• HaSch
    17·
    1 year ago

    The astonishing thing about this is that there isn’t even a requirement for senators to have served in government for a certain time before. It is common for people who don’t know anything about municipal, state, or federal governance and who have been lawyers, business owners, or financial advisors their entire lives to become senators right away, without first being a civil servant or at least serving in the house of representatives. In terms of merit, you could take random 18-year-olds from the street and have them fill all the senate seats, and in fact they’d most certainly do a better job representing the interests of the majority of US Americans.

    • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.ukEnglish
      33·
      1 year ago

      There’s nothing wrong with someone running for office without being a tenured politician. A primary or general election will weed out any woefully unqualified candidates, and if that doesn’t, anyone truly terrible will be replaced in the next election cycle.

      Senator Patty Murray of Washington famously campaigned as “a mom in tennis shoes” and had only been a teacher beforehand.

      • ComradeSalad
        9·
        1 year ago

        That’s not what he meant. You don’t need to be a tenured politician, but you need some, at least ANY civil service expertise and experience.

        Imagine if you “elected” a doctor who never went to medical school, or a solider who never went to training, or a lawyer who never went to college.

        They would all be fired on their first day, if they didn’t kill someone first.

        Also a general election will not weed out woeful applicants. Charisma, and an experienced team will get you very far.

        Potential choices should be heavily vetted and thoroughly trained.

        • AmarkuntheGatherer
          3·
          1 year ago

          Imagine if you “elected” a doctor who never went to medical school, or a solider who never went to training, or a lawyer who never went to college.

          Doesn’t the US do exactly that with cops, prosecutors and judges? Fuck, what a shithole.

          • ComradeSalad
            1·
            1 year ago

            Not completely?

            For how shit they are, prosecutors must be licensed and BAR certified lawyers.

            Judges however do not need to have a law degree. Which is fucked up and horrific. Though if they don’t know case law they’ll probably suffer badly at the job.

            Cops on the other hand are just handed a gun and told to go police people.

  • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.ukEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    I feel the problem is less the age of the senator (or representative) and more so how they have no term limits. Why do we have people serving 30, 40, 50+ years?

    The longer they serve, the more likely they are to take bribes lobbyist money and donations from people that don’t represent their constituents.

    I can understand the argument of wanting knowledgeable and experienced congressmen, but there has to be a limit when their net worth is way more than their salaries.

  • Cysioland
    9·
    1 year ago

    Yeah, the US has some penchant for electing really antique people. Chuds love to bash Biden for being old, but Trump is only three years younger than him.

  • Ronin_5
    102·
    1 year ago

    Like Parenti said, they’ll be in until 2030-2040. We don’t even have to actively remove them from office. We just have to wait.

    • ComradeSalad
      14·
      1 year ago

      You don’t think that they have heirs lined up? This is carefully planned and prepared, and they have been grooming successors for decades now.

      It is a perpetual system.

      • AmarkuntheGatherer
        2·
        1 year ago

        I really don’t think this is true because we can also see how incompetent these people are when it counts. They didn’t turn the Ukraine into their own next Vietnam (only in the humiliation sense) because they wanted to.

        Although it is a bit of poetic injustuce that the “progressive” who unseated Pelosi’s second in the house is also vying for the Speaker’s chair with no better intentions. The cruel twist will come from the fact that she’ll supposedly spurn the capital interests, get her funding from poor people, and still do the exact same shit.

  • monobot
    7·
    1 year ago

    It would be interesting to add skin color to this.

  • LVL
    5·
    1 year ago

    I don’t really care how old someone is as long as they have control of their mental faculties and they continue to serve the people. But obviously in a capitalist country as the USA that isn’t the case. Same thing with term limits, if they continue to do their job well I don’t care. Obviously I’m speaking about socialist countries though so if a person like Xi (who’s 70) continues doing a good job I’m all for them continuing being in their position.