Like any political junkie, last Sunday I was distracted from my usual weekend duties with the play by play of health care reform becoming law. And while I couldn’t help but be proud for a progressive movement that finally achieved this necessity of modern economic competitiveness, I also couldn’t help but notice that most of the players on the political stage, at least the angriest ones, were old men. And not only were they old in years, they were old with their arguments, falling back on the same outdated themes they have been hashing out since before I was born - big government vs small government, states rights, abortion, discrimination and the poor.
Watching these angry old men making their crusty old arguments, I began to wonder, at what point does a politician wear out his usefulness? Is the problem with enacting change - the problem with moving national discussions forward - generational? After all, America’s median age is about 37 years old, while the median age of a US Senator is just over 63 years. Compared to the rest of America, the Senate is old - so old, in fact, that there are 4 Senators who are older than sliced bread.
Seriously.
Older
than sliced
bread.
Senators Byrd, Lautenberg, Inouye and Akaka are all older than sliced bread which was invented in 1928 by Otto Fredrick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa.
But better than sliced bread, a comparison that is much more representative of the demographic is that 2/3 of the Senate was born before the advent of credit cards and birth control pills. So it seems no wonder that the health care debate has been more about rehashing the arguments of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s rather than how to provide people with access to better health care. It’s like a bunch of old buddies reliving the good ol days when movies were a quarter and pop was a nickel at the sodee fountain. Instead of looking at where we are now and focusing forward, they are looking back for answers.
And so, truthfully, my Senatorial trivia on age is jolly fun for a young wippersnappersuch as myself.But I don’t think the problem is about how old the Senators are. As they say age is a state of mind.
For example, last week, Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware celebrated his 71st birthday, which puts him on the slightly older side of the Senate. Senator Kaufman was appointed to fill VP Joe Biden’s seat last yearand will retire in 2010 when a special election will be held to determine who will be Senator for the remainder of Biden’s term.
With only two years for a Senate career, Senator Kaufman does not have a lot of time to get things done. So maybe that is why you see him championing financial reform so aggressively. What I don’t hear from Senator Kaufman is a lot of ideological jibber jabber. What I do hear from him are his ideas for common sense reform - for transparency in the financial industry, and for holding those responsible for the financial collapse accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
When considering why the Senate has been so slow to enact change, it’s easy to assume that our law-makers are just too old and out of touch to understand the difficult challenge of modernizing our way of government. But I have another theory. It’s not about how old they are, but instead about the urgency with which they approach their responsibilities to serve the American people.
In short, it’s more about how they appreciate their awesome opportunity to solve problems and pursue ideas that will move a modern America forward.
I’m Gina Cooper, the Political Outsider. You can read about my work at MiddleCoastLLC.com, and my personal thoughts as a teacher turned political professional at GinaCooper.com.
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