We have only seen the tip of the iceberg and there is also the Epstein berg – So many in high places are quaking at the prospect of Trump – If it is sleepy Joe they are safe and of course so is the CCP and Soros and Clause Schwab’s Great Reset…not forgetting Bill Gates – They all need Biden but they wont get him.
Mike Finn
3 years ago
There’s a lot there that’s true, certainly, and having only the same people hanging around for decades hardening their views and animosity cannot be a good thing.
Might some of this also be related to a change in our expectations of our leaders. More recent trends in communication and feedback has led to leaders taking on ever more personal and immediate responsibility. No one wants an aging but highly experienced captain of the football team being the only one allowed to take shots… that’s what those at the top of their game are there for whilst the cool heads get the best from them until they’re ready to lead themselves. Likewise, a leader that has a strong history and provides a framework of stability and continuity but empowers the more innovative people to help shape policy is no bad thing, as long as they remain mentally and physically strong enough to project the country’s image of itself at home and abroad.
It might also be fair to take into account changing life expectancies and improving later life health when comparing with the 1970’s USSR (68 in 1970 USSR compared to 88 in the US today).
The only thing worse than a set of very old politicians might well turn out to be a set of very young ones of course!
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Alas, power, and the mysterious habit American politicians have of getting really rich (or richer still) once in office makes it hard for them to let go. The wealth that the likes of Pelosi, Di-Fi, McConnell, and others have amassed while feeding at the public trough is practically criminal, but they remain in office. Why is that? Because we have allowed for the creation of a system in which people may start by wanting to do good, but they invariably notice how easy it is to do well.
Joe Biden is a sterling example of that, in a story that the US media is bent on covering with a pillow until it stops breathing. The only real commodity that members of Congress have is influence. Over votes, over policy, over other members of Congress. So quite naturally, they are going to sell (or at least rent) that service to those willing to pay.
John Baker
3 years ago
The orange man might be as old as or older than most of those with skin in the current game but in chutzpah and humour and mischievousness he is out on his own. To say nothing of his resilience. Has any president had to defend himself for four years by such a ghastly collection of spiteful enemies? The miracle is that he has achieved so much more than just bravely enduring it. So you would have to say that he looks in no danger of requiring a quiet room in a rest home any time soon. The stakes are too high at present to dwell on it but in retrospect, whatever the result of the vote, his performances at an already long series of rallies will be appreciated as very remarkable.
Trishia A
3 years ago
In Canada and around the world, as the population gets older, the leaders get younger. There is something very suspicious about that. That some countries are holding fast to older politicians is something that needs serious consideration.
If Greta were to immigrate, I think Canadians would elect her PM. All I hear these days is ‘listen to the children’.
Alan Girling
3 years ago
“In the USSR, the leadership instead grew sclerotic and decrepit and fearful of change” – I think it was all those things from the moment Stalin took power.
On the contrary, Stalin was a big fan of regularly going through the Party and state apparatus and clearing out the “dead wood”. Even if the wood wasn’t dead at the beginning of the process, it generally was at the end.
Ha! Good point. I wonder if like Marie Kondo it gave him a spark of joy.
joneskevinr93
3 years ago
It is simplistic to look only on age when searching for explanations on why things are the way they currently are. I believe there should be a balance in age, but also it should be quite apparent that what really matters in the end is substance, good policy, good ideas. That’s what the USSR lacked, but the ideological base of the Soviet state was deeply putrid, so whatever their politicians did, while keeping the same oppresive system, did no difference, until a true reformer -and a fortunate storm of events- came.
For the record, I must correct two things that the author has said that are somewhat or totally wrong, both about Strom Thurmond: 1) Thurmond began as a Democrat like almost everyone who held power in the South during Jim Crow, but became a Republican in the early-to-mid ’60s, remainining in that party to his death. 2) Thurmond didn’t die in office. He retired after the 2002 midterms and died half a year later.
Just two small corrections. All considered, this is a good article, with certain caveats, but I agree that the current gerontocracy tends not to be very wise and nuanced. They’re very, very far from one of the greatest “gerontocrts” ever – Adenauer. But the politicians that will come after them seem, as for now, vastly less wise and nuanced than this gerontocracy.
vince porter
3 years ago
I would trade Justin Trudeau for almost any grey beard, but, take a pass on Tweedledum and Tweedledee currently shuffling their way to an election in the US.
Alan Thorpe
3 years ago
Young or old, who needs them? It is time the state was cut down to size with limited power. The state should only provide what we cannot provide. When it does not matter who we vote for we will have the right size of government.
Karl Schuldes
3 years ago
The 17% approval rate of congress is meaningless. In 2018 the re-election rate was 91%, in 2016 it was 97%. These are typical numbers since 1950.
Sean Arthur Joyce
3 years ago
A writer friend once summed it up wisely: “The very fact of someone campaigning for office should disqualify them.” Like the Zen parable of the farmer who is called to duty during a war but insists on retiring back to his farm afterward rather than be promoted to emperor, we need a whole new ethos in politics. Perhaps a return to a model based on the original Athenian conception of democracy: a senate composed of people called up periodically for a temporary period of civic duty, but from all walks of life, not just the professional. Outside expertise can always be hired as needed. By turning politics into a profession, and a highly paid one at that, we merely attract all the bottom feeders and opportunists.
david bewick
3 years ago
I often heard the expression “experience doesn’t make us clever but it makes us wise” used be older managers and leaders. I often wondered I have to say! I prefer the quote from John Wooden “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”
I would prefer those who govern to have both talent and experience.
Alex Mitchell
3 years ago
Age is irrelevant. Competence is what matters. An aged population can be an issue, but in presidential terms only individual attributes should matter. As many have pointed out, the principal worry about this election race is that out of 300m people in the richest country in the world, with the highest ranked educational establishments and many stellar academics, business leaders and creatives, Trump and Biden are the best they can come up with.
Having young MPs and PMs (Blair, Cameron) has really worked well for the UK in the last 20 years….
You can’t expect someone to put up with the demands of being a SPAD for thirty years (long hours, low pay, bullying, sexual harassment) before giving them a crack at a safe seat. LOL
I have been making the point for some time that we laughed at the USSR 40 years ago, yet the US has arrived in a similar place. Still, at least Brezhnev and co didn’t have the problem of campaigning…
Apparently Biden will not be appearing at any events in person between now and 3 November! This is partly to avoid questions on Hunter and the corruption etc, and partly because almost nobody turns up at his events. (There are usually more Trump supporters than Biden supporters).
Whatever you think about Trump, he is able to get out there to two or three rallies each day. I watched some of his rally in NH yesterday. As always, it was packed out, with thousands of people outside wanting to get in. I then watched him visit a farmer’s market in Maine. With the possible exception of Bill Clinton, I have never seen any politician receive such adulation.
The issue with the Soviet Politburo was never that it was full of old men, it was that they ran a poorly functioning system that was contemptuous of facts and competence. Just as so many of the woke jackasses would have us introduce today – scrap facts and competence, and introduce a system based on “justice” (their conception, of course), quotas and feelings.
The wokerati are as dangerous as the Soviets.
There is a covid epidemic running riot in the US in case you missed it. It is irresponsible to be holding big mass events now.
Something like 99,8% of people below the age of 55 will recover from Covid. For the young it is less deadly than normal flu. Even Trump, at 74, recovered in a heartbeat albeit, of course, with the best healthcare in the world.
OF COURSE the older are not necessarily wiser. But wise older people almost always have the benefit of greater knowledge of the value of things that younger people might not appreciate – such as the incredible importance of institutions, the vital significance of history and the dangers of revolutionary thinking.
And simply, the experience of years
Corrupt Trudeau, just across the border doesnt exactly shine a torch for the younger generation.
Yes, but he is good at quotas and virtue signaling (except when he wears blackface…)
Why were the old Soviets so desperate to hang onto power rather than enjoy the comforts of retirement? Two main reasons: out of office they would suffer many of the deprivations suffered by ordinary Soviets and they feared that once in power the younger generation would put them on trial for their crimes. The first reason does not apply to the American gentocrats. The second reason probably does. Biden’s corruption has recently been exposed yet again. Obama does not want a Trump second term as investigators would turn to who exactly authorised the FBI to spy on Trump’s 2016 campaign. Then there is the Clinton Foundation and the evidence slowly emerging of who allowed Epstein to get young girls to keep their beds warm.
And today we are learning that Hunter was keeping his bed (or couch) warm with a minor. And that this was – allegedly – covered up by his mother and father. (Apparently they have the sms messages).
The MSM blackout and Social Media censoring has backfired with a Streisand effect drawing even more attention to Biden being stuck between a rock and a hard drive – Apparently a popular google search has become ‘can I change my vote’ from the mail in Democrats – The now likely Tump victory will see many swamp dwellers get a nice dry cell and many of them in previously revered institutions – We have only seen the tip of the iceberg and there is also the Epstein berg – So many in high places are quaking at the prospect of Trump – If it is sleepy Joe they are safe and of course so is the CCP and Soros and Clause Schwab’s Great Reset…not forgetting Bill Gates – They all need Biden but they wont get him.
There’s a lot there that’s true, certainly, and having only the same people hanging around for decades hardening their views and animosity cannot be a good thing.
Might some of this also be related to a change in our expectations of our leaders. More recent trends in communication and feedback has led to leaders taking on ever more personal and immediate responsibility. No one wants an aging but highly experienced captain of the football team being the only one allowed to take shots… that’s what those at the top of their game are there for whilst the cool heads get the best from them until they’re ready to lead themselves. Likewise, a leader that has a strong history and provides a framework of stability and continuity but empowers the more innovative people to help shape policy is no bad thing, as long as they remain mentally and physically strong enough to project the country’s image of itself at home and abroad.
It might also be fair to take into account changing life expectancies and improving later life health when comparing with the 1970’s USSR (68 in 1970 USSR compared to 88 in the US today).
The only thing worse than a set of very old politicians might well turn out to be a set of very young ones of course!
Alas, power, and the mysterious habit American politicians have of getting really rich (or richer still) once in office makes it hard for them to let go.
The wealth that the likes of Pelosi, Di-Fi, McConnell, and others have amassed while feeding at the public trough is practically criminal, but they remain in office. Why is that? Because we have allowed for the creation of a system in which people may start by wanting to do good, but they invariably notice how easy it is to do well.
Joe Biden is a sterling example of that, in a story that the US media is bent on covering with a pillow until it stops breathing. The only real commodity that members of Congress have is influence. Over votes, over policy, over other members of Congress. So quite naturally, they are going to sell (or at least rent) that service to those willing to pay.
The orange man might be as old as or older than most of those with skin in the current game but in chutzpah and humour and mischievousness he is out on his own. To say nothing of his resilience. Has any president had to defend himself for four years by such a ghastly collection of spiteful enemies? The miracle is that he has achieved so much more than just bravely enduring it. So you would have to say that he looks in no danger of requiring a quiet room in a rest home any time soon. The stakes are too high at present to dwell on it but in retrospect, whatever the result of the vote, his performances at an already long series of rallies will be appreciated as very remarkable.
In Canada and around the world, as the population gets older, the leaders get younger. There is something very suspicious about that. That some countries are holding fast to older politicians is something that needs serious consideration.
If Greta were to immigrate, I think Canadians would elect her PM. All I hear these days is ‘listen to the children’.
“In the USSR, the leadership instead grew sclerotic and decrepit and fearful of change” – I think it was all those things from the moment Stalin took power.
On the contrary, Stalin was a big fan of regularly going through the Party and state apparatus and clearing out the “dead wood”. Even if the wood wasn’t dead at the beginning of the process, it generally was at the end.
Ha! Good point. I wonder if like Marie Kondo it gave him a spark of joy.
It is simplistic to look only on age when searching for explanations on why things are the way they currently are. I believe there should be a balance in age, but also it should be quite apparent that what really matters in the end is substance, good policy, good ideas. That’s what the USSR lacked, but the ideological base of the Soviet state was deeply putrid, so whatever their politicians did, while keeping the same oppresive system, did no difference, until a true reformer -and a fortunate storm of events- came.
For the record, I must correct two things that the author has said that are somewhat or totally wrong, both about Strom Thurmond:
1) Thurmond began as a Democrat like almost everyone who held power in the South during Jim Crow, but became a Republican in the early-to-mid ’60s, remainining in that party to his death.
2) Thurmond didn’t die in office. He retired after the 2002 midterms and died half a year later.
Just two small corrections. All considered, this is a good article, with certain caveats, but I agree that the current gerontocracy tends not to be very wise and nuanced. They’re very, very far from one of the greatest “gerontocrts” ever – Adenauer. But the politicians that will come after them seem, as for now, vastly less wise and nuanced than this gerontocracy.
I would trade Justin Trudeau for almost any grey beard, but, take a pass on Tweedledum and Tweedledee currently shuffling their way to an election in the US.
Young or old, who needs them? It is time the state was cut down to size with limited power. The state should only provide what we cannot provide. When it does not matter who we vote for we will have the right size of government.
The 17% approval rate of congress is meaningless. In 2018 the re-election rate was 91%, in 2016 it was 97%. These are typical numbers since 1950.
A writer friend once summed it up wisely: “The very fact of someone campaigning for office should disqualify them.” Like the Zen parable of the farmer who is called to duty during a war but insists on retiring back to his farm afterward rather than be promoted to emperor, we need a whole new ethos in politics. Perhaps a return to a model based on the original Athenian conception of democracy: a senate composed of people called up periodically for a temporary period of civic duty, but from all walks of life, not just the professional. Outside expertise can always be hired as needed. By turning politics into a profession, and a highly paid one at that, we merely attract all the bottom feeders and opportunists.
I often heard the expression “experience doesn’t make us clever but it makes us wise” used be older managers and leaders. I often wondered I have to say!
I prefer the quote from John Wooden “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”
I would prefer those who govern to have both talent and experience.
Age is irrelevant. Competence is what matters. An aged population can be an issue, but in presidential terms only individual attributes should matter. As many have pointed out, the principal worry about this election race is that out of 300m people in the richest country in the world, with the highest ranked educational establishments and many stellar academics, business leaders and creatives, Trump and Biden are the best they can come up with.
So, we have abortion at one end and euthanasia at the other. Wtf? Some cultures actually RESPECT the wisdom of their OLDERS! So sick.
Not quite sure of the relevance of your comment. It reads like it’s drawing an inference from mine, but I can’t see any connection.