Local Keene woman Juliana Bergeron decided not to run for a 12th term on the Republican National Committee (RNC), according to the Keene Sentinel.
Bergeron cited that she feels the party needs to have more young folks involved, saying, “I think everything in our party should go to a younger person.”
I would have to agree with Bergeron, our government is aging and it is time for fresh faces.
The Senate is getting older, averaging 65 years; our current president, Joe Biden, is the oldest in U.S. history at 81 years old, but the House of Representatives is getting younger, averaging 57.9 years. The U.S. government is shaping up to be the nicest retirement home in the world.
Public servants absolutely need to have some sort of upper age limit. Instead of governing a country, these people need to go home, sip a mojito and chill out. Let a younger generation who can be quicker on their feet take over.
After 70 years there should be a mandatory mental acuity exam, like a Saint Louis University Mental Status (SLUMS) test, and there should be mandatory retirement after 75 years. As people age, the likelihood of having an issue with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia increases greatly, and a large portion of our elected government is of the age where these issues arise.
There have already been problems with folks like the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She was struggling while in office to remember things and people. She had some age-related health problems arise, leaving her away from her office for months.
From a human standpoint, that is just not how someone should spend their last days on this earth, but from a political standpoint, it is just illogical and selfish. As the senior senator from California and the deciding vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, leaving for that extended period left judicial appointments in a standstill and some 40 million people in the state of California with only one senator.
The same goes for Mitch McConnell and President Biden. McConnell has been the senior senator from Kentucky since 1985 and is the same age as Biden. He has had repeated issues speaking on camera where he was seen freezing mid sentence and has had at least one fall. Biden has had just as many issues on camera speaking and with tripping. It does not display our country well; we look weak and incompetent on the world stage.
We have bigger issues in the country that need addressing that are far more important than the ego trip of these people that does not make our government look like a live version of “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
