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With the average age of US senators at 64, a video of Senator Mitch McConnell glitching during a briefing at the US Capitol is bound to re-ignite discussions about when politicians are just too old to hold on to so much power.

Now this is not a dig at the elderly folks out there, and we firmly believe that hanging with older generations is “like mainlining wit and wisdom”. My grandma was still scaring the bejesus out of other road users in her blue VW Beetle when she was 92, but she was sharp as a Minora blade and a force to be reckoned with until the day she died. She was just a really bad driver.

The video of McConnell freezing up mid-sentence is particularly concerning, especially considering the man’s presence carries political weight in a country whose citizens are at each other’s throats 24/7. Almost three in four Americans (73%) think there should be a maximum age limit placed on elected officials, regardless if they’re blue or red-inclined.

The (very) longtime Republican leader, who had a serious head injury in a fall earlier this year, froze mid-sentence during an appearance at his weekly news conference in the Capitol on Wednesday and was briefly escorted away from the microphones to recover. Colleagues and aides waited a few awkward moments before intervening, taking the Kentucky senator by the arm and leading him away from the microphones.

McConnell is just one of many US leaders that have come under derision for their age. President Biden himself is 79-years-old and a casual search on youtube will show numerous occasions where he falls, mumbles, gets lost, talks to invincible people, and basically just proves he won’t be much use on the Ukrainian frontlines. It’s upsetting to watch in every way.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is 83 and the sight of her being wheeled around the White House like some grandma version of Madiba at the Soccer World Cup would have most people asking questions.

For instance: Why are you here? Is it the money and power? The fame? Sex, drugs, and free flights? And is there really nobody else that can do the job? Ageism is of course not cool, but is it discriminatory to expect elected officials to represent you without glitching like a bad dial-up connection?

Perhaps it’s about the dodgy house of cards that has been constructed for millennia. Call it ‘legacy positions’ if you must, but there’s surely no reason a super-rich politician who once romped with Cleopatra should cling to power. It’s become undignified in a vocation that has very little dignity left.

The house of cards won’t collapse without you, it’s held together with enough patronage. Take it away Mitch:

 

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[source:cnn]