Category Archives: Politics

Why Do So Many Elderly Run America?

Politics

According to my research, in 24 out of the previous 32 years, America was led by people born in or before 1946.

Politicians in other countries aren’t old like ours—our two-party system is steadfastly controlled by the elderly, which is why I have long advocated for a third party.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age of the 117th Congress’ 535 members is 59 years old, and the median is 60 years old.

Overall, the average age for Democrats in Congress is 60, and 58 for Republicans.

That’s old.

The current U.S. Senate (100 members) is the oldest in history, with an average age of 63 years.

The average age of the House of Representatives (435 members) is 58 years.

The age groups with the most significant gains in the 117th Congress compared to the 116th were born in the 1930s and 1960s.

Members in the 80+ and 50-59 both saw gains. Members in the 30-39 age group saw the most significant losses.

Why is Congress so old, and isn’t it far past the time to pass the government leadership baton?

The natural passing of the torch “to a new generation of American leadership,” as John F. Kennedy spoke about, hasn’t even come close to happening.

Maybe the Constitution should be amended to include maximum ages in addition to minimums.

The Constitution requires that a U.S. President be at least 35 years old, been a U.S. resident for at least 14 years, have been born in the U.S., or have at least one U.S. citizen parent.

The youngest elected president was John F. Kennedy, at age 43, in 1963. Bill Clinton was 46, Barack Obama was 47.

Joe Biden, inaugurated in 2021, is the oldest elected president in U.S. history at age 78. Donald Trump was 70, Ronald Reagan was 69, George H.W. Bush was 64.

The Constitution requires that Senators be at least 30 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and reside in the state they want to represent at the time of election.

The youngest senator is Jon Ossoff (D-GA), age 35, and the youngest person elected to the U.S. Senate since 1980. The next youngest is Josh Hawley (R-MO), age 41.

Ossoff is also the youngest Democrat elected since 1973, when Joe Biden became Delaware’s Senator at age 30.

The two oldest U.S. Senators are both 87 years old. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has held her California seat for 30 years since 1992, and Chuck Grassley (D-IA) has held his seat for 41 years since 1981.

Six senators are at least 80, and 23 are in their 70s.

The Constitution requires that Members of the House be at least 25 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and live in the state they represent (though not necessarily the same district).

Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) is the youngest of the 117th Congress at 26 and the youngest person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives since 1964—a whopping 58 years ago. The second youngest is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), at 32.

The oldest member of the House of Representatives is Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) at 85, followed by Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ); all 84 years of age.

Now let’s look at the U.S. Population.

According to Pew, people over 50 make up 34 percent of the U.S. population but 52 percent of the electorate, which means, in simple terms, that our electorate college system does not come close to representing the U.S. populace.

Also, according to Pew, in 2018, the most common age for all Americans was 27, while the most common age for white Americans was 58.

Too many older people, both in Congress and the voter registries, point to just how overrepresented white interests are in the U.S.

And Americans over 55 own two-thirds of the wealth in this country.

According to the 2010 census, the number of Americans over 45 increased by almost 25 million versus 2000.

If in 2018, the most common age for all Americans was 27, why are our government officials so old?

I think it’s a two-part answer.

For those that run: Running for Congress takes money, political skills, and a significant network, and the older people have all three.

For those that vote: According to Wikipedia, voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election was highest among those ages 65 to 74 at 76.0%, while the percentage was lowest among those ages 18 to 24 at 51.4%.

Older people have the money, the political skills, and the network to run, and older people (who are voting for older people) are voting in higher numbers, making the oldest people the holders of the most power.

The highest number of people to turn 65 in U.S. history will be in 2023, so old people aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2040, the population of American adults aged 65 and older will nearly double.

The bottom line is that if young people don’t start voting, a younger generation won’t take control of America’s leadership until the baby boomers are all dead.

By 2055, it’s estimated that there will still be 30 million people in the United States born before 1965 — most of whom will be boomers.

The younger generation needs to step up their democratic participation and run for office, or at the very least, vote. The future of the United States is in their hands.

Why September 18 for the far-Right Rally?

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When I heard about the far-right extremist pro-Trump rally, my first thought was if September 18, 2021 was chosen for a particular reason.

I have my theory about the date, although maybe it’s a coincidence that on September 18, 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required that people who had escaped from slavery be captured and returned.

Former Donald Trump campaign official Matt Braynard who is spearheading the far-right extremist rally, recently told HuffPost that “protestors would be discouraged from holding election or candidate-related signs or wearing MAGA gear.”

His request sounds unconstitutional to me. And anyway, why not put it all out there? Is Braynard afraid of something?

I suggest you read the entire Fugitive Slave Act because A) I hope it will disgust you, and B) It eerily mirrors the recent Texas abortion law.

Is it possible that Texas lawmakers used the Fugitive Slave Act as a boilerplate for their draconian abortion restrictions? I say yes.

The Fugitive Slave Act essentially gave every American citizen the authority to hunt and roundup fugitive slaves.

Section 6 in the Fugitive Slave Act made it shockingly clear that captured slaves could not testify on their behalf or defense: “In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence. . .”

Section 7 warned that anyone assisting or harboring slaves would be subject to a fine up to $1,000 (equivalent to $35,000 today) and imprisonment of up to six months.

Ironically, the harsh, brutal, and oppressive measures in the Fugitive Slave Act caused such outrage among abolitionists that its existence served as a vehicle to fight even harder against slavery.

The law also incentivized and spurred the continued operation of the Underground Railroad, a network of over 3,000 secret routes and safe houses used by slaves to escape from the slave-holding southern states to the free northern states and Canada. In 1850 alone, an estimated 100,000 slaves escaped via the network.

Many historians believe that the reversal of the Fugitive Slave Act in June of 1864 (14 years after its enactment), contributed to the country’s growing polarization over slavery and is considered one of the causes of the Civil War, which began in 1865.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has vehemently condemned preparations for the September 18 far-right rally. “We just have to make sure that if they are ready to get violent, that we’re ready again in a better way than on January 6 to defend the Capitol,” Swalwell said.”

With Trump out of office, defending the Capitol should be a breeze.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also condemned the far-right extremist rally. “And now these people are coming back to praise the people who were out to kill, out to kill members of Congress, successfully causing the deaths — ‘successfully’ is not the word, but that’s the word, because it’s what they set out to do — of our law enforcement, Pelosi said.”

According to a January 29 letter Braynard sent to the Department of Justice and FBI, the mob who stormed the Capitol on January 6 looking to hang Mike Pence, and resulted in the deaths of five people,  were nonviolent and “reasonably believed they had permission” to enter the Capitol.

Permission by Dear Leader Trump?

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Monday evening that “it looks like, from all indications, our law enforcement partners are well prepared for this one. They seem to be taking the intelligence very seriously, which raises a question as to whether or not they did on January 6, but that’s another issue.”

Another issue, indeed.

QAnon vs. Hitler’s Brownshirts

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The world has seen QAnon before. It was called Nazism.

For years, QAnon believers have assured each other that the Democratic cabal of pedophilic, satanic world leaders would be exposed and defeated by Donald Trump in a cataclysmic event called “The Storm.”

The Q cultists promise that when “The Storm” comes, the Democratic cabal will be rounded up and executed.

Last July, the Texas Republican party proudly touted their new slogan: “We Are the Storm.”

Many QAnon theories and violence chillingly mirror the Nazi propaganda and terrorizing activity.

The Brownshirts, the Nazi party military wing, aka Sturmabteilung, or SA, was cofounded on October 5, 1921, by Adolf Hitler and Ernst Rohm.

Sturmabteilung, translated means, Storm Detachment, and the military wing played a significant role in Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.

The identification as a Brownshirt came from the color of their uniform shirts. According to the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, the SA was “a group composed in large part of ruffians and bullies.”

The Brownshirts provided the Nazi party protection at political rallies and assemblies and riotously disrupted opposing parties’ meetings.

They threatened and terrorized opposing party members and violently intimidated journalists who opposed Hitler, Romani, and trade unionists. The Brownshirts were particularly cruel to the Jews and rabidly carried out unbridled and unchecked street violence against them.

Many SA members believed that their mission was not only a patriotic duty but, more importantly, a struggle to take away power and cleanse Germany from the Communists and the Jews.

Heinrich Himmler’s SS originated as a branch of the SA but eventually superseded them.

The Night of the Long Knives was the purge of Nazi leaders by Hitler on June 30, 1934. Hitler feared that the SA had become too powerful. To consolidate his power, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization’s leaders, including Ernst Rohm and hundreds of other perceived opponents.

The SS overshadowed the Brownshirts from then on, but the SA remained intricately involved in all aspects of the Nazi agenda, including the Holocaust.

For hundreds of thousands of Germans, the SA was their first introduction to Nazism. Many SA supporters approved of the political violence and intimidation and saw their mission as a patriotic duty to save Germany.

Many SA supporters believed that a secret cabal was taking over the world and that they controlled high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. The SA and their supporters were convinced that the cabal wanted to disarm the police, promote homosexuality and pedophilia, and mongrelize the white race so that it would become the minority and forever lose its power.

Sound familiar?

The history of the SA, pro-Hitler, and SS mobs highlight the terrifying similarities between them and the political violence we all witnessed on January 6 by the MAGA, pro-Trump, and QAnon mob:

Intimidating, racist, violent citizens incited by their leader, swept up in the frenzy of a power-grabbing hate-filled political mission to capture and execute their political opponents in a stormy purge.

Disillusioned Trumpite Blues

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Woody Logan, who wrote this poem/song, reached out to me last Saturday.

I’m not bragging when I say that I get a ton of emails, story ideas, songs, poems—a whole gamut of emotional material.

But I have to say that when I read Woody’s lyrics, they got to me on so many levels.

And the guy is so humble and wants you to know that “Admittedly I sing horribly. Perhaps somebody can do it better.”

His singing ability was of no relevance to me.

His words, his plight, his poetic verse showed me a side of the “other side” I have never understood, or dare I say, embraced before.

Woody has laid his poem down as a blues song in two versions. The Short Sampler (3 minutes) and the Full Epic (21 minutes), both of which I have included at the end of this blog post.

I’ll let Woody’s poem/song speak for itself, except I can’t help but highlight the lyrics that hit me the hardest.

Like:

“Throughout the ages, when the gap between haves and have-nots. Gets intolerable, and the blue collars don’t have a lot. There is a revolution, that puts the privileged on the trot.”

Or:

“I’ve also realized, I was becoming a person of hate. But hate’s not a human condition, it springs from a fearful state. So facing our challenges with courage, can make our Nation great.”

And:

“Our man promised he would even out the quid, yes we knew he’s evil, but that’s how desperate we had slid.”

And this:

“T’was on a Fox news program, that I saw something on his wall. It was a gilded frame, there to see for all. “Kill The Messenger” in big letters, for me it was a wake-up call.”

I ask you to please take the time to read the poem in its entirety by the talented Woody Logan.

Disillusioned Trumpite Blues

When it comes to voting, I really don’t have a plan.
There’s nothing to consider, just go vote Republican.
That’s my obligation, and so I just do what I can.

But now I’m having trouble, thinkin’ ‘bout who I did choose.
I was all for him, didn’t want the man to lose.
What have I done, got the disillusioned Trumpite blues.

First it was funny, not one journalist figured it out.
Why he was elected, what was it all about.
If they had studied history, there was no need for them to pout.

Throughout the ages, when the gap between haves and have-nots.
Gets intolerable, and the blue collars don’t have a lot.
There is a revolution, that puts the privileged on the trot.

This is the main reason, we voted just like we did.
Because our man promised, that he would even out the quid.
Yes we knew he’s evil, but that’s how desperate we had slid.

Like a good Republican, he was the master of the FUD factor.
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt, he deployed like a skilled transactor.
Journalists and politicians, spent every day trying to decipher.

Even though psychiatrists, predicted it in a big book.
That his narcissism without empathy, was very much like a crook.
He kept them running in circles, just by spouting gobbledygook.

While government in America, was like a three-legged stool.
Executive, Congressional, Judicial, that’s how we did rule.
He made it one leg, two-braces, that’s how he did retool.

He’d disagree with what you said, and your right to say it.
Refitting facts to his words, was something he did quite a bit.
This pleased the Trumpites, who said he had a lot of grit.

Manipulating the media, was keeping his base entertained.
Even though his credibility, was getting very stained.
That’s why we loved him, and why our loyalty remained.

Slowly but surely, the wool has been pulled from my eyes.
I started to see a glimmer, that Trump was not all blue skies.
His promises aren’t being delivered, no matter how hard he tries.

T’was on a Fox news program, that I saw something on his wall.
It was a gilded frame, there to see for all.
“Kill The Messenger” in big letters, for me it was a wake-up call.

As a born-again Christian, conflict crept into my mind.
“What would Jesus do?” was absent, I started to see, where once I was blind.
We Trumpites are good hearted, but our leader he is unkind.

I started paying attention, to what the “others” did say.
Things like the following, filled me with great dismay.
I started to question, had I been led astray?

We Trumpites need to ask ourselves these questions, as time is running out:
+ Is he a national health crisis? Psychotherapy is up 400%.
+ Is he smarter than any general?
+ Did he never mature beyond 14?
+ Does he use circular logic or irrational logic?
+ Will it take decades for America to recover?
+ Are decades of social and civil advances being reversed?
+ Have hate crimes quadrupled since he took office?
+ How is he doing on promised deliverables?
+ Did Mexico pay for a wall?
+ Is the way to defeat the virus to stop testing for it, as he said?
+ How many of his efforts have been reversed, cancelled, or overturned?
+ Is he all talk and no action?
+ Does he belittle everybody who has a different opinion?
+ Why does he claim no responsibility for anything that happens?
+ Is he showing symptoms of mental deterioration?
+ Are we being led by a lunatic?
+ Are all of his problems self-induced?
+ Why do his enablers do it?
+ Does he believe exercise is bad for you?
+ Are we Trumpites just jingoistic flag-waving sheep?
+ Does America really not have room for refugees?
+ Is restricting voter rights a good Republican strategy? Must we cheat to win?
+ Has he earned the right to another four years?
+ Can America move forward while looking backward?
+ Did he make America great?

Then I heard the report, from his wives all three.
Their marriages were never consummated, on wedding nights you see.
He’d just sit on the edge of the bed, and tell them how good it would be.

“He’s a blithering idiot”, said my friend who is no chump.
What does that mean I thought, I really was in a stump.
When I looked it up in a dictionary, all it said was “See Trump”.

Then did I finally notice, reoccurring before our eyes.
With each and every issue, regarding Trump that did arise.
A 3D plan of action: Deny then Distract then Decriminalize.

What’s wrong with me I wondered, with conflict in my mind.
Look up “Cognitive Dissonance”, said a caring friend of mine.
And that human condition, pretty much explains it fine.

It’s said he never reads a book, nor listens to anybody around.
So when he marched to a church, and held the bible upside down.
I had to wonder, is he the biggest hypocrite in town.

We Republicans for years, have claimed the moral high ground.
But Trump preaches intolerance, not the love we consider sound.
What are the consequences, are we no longer heaven bound?

I’ve also realized, I was becoming a person of hate.
But hate’s not a human condition, it springs from a fearful state.
So facing our challenges with courage, can make our Nation great.

I’m not saying that I’m well now. Mixed emotions carry on.
But I’ve switched to Independent, and to you I call upon.
Be a free thinking person. Be smarter from now on.

Stop being narrow minded. Pull your head out from the sand.
Deploy your Christian values. History helps you understand.
Apply the golden rule, like Jesus did command.

If you are having trouble, thinkin’ ‘bout who you did choose.
We’re all in this together, what more can we really lose?
We can rise above the fray and stop those disillusioned Trumpite blues.

Short Sampler (3 mins) …… https://youtu.be/7g78vibyEe8

Full Epic (21 mins) …………… https://youtu.be/knYBFEENG4c