August 4, 2022 - 1:00pm
With his approval ratings hitting new lows, Joe Biden doesn’t have much to celebrate right now. But he will look forward to the 20th November: his 80th birthday. And this won’t just be a personal milestone, but also a national one — because for the first time in its history the USA will have an octogenarian President.
Though Biden is the first to break this particular age barrier, he’s no outlier. As Derek Thompson explains in a fascinating — and alarming — piece for The Atlantic, America’s elite is ageing fast. In just about every field of human endeavour — from politics to business to science — the leading figures are, on average, not as young as they used to be.
But it is politics where the greying of the elites is at its most obvious. Just look at Biden’s rivals for the Democratic nomination in 2020 — when the second, third and fourth-placed candidates (i.e. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg) were all seventy-somethings. Together with the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, that meant that the top five presidential hopefuls were all of retirement age. It’s not just the Presidency that’s a pensioners’ playground. For instance, America now has the oldest Senate in its history. Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, the Speaker is 82-year-old Nancy Pelosi.
Why is this happening? Why aren’t America’s leaders making way for younger men and women? The most obvious explanation is that Western societies as a whole are getting older. Thus there’s a larger pool of older people to fill the top jobs and a larger number of older voters willing to elect them. Advanced medical treatments mean that our leaders can keep going for longer and advanced cosmetic treatments keep them from looking too decrepit.
One might also blame cultural stagnation. Across most art forms — music, cinema, literature — this is clearly not a golden age. Perhaps voters prefer older politicians because their public personas are rooted in a more colourful and creative era. And yet these demographic and cultural factors apply just as much to Europe, where politics is not dominated by the elderly. For instance, the French elected Emmanuel Macron to the top job when he was just 39. Now at a still-youthful 44, he can count himself as Europe’s senior statesman. Or perhaps that honour belongs to another 44-year-old, Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky.
Meanwhile, in Britain, our next Prime Minister will either be Liz Truss (47) or Rishi Sunak (42). Furthermore, the average age of our MPs — approximately 50 — has barely shifted over the last forty years. So the mystery remains: why are America’s politicians so old? It’s not as if everything is going so swimmingly that they don’t need an infusion of fresh blood.
Instead of looking to the ageing of Western societies, the answer must lie in factors unique to America’s political system. Two explanations immediately spring to mind: firstly the rigidity of America’s two-party system; and secondly the unrestricted influence of big money politics. A country whose economic success was built on ruthless competition is now held hostage to a political system that is ideally designed for the hoarding of power.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeI remember when we used to laugh at the old men in charge of the USSR. Now?
Amen! Great article. Power hoarding and wealth stealing.
This is why I’ve become a huge proponent of term limits and age limits. We need new ideas and rehashing the 1960’s and the 1980’s just isn’t cutting it. Those times have passed and leadership really has no idea how bad it’s been for a lot of younger Americans. If they can’t get on the housing ladder, you can’t expect them to want to be diehard capitalists or grow up. We’ve been coasting on past success for awhile now.
America, thanks to its lasse-faire economic attitude, has become the land of “capture”. Three or four internet companies “capture” that market and make sure there’s no room for newcomers. The giant hospital corporations “capture” that market until every doctor you speak with is “associated” with one or the other of them. And the monopoly Parties (just the two of them) have captured the entire process of government. If someone managed to get elected to Congress as a non-member they actually would not be allowed to propose a bill.
Anyone referring to these people as leaders or the leadership is a seriously abusing the language.
Besides the fact that age and cunning beat youth and energy almost every time, it is evident that the two-party system has become sclerotic. DC is beginning to resemble the kingdom of the elderly in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang! Term limits are definitely in order: two for senators, and three for congresspersons. (This does not apply obviously to the Supreme Court, its nature being judicial as opposed to legislative) We might also require a modest civics exam to enter public service: the legislature does not judge (Jan 6 anyone?) and the judicial does not make laws (why the recent decision vacating Roe vs. Wade was absolutely true to mission). Away with the gerontocracy!
Interesting. But there is a change rapidly coming because the next generation of leaders seems to be much younger – almost skipping a generation. Especially on the Democrat side where most likely successors to Joe (ignoring Kamala, as he does) will be 40’s or early 50’s. But even the Trump successors are early to mid 50’s.
So this current pattern is surely just a coincidence?