Congress shouldn't be an assisted-living facility

Washington Post

05-05-2025

Legendary Post columnist Mark Shields used to describe Washington's operating principle as 'If you can't say something nice about someone, let's hear it.' And Shields, who died in 2022, never saw today's D.C., where any policy difference translates directly into ad hominem attacks.
One Washington denizen with whom I've almost never found myself in agreement is Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). I've been a target of his criticism, some of it highly personal, multiple times. But on the occasion of his coming retirement, announced April 23, I come not to bury but to praise. The senator's decision that 44 years in Congress and 80 years of age are enough sets an example we should hope others emulate, and not just octogenarians.
The Senate in recent years has been the oldest ever, with a median age today of 64.7. It is home to about 35 members age 70 or older. For perspective, the Senate in 2011 had a median age of 61; in 2001, it was 58; in 1981, 51; in 1971, 55.
That last figure is interesting. The Japanese Diet average checks in at 55. (Many legislatures, such as the Israeli Knesset at 52 and Britain's House of Commons at 48, are even younger than that.) We sometimes think of Japan as a nation and a culture reverent of, and dominated by, its elderly. But its political leadership looks youthful by comparison with ours, with the same age profile the United States had at the peak of its world leadership.
Of course, a Congress of 500-plus members theoretically can manage around any who are slipping or no longer contributing much. It's not nearly as dangerous as a senile president, being covered for by a lapdog press and a staff who are doing the real work of managing the nation's affairs.
But the gerontocracy into which we have drifted raises issues more troubling than just the feebleness or incompetence that aging brings. Acknowledging the occasional exception, today's elderly — I grudgingly have to admit to belonging to that category — are unfit to lead the nation in the face of its greatest threats and challenges.
We are being overwhelmed by an onrush of technologies that present both unprecedented opportunities and unprecedented dangers. When even those who are inventing and developing artificial intelligence and genetic engineering do not pretend to fully understand where these breakthroughs are heading, we need political leaders who have grown up with these wonders and find them at least slightly less mysterious.
With regard to that other lethal threat, the national debt — which is certain to bring a damaging, perhaps catastrophic reckoning — today's elderly careerists have disqualified themselves. Any member who has sat in Congress for the past few decades shares culpability for the unconscionable burden we have destined the next generations to bear. It is past time for those who will have to clean up after a 60-year spending bacchanal, and try to save the safety net for those who need it most, to take full command.
Which brings us back to Dick Durbin. By stepping aside, when he could have cruised to another six-year extension in his one-party state, let's hope he is part of a trend, following earlier Senate retirements by Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California). Yes, Durbin might just be weary of today's dysfunctional Congress. Or maybe the possibility of more years in the Senate minority left him discouraged. Those concerns have clearly motivated the departures of several younger members. But let's take him at his word when he said, 'In my heart, I know it's time to pass the torch.'
Viewing his public record of relentless Big Government statism, 'pass the cudgel' would be a more apt metaphor. But disagreements are only disagreements, and bygones … bygones. He has worked hard and honestly for his view of the public interest, and he serves it well now by walking away.
I hope and predict the senator from Illinois will look back on this decision with personal satisfaction. A simple but often violated rule, of which I have often reminded friends, is 'Everything ends sometime. The question is: How do you want it to end?' We all can name sports heroes, business leaders and other public figures who held on too long, whose last seasons sadly detracted from lives of great accomplishment. The senator has eliminated that risk and, I hope, provided himself with years of fulfilling new pursuits.
Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), another senator who wisely decided '80 is enough,' once described the Senate as 'America's finest assisted-living facility.' The institution and our pro-incumbent electoral system make it all too easy for people to accommodate those who are determined to go out Skechers-first. Better if they take Durbin's example and hand the reins to newcomers better suited to deal with the big troubles ahead.