ICHEOKU says watching the people running state affairs in Ukraine, from their President Volodymyr Zelensky, his advisers, foreign secretary, attorney general, defense minister as well as other members of the president's cabinet has revealed a shocking fact, that people running America are indeed too old. Why is that? Those Ukrainian leadership makes America want to adjust the ages of their leadership downwards. But no, as Methuselahs are firmly in grip of affairs in Washington DC, from a president who is nearly twice the age of Ukraine's president, to a Madam Speaker who is old enough to be a grandmother to Ukraine's president to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate who are approaching 90 years.
It is sad that young Americans are not being allowed to man the tiller of state, admitted former President Barack Obama made an inroad. Even France and neighboring Canada as well as the United Kingdom leaderships confirm that America's leadership is simply too old. When will they hand over the baton of leadership and make respectful exit or must they stay the course until the end or so close to the end. A story making rounds appears to suggest that California Senator Diane Feinstein is so full of age that she hardly recalls anything including inability to remember her senate colleagues names. Why does such a person have to remain a senator when there are more youthful partisans who can effectively man their position?
Harry Reid, the late senator from Nevada who died in 2021 was in Washington DC for about thirty years before sickness forced him to retire in 2017 from his 1987 sojourn. There are four senators in Washington DC whose combined age is about 300 years and you ask yourself what utility is left in these aged politicians who have become so drunk on power that they refuse to quit when they can still have some life to live outside Washington DC. It calls for term limits just like California did where senators can only serve three terms maximum of 18 years and members of the House of Representatives are allowed to serve only four terms of 8 years.
Whatever institutional memory the argument for open ended term may be, it fades in comparison to the need to make governance in America more vibrant and youth-centric. America cannot be championing democracy throughout the world but is technicality not a democracy itself. If the presidency is term limited, there is no reasonable argument why the legislative tier should not be equally term limited. Even the Supreme Court should be made malleable to term limits because the job which members of both tiers of government do, anyone with the right qualification and disposition can easily do it; the reason vacancies are easily filled.
This is the only way America's sermon on representative democracy and abhorrence of sit-tight leaders worldwide would make any logical sense; otherwise how does anyone explain Orin Hatch being 42 years in the senate? Was that not a sit tight in governance, irrespective of how anyone wants to spin it since he served until he could serve no more and died just a few years post bad health-induced reluctant retirement. The senator from Utah is not alone in this longevity craze in Washington DC as there have been such other sit tight leaders before him and there are still many more presently serving in Washington DC. Anyway, may his soul now rest. Adieu Mr longest serving Senator.
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