Gerontocracy in America: how it is hurting democracy

This article is by Eve Peyser in Intelligencer examines gerontocracy in America and how it may be hurting the country’s democracy:

It was September 2019, the Democratic primaries were really starting to heat up, and Joe Biden was struggling to keep it together. In a debate that month, he was asked about racial inequality in schools, and his advice to parents was, charitably, puzzling. “Play the radio. Make sure the television — excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night. Make sure kids hear words.” At 78, he became the oldest president: older than Ronald Reagan was when he left office and older than all of his living predecessors besides Jimmy Carter.

But compared to many in Congress, he looks like a tiny little baby. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 80, as is Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, while Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is 81. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Grassley, as well as Alaska’s lone representative Don Young, are all 87. (In December, The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported that, according to sources, Feinstein’s “short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have.”) These people are not even young enough to be baby-boomers. They are part of the Silent Generation.

If you’re starting to get the feeling that the country is governed as a gerontocracy, you are correct. People over 50 make up 34 percent of the U.S. population, but 52 percent of the electorate, according to Pew. And it’s not only political power that baby-boomers and the Silent Generation have a tight grip on: Americans over 55 own two-thirds of the wealth in this country.

Read the full article here.