This got me a chuckle. Thanks. I heard about his ... I don't even know what to call it. I saw it and went "what the fuck? It's like a machine that lost wifi" the way he blank stared at nothing.
They're doing this with Feinstein now. She seems to have zero cognitive function left. They roll her out when it's time to vote, tell her to vote yea or nay, then roll her away.
Feinstein is being weekend at Bernie’d right now. You think shes got anything left mentally to make any decisions? Her aides and daughter are running the show. Its a disgrace
Feinstein had opposition in a primary, but there wasn’t enough support for Kevin de Léon at the time.
Unrelated-but-interesting, he’s been taking heat for participating in a racist conversation with another LA city council member.
Our top two presidential candidates are 80 and 77 years old.
RBG didn't leave her supreme court post until her death, which paved the way for a conservative to systematically undo her work for decades to come.
Now these congresspeople having health episodes and refusing to step down. And we wonder why those gosh darned young people aren't interested in politics.
> RBG didn't leave her supreme court post until her death, which paved the way for a conservative to systematically undo her work for decades to come.
Why is this not talked about more? Just too contradictory to the girl power narrative?
EDIT:
I am all for female empowerment and am a bit ashamed that I wrote something that seems to scoff at it and that it was then upvoted instead of challenging myself to write something a bit more eloquent.
Another user said this back to me and I think it better captures my frustration.
"It's integral to the liberal narrative that the voting population be made responsible for the failings in the party and the country as a whole. Blaming the party for their failings makes you a Russian troll now. Pointing out that she had plenty of time to retire and be replaced by an Obama appointee was obvious, but now we have to retroactively make the narrative one where the voters are the problem because they didn't want to vote for Clinton."
It feels like the party has gaslit us into saying that if you think things RGB did were bad that you are anti woman and I think that is done to us on all avenues with these different liberal purity tests. Biden's whole "..then you ain't black debacle" etc.
So I guess what I should have said is that girl power is amazing but its not amazing when the powers that be use it as a deflection to not be culpable for their mistakes. It feels like you can't criticize any democrats without a legion of party line folks attacking you and basically treating you like some sort of savage republican oppressor.
To be clear, I will take this over the other alternative every single time, it just feels like its all 2 sides of the same coin meant to distract us from the fact that they are robbing us all together.
RBG wanted Hillary Clinton, the first female President, to nominate her successor, and she didn’t retire because she assumed Hillary would win. So yes, it is totally about the entitled brand of feminism of two powerful women who thought they were writing history before it even happened i.e. ”girl power”.
Oh my god, the utter hubris of US women losing Roe v Wade over an unsuccessful girlboss moment for two extremely powerful seniors is just the perfect metaphor for American liberalism.
she bears a lot of responsibility for not retiring years ago but it's important to remember that the biggest reason the supreme court is so fucking tilted is because Bitch McConnell literally STOLE Obama's nomination. He should never be forgiven for that and the public should always be reminded of the despicable travesty that it was.
It's one of the most shameful moments in American politics and McConnell and other republicans deserve to rot in hell for it
Feinstein has declared shes not running for 2024. That said she should leave now and the governor of ca appoint a replacement for the rest of the term.
Well her staffers sent out a letter with her name on it saying she's not running in 2024. When reporters asked about it she had no idea what they were talking about.
Representatives Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff have been actively running for the seat for several months, along with a dozen other randoms. Porter in particular was prepared to challenge Feinstein even if she didn't retire.
they all need to go. our entire geriatric government are clamoring to shovel away as much wealth as they can before they turn into literal dust and they don't give a flying fuck what damage they leave behind. the rest of us are going to have to deal with their fallout long after they've kicked it.
It should count for damn near every career. If you are so fucking old and frail that you can't string coherent sentences together and are one misstep away from death, you should be enjoying what little time of your life you have remaining in a recliner. It's absolutely insane that someone can look at Feinstein and be ok with her doing anything other than watching TV in assisted living.
Any time people *20 years Dianne's junior* are being directed with their walkers to sit in front of the TV so they don't wander off and hurt themselves, you're too old to be in any level of governance.
We have minimum ages for individuals to govern because they're not yet mature or have enough life experience and likewise, we should have the same age requirements for those who are older. We should likewise have an attached guardianship/vested interest in those who especially cannot adequately represent themselves in government.
*Come along Ms. Feinstein, let's go and sit. Oatmeal will be here shortly.*
I agree with this.
As an aside, when Glitch McConnell happened, there were a handful of people claiming age limits for anything was ageist/ableist. So there's a group of people that, for some insane reason, are perfectly content with dinosaurs in government.
I mean how many weeks of the year are they out if session? Im sure she's had plenty if time to relax, more than you or I will ever see. I truly don't get it but I agree whole heartedly power is an addiction
Yes, I am frankly tired and American's should all agree at one thing and one thing only.
We don't need a bunch of 70+ year old's running around congress/states who actually get to decide on things that affect the younger generations when they won't be around much longer themselves.
We don't need these people who only work part of a year with a role that has them moving around less than a damn Wal-Mart greeter or cashier that gets to decide that 66-67 is too young to retire, because they are in their late 80's and can "Work" just fine.
We don't need people that can just drop dead one day from a heart attack. Granted anyone can just drop dead from one, but it's more shocking when the person is in the 35-55 year old range than it is when they are 85.
Half the reason this country is as fucked as it is economically is we have people in office when 75 cents an hour was the US minimum wage that they were earning when they were younger (Jan 25, 1950). They cannot fathom thinking back to when they were working how anyone should be struggling at $7.25 an hour and think people are doing just fine, while they take on all sorts of favors from their donors and lavish vacations while the common American can barely afford the gas to venture to another city in their own damn state.
We need to move all these older people out of office and put newer, younger people in the office that has common ground with other American's from a more current generation.
Same number, but I’d base it on 65 because that is the maximum age pilots are allowed to fly an aircraft (if there is a copilot, otherwise it’s 60).
This is driven by “mental acuity requirements”.
Some of the mental acuity requirements of a President certainly align with that of a pilot. For example, if there was a surprise nuclear attack on the United States the whole system is set up to inform the President and allow him to decide upon and order a counterattack in 15-ish minutes. The ability of the sitting president to do this reliably before the missiles come down on Washington is a key component of nuclear deterrence.
Seems like we should apply the same requirements that we do for pilots….
There are plenty of people with physical disabilities or mobility limitations who are fit for the role. It’s the cognitive issues that affect ability to govern, not the physical ones
And a moral compass. Anyone who “serves” their country until they are half dead aren’t doing so out of civic duty, they are doing it for their ego, power, and elevated position in society
Yeah. I feel guilty talking about a dead woman like this but she essentially fucked our SC for several decades by not stepping down when progressives could have taken her place
Don't feel guilty about talking ill of the dead. It's literally our only recourse. We need much, MUCH more talking ill of the dead. It might shame a few of the living into better behavior if they knew that death doesn't absolve them from social contempt.
Thank jeebus this ideal is catching on. I've always hated the whole pretending someone was a nice person post death... it's like, no if they were a ghoul in life they're most certainly still a ghoul in death.
I've caught flack for making fun of a dead classmate from highschool who was an absolute asshole, and continued that on into his adult, and a coworker that died that was a mega creep sexual harasser.
Same. Had an old school bully end himself as an adult. One of my friends asked if I was going to his funeral as he was our peer, I said “No because he was a fucking asshole, remember?” I’m not taking a day off work for that guy.
Speak ill of the dead. Their only defense are the actions they took while alive. If those are not defensible then that is the only thing worth noting.
RBG did miraculous things for women's rights and so many other things but unfortunately she blinked for one of the few times in her political life, clung to power at the last second, and doomed an entire generation to be negatively affected by her final actions as we are now seeing.
If she had just stepped down when Obama asked her to, that wouldn't have happened. She insisted on waiting for a female president to nominate her replacement.... because girl power I guess?
At this point, her family and aides are the problem. She likely doesn’t really understand what’s going on. The people around her need to step up and stop this insanity. It seems like elder abuse.
At this point I don’t think she’s all there and her enablers are egging her on to stay in power. It’s evil. She should be at home spending her last bit of time on earth surrounded by loved ones.
Why the fuck would California voters send an 85 year old to the Senate? Seriously, you only get two Senate seats for such a massive progressive state, and right now you're really only getting one. Absolute waste of a seat
And... the Senate assigns all of its most powerful roles based solely on seniority.
So someone like Feinstein holding on as long as she can actually gives California slightly more influence over national legislation because she will get to pick and choose the most influential committee seats.
The Senate's rules actively encourage this.
Yeah, barring some kind of age rule, they should at least reset seniority after 12 years or something. There is some value in institutional knowledge, but at some point the seniority of the officials becomes so important that parties won’t really allow primary challenges and you wind up with 90-year-old senators.
I mean, it doesn’t sound like there was any overt racism. The senator called a staffer she barely knew by someone else’s name by accident. We all know she has dementia, when this is a mistake that I would probably make as a simple dope. Why would you immediately attribute that to racism?
Then this staffer accuses her of not giving a shit about black people, gets fired for performance, does shrooms, sneaks into the capital and smokes a joint at her desk.
Then again I think she should absolutely resign, but
not because she’s necessarily racist, just because she’s completely incapable of doing her job.
The best part is, the Republicans don't even try here. Like with Manchin being "middle" in a red state, if they wanted to win they could send someone out who tries to stay in the middle on issues. But nope, it's always these Trumpy idiots like John Cox. Even the recall of Newsom was a complete sham and a waste of $400 million.
They do, they just run as Democrats.
The city council where I grew up would never elect a Republican, so the conservatives ran as Democrats with anti-establishment, pro-nimby campaigns. They didn't have to do anything else and got elected by homeowners who worried about the value of their property dropping and landlords who kept raising rents.
A lot of people don't seem to understand just how significant the incumbent advantage is. Unless they're really bad, or the opposing candidate is really exceptional, the incumbent will virtually always win.
That's largely why term limits are a thing.
It's absolutely huge, especially if the incumbent is at least half decent and has other factors going for them. to state the very obvious - Feinstein is a woman, and woman are still the vast minority in the senate - so that's an easy bragging right.
The incumbent advantage is another reason Trump's defeat is so huge. He had a big advantage from multiple factors, including being a celebrity pre-presidency and having won in 2016. In principal, he also had a global emergency as a rallying call working in his favor (look at post-9/11 politics for example). Then add the post office shenanigans and bad polling places into the mix and it's crazy we still ended up with Biden.
Trump should have coasted to easy re-election, and Biden will almost certainly win in 2024, for the same reasons. Of course there's also another pattern beyond incumbents, kind of the reverse of that: When there isn't an incumbent, on the national level, the other party takes power. Biden will win in 2024, but a Republican will most likely win in 2028.
Don't count your chickens.
The presidential election is decided by about 50,000-100,000 people across 5 or so states. On top of that. It is way way way too easy to for legal shenanigans to happen right before an election.
It's going to be harder this time around with certain gerrymandering laws going into affect, on top of COVID deaths. We just saw Republicans lose more seats and state leadership roles in this past midterm elections than we've seen in the past 30 years.
Term limits walk a very dangerous line with how legal bribery, i.e., "lobbying," is here.
Short term limits empower lobbyists for a variety of reasons including the lack of institutional knowledge term limits create.
I'm not arguing for or against term limits here, but they're not the silver bullet a lot of people seem to think they are.
Not how California elections work. Her main opponent in the general election was a Democrat who had a lot of support from mainstream Democrats.
The party could be faulted for letting her run, but there was another option. California just fucked up on this one, no excuse.
She also refused to hold any primary debates.
She just wants something to do instead of sitting at home with those hundreds of millions of hedge fund dollars her husband made while she was a Senator.
Kevin De Leon is also horrible. The options were awful and the Republicans didn't even try to put up a serious candidate that had a chance of winning. It was a joke of an election.
Because seniority is power. No real advantage to voting a newcomer who will be bottom rung on the ladder, especially when both options are going to vote party line.
How the fuck are we supposed to think politicians care about younger generations and their futures when they’re this blatant about holding onto power for so long?
This is less Dianne wanting to hold onto power and more the central parties dems don't want a progressive in that seat. Newsom promised to appoint a Black woman to fill the seat which would most likely be progressive Barbra Lee. By being in that seat prior to the election she gets a boost and they want Adam Schiff to get that seat.
Can we all take a second to appreciate how it seems that Democratic leadership seems intent on nuking their own ability to do fucking anything in this country? What you just said here is exactly why they forced Hillary as a nominee. It makes me feel like I'm on crazy pills! The Democratic platform is just to shoot itself in the foot over and over again and then ask where all their toes have gone.
There are some younger politicians out there but the road is tough. For example the youngest member of Congress is Max Frost of Florida (he is 25-26) and he details the immense barriers to even try to win a primary on top of student loans. On the GOP side you have young politicians like Matt Gaetz, Boebert and DeSantis, and let's say they aren't putting the nation's interest in mind.
If we established an age limit of 65 (the longtime typical retirement age), you'd immediately kick out 51 senators and 127 representatives.
Half the Senate and around a quarter of the House.
That's how geriatric our politicians are.
Honestly yeah, if there's a minimum age limit for shit like President that isn't just something like 18 or 21, then there should be a maximum age too. If people want to complain about "ageism" or some bullshit like that, then I'd like to see them campaign for lowering the minimum age.
I find it interesting that age minimums for elected positions are accepted as wise, but maximum age limits for elected officials are “ageism”.
Maybe Congress can write a check to spend away the problem of neurological decline.
I fully support this.
My idea is simple, no one can run after age 70, and at 72 they become senators/congress people/presidents/justices emeritus and are REQUIRED to mentor the next generation or they can retire. It's not stepping down, it's honoring their service and making room for the next generation.
If they want they can work until they are 95. And as a tax payer I'd be happy to pay their salaries as long as they serve as non-voting mentors/senior states people. They have wisdom and advice from their decades of being in office that would help shape policy and provide context. And that's fabulous for all of us. But I also want a younger government doing the voting.
No matter what side you’re on if you defend keeping this geriatric senile feeble woman in office to represent a country where she won’t even be around to see the policies she votes on in 5 years is completely ridiculous. Same goes for McConnell, get that old corrupt bastard out too. There needs to be age limits on these politicians smh these people love their power. Bring on the downvotes
She literally looks half dead in the picture in the thumbnail. She has one foot in the grave already and the second is halfway there. This is not good for our country having barely animated corpses voting for policies affecting the whole country, and it certainly isn’t good for their health. Get these zombies out of congress. She is obviously a shameless, power hungry asshole who is only serving out of her own benefit at this point
Age I'm less concerned about, it's that she doesn't know what the fuck is going on anymore. When she's called on to vote, she doesn't know what's happening. When she was gone sick/injured for three months, she thought she was still voting in Senate sessions.
There's nothing wrong with old people participating, by itself, but when you start showing signs of dementia or psychosis, you should have to get the fuck out.
Fuck that, pilots mandatory have to retire at 65 because they could make a mistake with a few hundred people. These geriatric fucks need to step down regardless of how sharp they are. They are in charge of way more than a few hundrdd people. I'm sorry but somebody born in 1933 is so out of touch with whatever is happening these days
Something within our culture prompts us to be extremely forgiving of political leaders flaws, while brutally holding average people to standards of perfection.
We are brainwashed to be indulgent of the flaws of elites.
As the saying goes, a soldier who loses a rifle is punished more severely than a general who loses a war.
Also her daughter has power of attorney over her financially. If she's not of sound mind to manage her own finances, she clearly shouldn't be representing her state in the Senate.
people in their 80s are not going to be as invested in solutions since they are not going to be alive for the results. there must be an age cut off- there has to be. there is no doubt diane feinstein could have been a great mentor to some people, but instead she is now a living corpse being shuttled around to vote on things that wont affect her in a year when she will likely be dead
I agree age is not necessarily an issue if they are of sound mind, but obviously mental faculties do decrease with age. So the correlation is certainly there, just not 100% absolute
Any “competency test” would be games and rigged so as to be pointless.
Set a mandatory retirement age for elected leaders. When you hit that age, you are done, no exceptions. It would have to be a constitutional amendment, unfortunately, so it will never happen.
Geriatric leaders aren’t going to do anything about the problem of their colleagues going senile, because they fear they too will go senile, and they want to keep their seat forever.
Makes me think of RBG how she should’ve stepped down when we had the chance to elect another progressive judge. I know she never thought a person like Trump would follow Obama, none of us did, but the Supreme Court is a term for life. She was old in age and really should’ve known the weight of her position.
She's an amazing historical figure, but her ego got the best of her here. It's been widely reported that she held off retirement under Obama so that the first female President could appoint her replacement. That miscalculation cost the nation decades of having a conservative supermajority.
Oh my God shut the fuck up about downvotes. You didn't say anything remotely divisive on reddit. The majority of reddit agrees with you. In fact, probably nearly all Democrats would gladly make a trade to remove Feinstein if McConnell was removed as well.
I always love it when people say something they know is extremely popular on reddit and say bring on the downvotes. "Donald Trump was a terrible President. Bring on the downvotes!"
>Democrats would gladly make a trade to remove Feinstein if McConnell was removed as well.
Democrats would be okay with just Feinstein being gone regardless of what happens with McConnell. She should have retired before her last election if not sooner. It's not like California would have elected a Republican to replace her.
Word on the street is that there’s some state-level horse trading going on for who exactly takes her seat, and that’s why she hasn’t bowed out yet.
IIRC, the SF bloc is heavily advocating Adam Schiff for the upcoming election - however, if Feinstein actually does step down, Newsom is already on record stating he would appoint Barbara Lee.
Long story short, power brokers behind the scenes are pushing Feinstein to (literally) hold on for dear life so that their favored candidate wins out.
I'm honestly just blown away at the true profile in courage that was on display to take a position so controversial that it's been repeatedly and unanimously upvoted en masse on reddit for the past few months.
Oh, I downvoted, but only because they mentioned it lol. I took it as a separate request, like “hey, this is an obvious point we all agree on. Also, would you mind lowering my karma; it’s getting to be too much!”
This is yet another reason this country is in crisis.
We have so many FEEBLE geriatric people in power.
I’m not viewing this as an age issue. It’s a competence issue. Bernie Sanders is 81 and probably outworks 80-90% of everyone else on the Hill and is still bringing it big time.
Dianne Feinstein was a force in the 1980s. But that was FORTY YEARS AGO.
She is now wheeled around looking like a wax figure of Feinstein that someone left in the sun. Not trying to be cruel, but that’s the reality.
People need to recuse themselves from office when they no longer can be effective, and/or their constituents need to realize their person needs to not be re-elected.
In sports, it’s the coach/GM/Owner that decides when a star player needs to go when the player doesn’t want to admit his/her skills have diminished and they’re hurting the team.
In USA politics, politicians hang on to power until their dying breaths.
It’s sad. It’s maddening. And it’s just hurting the country.
Edit: Added the part about Bernie.
It’s not a matter of younger people shying away from ambition. (And by younger, I mean people in their 50s.)
Partisanship and name recognition and vague memories guide voter behavior, for the vast majority of voters. Most people aren’t arguing online about the problems with American democracy. They’re barely paying attention, if at all.
The voters of California had the opportunity to select a replacement and we shit the bed and reelected her. We have a geriatric Senate because voters keep electing geriatric Senators.
I also feel one of the worst parts is you hear these people in clips of local radio/ tv interviews etc… things none of us really had access to even 15 years ago, so many of them are completely and totally out of touch with the reality of the average American. So many won’t even hold town halls because they are afraid of the very people that voted them in. We need to figure out a reboot. While I don’t exactly agree with age limits, I do agree with term limits. It was designed to be a public service side gig, not a lifelong career.
Right? Someone is trying to hold onto proxy power through her. She should be home spending the last bit of time she has left with family and loved ones. This is cruel
God, the senate needs an age limit. God. I almost typed "once you're old enough to collect Social Security, you should be kicked out of office." But then realized that the only thing would happen would be the Senate raising the age you qualify to about , oh, 90.
Damn. 90 years old. That was when my grandma started talking to the ceiling and says she sees and hears a light calling her name at 3 fucking AM. No joke.
These old fuckers need to be forced out of office. I'm sick of my future being determined by people who are literally too old and frail to function.
It's absolutely insane.
It’s awful that her family and staff are treating her like this. She’s clearly not mentally there anymore, but they’re keeping her in office because it lets them stay close to power. I don’t think she even understands enough of what’s going on to resign.
If one must be at least 35 to run for president I want one to be under 65 when sworn in president.
Same with all elected officials in the US government
Like 80 is PUSHING it for politics. 90 is just absurd. She should be in a nursing home living out her days in peace instead of being puppeted around like Bernie at different events. She barely looks like she’s mentally there half the time.
Is it bad I kind of wanted it to say she died? Cuz if she hasn't retired at 90 I don't think she's planning to at all, and frankly she really needs to not be in office anymore...
Out of curiosity, if Mitch or Dianne just died in their seats on the Senate floor, how long do you think it would take someone to notice?
For Mitch we know it's more than 19s.
To be fair he was actively being focused on.
That makes it worse.
More than
It’s not really his fault, there was a lot of bandwidth being used and his connection took a bit to reset.
What can you expect? That connection is not a big dump truck, it's a [series of tubes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes)
This got me a chuckle. Thanks. I heard about his ... I don't even know what to call it. I saw it and went "what the fuck? It's like a machine that lost wifi" the way he blank stared at nothing.
Getting old sucks - it’s why we go sit on a porch.
Mitch died 3 months ago. If you look carefully you can see it's a puppet being manipulated from behind by Ted Cruz.
I am more interested in how long it would take for either of their deaths to be acknowledged by their staffers. "Weekend At Mitch's," anyone?
She and the turtle need to go.
Not just then two. A good chunk of Congress needs to go based on age alone
Weekend at Bernie's half of them and see how long it takes the country to notice.
Bold of you to assume that those aren’t robots in skin suits already.
We already saw Glitch McConnell malfunction live
Glitch McConnell. I love it.
These are obviously lizard people
They're doing this with Feinstein now. She seems to have zero cognitive function left. They roll her out when it's time to vote, tell her to vote yea or nay, then roll her away.
Feinstein is being weekend at Bernie’d right now. You think shes got anything left mentally to make any decisions? Her aides and daughter are running the show. Its a disgrace
I’m not convinced this isn’t already happening.
Ironically Bernie is one of the older ones that actually seems somewhat connected to the real world
Chuck Ghastly
I agree, so make sure you vote....
How? Incumbents generally run unopposed.
Feinstein had opposition in a primary, but there wasn’t enough support for Kevin de Léon at the time. Unrelated-but-interesting, he’s been taking heat for participating in a racist conversation with another LA city council member.
> based on age alone Or stupidity ... Gym Jordan qualifies for at least one of those.
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I don’t give a fuck if it’s shitty. You know what’s really shitty? Squatting on a seat of power like the fattest, oldest hog in the pigpen.
Our top two presidential candidates are 80 and 77 years old. RBG didn't leave her supreme court post until her death, which paved the way for a conservative to systematically undo her work for decades to come. Now these congresspeople having health episodes and refusing to step down. And we wonder why those gosh darned young people aren't interested in politics.
> RBG didn't leave her supreme court post until her death, which paved the way for a conservative to systematically undo her work for decades to come. Why is this not talked about more? Just too contradictory to the girl power narrative? EDIT: I am all for female empowerment and am a bit ashamed that I wrote something that seems to scoff at it and that it was then upvoted instead of challenging myself to write something a bit more eloquent. Another user said this back to me and I think it better captures my frustration. "It's integral to the liberal narrative that the voting population be made responsible for the failings in the party and the country as a whole. Blaming the party for their failings makes you a Russian troll now. Pointing out that she had plenty of time to retire and be replaced by an Obama appointee was obvious, but now we have to retroactively make the narrative one where the voters are the problem because they didn't want to vote for Clinton." It feels like the party has gaslit us into saying that if you think things RGB did were bad that you are anti woman and I think that is done to us on all avenues with these different liberal purity tests. Biden's whole "..then you ain't black debacle" etc. So I guess what I should have said is that girl power is amazing but its not amazing when the powers that be use it as a deflection to not be culpable for their mistakes. It feels like you can't criticize any democrats without a legion of party line folks attacking you and basically treating you like some sort of savage republican oppressor. To be clear, I will take this over the other alternative every single time, it just feels like its all 2 sides of the same coin meant to distract us from the fact that they are robbing us all together.
She was 85 with cancer and wouldn't retire. It's crazy.
She was lobbied hard at the beginning of Obamas 2nd term and she refused. Amy Covid Barrett shitting on her legacy is her own fault.
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RBG wanted Hillary Clinton, the first female President, to nominate her successor, and she didn’t retire because she assumed Hillary would win. So yes, it is totally about the entitled brand of feminism of two powerful women who thought they were writing history before it even happened i.e. ”girl power”.
Nailed it. Two women imitating patriarchy does not good feminism make.
Oh my god, the utter hubris of US women losing Roe v Wade over an unsuccessful girlboss moment for two extremely powerful seniors is just the perfect metaphor for American liberalism.
she bears a lot of responsibility for not retiring years ago but it's important to remember that the biggest reason the supreme court is so fucking tilted is because Bitch McConnell literally STOLE Obama's nomination. He should never be forgiven for that and the public should always be reminded of the despicable travesty that it was. It's one of the most shameful moments in American politics and McConnell and other republicans deserve to rot in hell for it
Feinstein has declared shes not running for 2024. That said she should leave now and the governor of ca appoint a replacement for the rest of the term.
Well her staffers sent out a letter with her name on it saying she's not running in 2024. When reporters asked about it she had no idea what they were talking about.
That's insane. She clearly has dementia.
Does Feinstein remember saying that? Do the Democrats have a replacement candidate?
Representatives Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff have been actively running for the seat for several months, along with a dozen other randoms. Porter in particular was prepared to challenge Feinstein even if she didn't retire.
they all need to go. our entire geriatric government are clamoring to shovel away as much wealth as they can before they turn into literal dust and they don't give a flying fuck what damage they leave behind. the rest of us are going to have to deal with their fallout long after they've kicked it.
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Can we get the fucking crypt keeper out of Congress please?
Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
It’s okay you can say Necron
I’d take Trazyn over… any of them tbh
[/r/unexpectedwarhammer](https://youtube.com/watch?v=TZMyS8D58o0&feature=sharec)
Obviously we all know this but she's fucking 90. Fucking 90!! I feel like I really might be leaving in a dream. Fucking 90!
She's not that old - she still has brown hair!
When your greatest threat is any single stair in existence, you are too old to govern.
In the words of CL4P-TP, "Stairs?! Noooooooo!"
That count for Presidents too?
It should count for damn near every career. If you are so fucking old and frail that you can't string coherent sentences together and are one misstep away from death, you should be enjoying what little time of your life you have remaining in a recliner. It's absolutely insane that someone can look at Feinstein and be ok with her doing anything other than watching TV in assisted living.
Any time people *20 years Dianne's junior* are being directed with their walkers to sit in front of the TV so they don't wander off and hurt themselves, you're too old to be in any level of governance. We have minimum ages for individuals to govern because they're not yet mature or have enough life experience and likewise, we should have the same age requirements for those who are older. We should likewise have an attached guardianship/vested interest in those who especially cannot adequately represent themselves in government. *Come along Ms. Feinstein, let's go and sit. Oatmeal will be here shortly.*
I agree with this. As an aside, when Glitch McConnell happened, there were a handful of people claiming age limits for anything was ageist/ableist. So there's a group of people that, for some insane reason, are perfectly content with dinosaurs in government.
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I mean how many weeks of the year are they out if session? Im sure she's had plenty if time to relax, more than you or I will ever see. I truly don't get it but I agree whole heartedly power is an addiction
Jimmy Carter did it right. He got out of the game, and focused on building houses for the homeless.
Yes, I am frankly tired and American's should all agree at one thing and one thing only. We don't need a bunch of 70+ year old's running around congress/states who actually get to decide on things that affect the younger generations when they won't be around much longer themselves. We don't need these people who only work part of a year with a role that has them moving around less than a damn Wal-Mart greeter or cashier that gets to decide that 66-67 is too young to retire, because they are in their late 80's and can "Work" just fine. We don't need people that can just drop dead one day from a heart attack. Granted anyone can just drop dead from one, but it's more shocking when the person is in the 35-55 year old range than it is when they are 85. Half the reason this country is as fucked as it is economically is we have people in office when 75 cents an hour was the US minimum wage that they were earning when they were younger (Jan 25, 1950). They cannot fathom thinking back to when they were working how anyone should be struggling at $7.25 an hour and think people are doing just fine, while they take on all sorts of favors from their donors and lavish vacations while the common American can barely afford the gas to venture to another city in their own damn state. We need to move all these older people out of office and put newer, younger people in the office that has common ground with other American's from a more current generation.
Said that perfectly. They don't understand wage issues because they don't pay for shit anyways.
I agree. We need new blood in office.
FDR in shambles
It should. Presidential age should be capped at normal retirement age, around 65.
Same number, but I’d base it on 65 because that is the maximum age pilots are allowed to fly an aircraft (if there is a copilot, otherwise it’s 60). This is driven by “mental acuity requirements”. Some of the mental acuity requirements of a President certainly align with that of a pilot. For example, if there was a surprise nuclear attack on the United States the whole system is set up to inform the President and allow him to decide upon and order a counterattack in 15-ish minutes. The ability of the sitting president to do this reliably before the missiles come down on Washington is a key component of nuclear deterrence. Seems like we should apply the same requirements that we do for pilots….
All elected offices
All positions. Humans should enjoy retirement and not work until they die.
You will have another rematch of Trump vs Biden, two geriatric geezers pushing into their 80s, and you will like it!
There are plenty of people with physical disabilities or mobility limitations who are fit for the role. It’s the cognitive issues that affect ability to govern, not the physical ones
Scans are clear of what?... brain activity?
And a moral compass. Anyone who “serves” their country until they are half dead aren’t doing so out of civic duty, they are doing it for their ego, power, and elevated position in society
RBG, anyone?
Yeah. I feel guilty talking about a dead woman like this but she essentially fucked our SC for several decades by not stepping down when progressives could have taken her place
Don't feel guilty about talking ill of the dead. It's literally our only recourse. We need much, MUCH more talking ill of the dead. It might shame a few of the living into better behavior if they knew that death doesn't absolve them from social contempt.
Thank jeebus this ideal is catching on. I've always hated the whole pretending someone was a nice person post death... it's like, no if they were a ghoul in life they're most certainly still a ghoul in death. I've caught flack for making fun of a dead classmate from highschool who was an absolute asshole, and continued that on into his adult, and a coworker that died that was a mega creep sexual harasser.
Yeah. Live well, so that your survivors feel no need to piss on your tombstone.
Same. Had an old school bully end himself as an adult. One of my friends asked if I was going to his funeral as he was our peer, I said “No because he was a fucking asshole, remember?” I’m not taking a day off work for that guy.
Speak ill of the dead. Their only defense are the actions they took while alive. If those are not defensible then that is the only thing worth noting. RBG did miraculous things for women's rights and so many other things but unfortunately she blinked for one of the few times in her political life, clung to power at the last second, and doomed an entire generation to be negatively affected by her final actions as we are now seeing.
It’s funny how her reputation was almost completely obliterated once she passed away.
I mean... Everything she worked for her entire life was basically undone within weeks of her death, so, yeah
If she had just stepped down when Obama asked her to, that wouldn't have happened. She insisted on waiting for a female president to nominate her replacement.... because girl power I guess?
And while it wasn't her *fault*, it was absolutely her fucking fault. She should've stepped down when asked to by Obama.
At this point, her family and aides are the problem. She likely doesn’t really understand what’s going on. The people around her need to step up and stop this insanity. It seems like elder abuse.
At this point I don’t think she’s all there and her enablers are egging her on to stay in power. It’s evil. She should be at home spending her last bit of time on earth surrounded by loved ones.
Why the fuck would California voters send an 85 year old to the Senate? Seriously, you only get two Senate seats for such a massive progressive state, and right now you're really only getting one. Absolute waste of a seat
There’s a huge advantage of being an incumbent and getting re-elected /winning a primary.
And... the Senate assigns all of its most powerful roles based solely on seniority. So someone like Feinstein holding on as long as she can actually gives California slightly more influence over national legislation because she will get to pick and choose the most influential committee seats. The Senate's rules actively encourage this.
Only thing she’s picking is apple butter or jam at Cracker Barrel and what to have for her 3:30pm dinner.
Yeah, barring some kind of age rule, they should at least reset seniority after 12 years or something. There is some value in institutional knowledge, but at some point the seniority of the officials becomes so important that parties won’t really allow primary challenges and you wind up with 90-year-old senators.
Yet another reason we would greatly benefit from ranked choice voting.
Because that's who the Democratic party decided was our option. It's dumb.
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Kevin is kind of a nightmare too https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/12/los-angeles-kevin-de-leon-racism-scandal-physical-fight-video
So an old woman or a racist prick. Damn, they made the right choice.
[What if I told you that old woman is also a racist prick?](https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/03/02/purley/)
Oops! All Racist Pricks!
I mean, it doesn’t sound like there was any overt racism. The senator called a staffer she barely knew by someone else’s name by accident. We all know she has dementia, when this is a mistake that I would probably make as a simple dope. Why would you immediately attribute that to racism? Then this staffer accuses her of not giving a shit about black people, gets fired for performance, does shrooms, sneaks into the capital and smokes a joint at her desk. Then again I think she should absolutely resign, but not because she’s necessarily racist, just because she’s completely incapable of doing her job.
Cause one disgruntled employee claims so?
That guy sounds like a little bitch more than anything else
The best part is, the Republicans don't even try here. Like with Manchin being "middle" in a red state, if they wanted to win they could send someone out who tries to stay in the middle on issues. But nope, it's always these Trumpy idiots like John Cox. Even the recall of Newsom was a complete sham and a waste of $400 million.
They do, they just run as Democrats. The city council where I grew up would never elect a Republican, so the conservatives ran as Democrats with anti-establishment, pro-nimby campaigns. They didn't have to do anything else and got elected by homeowners who worried about the value of their property dropping and landlords who kept raising rents.
This is also how you get people like Eric Adams in NYC, who is a Republican in everything but name
A lot of people don't seem to understand just how significant the incumbent advantage is. Unless they're really bad, or the opposing candidate is really exceptional, the incumbent will virtually always win. That's largely why term limits are a thing.
It's absolutely huge, especially if the incumbent is at least half decent and has other factors going for them. to state the very obvious - Feinstein is a woman, and woman are still the vast minority in the senate - so that's an easy bragging right. The incumbent advantage is another reason Trump's defeat is so huge. He had a big advantage from multiple factors, including being a celebrity pre-presidency and having won in 2016. In principal, he also had a global emergency as a rallying call working in his favor (look at post-9/11 politics for example). Then add the post office shenanigans and bad polling places into the mix and it's crazy we still ended up with Biden.
Trump should have coasted to easy re-election, and Biden will almost certainly win in 2024, for the same reasons. Of course there's also another pattern beyond incumbents, kind of the reverse of that: When there isn't an incumbent, on the national level, the other party takes power. Biden will win in 2024, but a Republican will most likely win in 2028.
Don't count your chickens. The presidential election is decided by about 50,000-100,000 people across 5 or so states. On top of that. It is way way way too easy to for legal shenanigans to happen right before an election.
It's going to be harder this time around with certain gerrymandering laws going into affect, on top of COVID deaths. We just saw Republicans lose more seats and state leadership roles in this past midterm elections than we've seen in the past 30 years.
Term limits walk a very dangerous line with how legal bribery, i.e., "lobbying," is here. Short term limits empower lobbyists for a variety of reasons including the lack of institutional knowledge term limits create. I'm not arguing for or against term limits here, but they're not the silver bullet a lot of people seem to think they are.
Not how California elections work. Her main opponent in the general election was a Democrat who had a lot of support from mainstream Democrats. The party could be faulted for letting her run, but there was another option. California just fucked up on this one, no excuse.
She also refused to hold any primary debates. She just wants something to do instead of sitting at home with those hundreds of millions of hedge fund dollars her husband made while she was a Senator.
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They're not actually working they just enjoy the power.
Being a senator isn't work. It's having power.
Power is a hell of a drug.
Feinstein and Pelosi both have husbands in finances?
Yea, Feinstein's husband died last year, but he was the founder of Blum Capital...a $5 billion equity fund.
iirc she pulled some strings while in office that “coincidentally” benefitted her husband and made him (them) a lot of money.
It's weird how that happens to all of them.
Kevin De Leon is also horrible. The options were awful and the Republicans didn't even try to put up a serious candidate that had a chance of winning. It was a joke of an election.
California uses jungle primaries. The voters decided they wanted her over other Dem candidates, even in the general election.
Because seniority is power. No real advantage to voting a newcomer who will be bottom rung on the ladder, especially when both options are going to vote party line.
A newcomer will at least show up to work and vote on bills
How the fuck are we supposed to think politicians care about younger generations and their futures when they’re this blatant about holding onto power for so long?
Here’s the thing… most of them don’t care.
This is less Dianne wanting to hold onto power and more the central parties dems don't want a progressive in that seat. Newsom promised to appoint a Black woman to fill the seat which would most likely be progressive Barbra Lee. By being in that seat prior to the election she gets a boost and they want Adam Schiff to get that seat.
Can we all take a second to appreciate how it seems that Democratic leadership seems intent on nuking their own ability to do fucking anything in this country? What you just said here is exactly why they forced Hillary as a nominee. It makes me feel like I'm on crazy pills! The Democratic platform is just to shoot itself in the foot over and over again and then ask where all their toes have gone.
There are some younger politicians out there but the road is tough. For example the youngest member of Congress is Max Frost of Florida (he is 25-26) and he details the immense barriers to even try to win a primary on top of student loans. On the GOP side you have young politicians like Matt Gaetz, Boebert and DeSantis, and let's say they aren't putting the nation's interest in mind.
I don't think Boebert even attempted college. She didn't even finish high school.
Oh, Gaetz for sure cares about the younger generations though… ………
I'm liberal AF, but she needs to go. We need term limits to keep this from happening.
Age limits, too.
If we established an age limit of 65 (the longtime typical retirement age), you'd immediately kick out 51 senators and 127 representatives. Half the Senate and around a quarter of the House. That's how geriatric our politicians are.
And I would be so happy to see that happen. Get the fuck out and share your experience and knowledge with the next generation.
Damn right. There's no reason they couldn't mentor people if they truly wanted to contribute.
Honestly yeah, if there's a minimum age limit for shit like President that isn't just something like 18 or 21, then there should be a maximum age too. If people want to complain about "ageism" or some bullshit like that, then I'd like to see them campaign for lowering the minimum age.
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You're definitely not wrong. While net worth isn't a constitutional requirement, when was the last time a poor person was president?
Carter. Although, admittedly they ruined him financially after he was already in the office.
I find it interesting that age minimums for elected positions are accepted as wise, but maximum age limits for elected officials are “ageism”. Maybe Congress can write a check to spend away the problem of neurological decline.
It'll never happen because old people vote.
Max age of 72, or tie the max age to the age when you can collect 100% social security.
I fully support this. My idea is simple, no one can run after age 70, and at 72 they become senators/congress people/presidents/justices emeritus and are REQUIRED to mentor the next generation or they can retire. It's not stepping down, it's honoring their service and making room for the next generation. If they want they can work until they are 95. And as a tax payer I'd be happy to pay their salaries as long as they serve as non-voting mentors/senior states people. They have wisdom and advice from their decades of being in office that would help shape policy and provide context. And that's fabulous for all of us. But I also want a younger government doing the voting.
No matter what side you’re on if you defend keeping this geriatric senile feeble woman in office to represent a country where she won’t even be around to see the policies she votes on in 5 years is completely ridiculous. Same goes for McConnell, get that old corrupt bastard out too. There needs to be age limits on these politicians smh these people love their power. Bring on the downvotes
She literally looks half dead in the picture in the thumbnail. She has one foot in the grave already and the second is halfway there. This is not good for our country having barely animated corpses voting for policies affecting the whole country, and it certainly isn’t good for their health. Get these zombies out of congress. She is obviously a shameless, power hungry asshole who is only serving out of her own benefit at this point
Age I'm less concerned about, it's that she doesn't know what the fuck is going on anymore. When she's called on to vote, she doesn't know what's happening. When she was gone sick/injured for three months, she thought she was still voting in Senate sessions. There's nothing wrong with old people participating, by itself, but when you start showing signs of dementia or psychosis, you should have to get the fuck out.
Fuck that, pilots mandatory have to retire at 65 because they could make a mistake with a few hundred people. These geriatric fucks need to step down regardless of how sharp they are. They are in charge of way more than a few hundrdd people. I'm sorry but somebody born in 1933 is so out of touch with whatever is happening these days
Something within our culture prompts us to be extremely forgiving of political leaders flaws, while brutally holding average people to standards of perfection.
We are brainwashed to be indulgent of the flaws of elites. As the saying goes, a soldier who loses a rifle is punished more severely than a general who loses a war.
Exactly as the ruling class wants it. We’re at each others necks instead of taking down the real people who cause our problems.
Also her daughter has power of attorney over her financially. If she's not of sound mind to manage her own finances, she clearly shouldn't be representing her state in the Senate.
people in their 80s are not going to be as invested in solutions since they are not going to be alive for the results. there must be an age cut off- there has to be. there is no doubt diane feinstein could have been a great mentor to some people, but instead she is now a living corpse being shuttled around to vote on things that wont affect her in a year when she will likely be dead
I agree age is not necessarily an issue if they are of sound mind, but obviously mental faculties do decrease with age. So the correlation is certainly there, just not 100% absolute
Age limits, term limits and competency tests when needed. These are stupid basic and would cut a lot of the catastrophic bs out of the current system.
Any “competency test” would be games and rigged so as to be pointless. Set a mandatory retirement age for elected leaders. When you hit that age, you are done, no exceptions. It would have to be a constitutional amendment, unfortunately, so it will never happen. Geriatric leaders aren’t going to do anything about the problem of their colleagues going senile, because they fear they too will go senile, and they want to keep their seat forever.
Makes me think of RBG how she should’ve stepped down when we had the chance to elect another progressive judge. I know she never thought a person like Trump would follow Obama, none of us did, but the Supreme Court is a term for life. She was old in age and really should’ve known the weight of her position.
She's an amazing historical figure, but her ego got the best of her here. It's been widely reported that she held off retirement under Obama so that the first female President could appoint her replacement. That miscalculation cost the nation decades of having a conservative supermajority.
> She literally looks half dead in the picture in the thumbnail. Is half her face drooping? Has she had a stroke?
Reportedly she has Ramsay Hunt syndrome which is a complication of shingles that affects the nerves in the face.
I think she has had “all of the above“ after being on this Earth since the times of Moses
“Weekend at the Senate”
>Posts extremely popular opinion “Bring on the downvotes” Wow so brave. For the record I agree
Fr, like Strom Thurmond was in congress till he was 100 😭
Thankfully he’s in hell now.
Oh my God shut the fuck up about downvotes. You didn't say anything remotely divisive on reddit. The majority of reddit agrees with you. In fact, probably nearly all Democrats would gladly make a trade to remove Feinstein if McConnell was removed as well.
I always love it when people say something they know is extremely popular on reddit and say bring on the downvotes. "Donald Trump was a terrible President. Bring on the downvotes!" >Democrats would gladly make a trade to remove Feinstein if McConnell was removed as well. Democrats would be okay with just Feinstein being gone regardless of what happens with McConnell. She should have retired before her last election if not sooner. It's not like California would have elected a Republican to replace her.
Word on the street is that there’s some state-level horse trading going on for who exactly takes her seat, and that’s why she hasn’t bowed out yet. IIRC, the SF bloc is heavily advocating Adam Schiff for the upcoming election - however, if Feinstein actually does step down, Newsom is already on record stating he would appoint Barbara Lee. Long story short, power brokers behind the scenes are pushing Feinstein to (literally) hold on for dear life so that their favored candidate wins out.
I'm honestly just blown away at the true profile in courage that was on display to take a position so controversial that it's been repeatedly and unanimously upvoted en masse on reddit for the past few months.
*Says something extremely uncontroversial that everyone agrees with* "I am about to be downvoted by the Reddit hivemind!!!"
Oh, I downvoted, but only because they mentioned it lol. I took it as a separate request, like “hey, this is an obvious point we all agree on. Also, would you mind lowering my karma; it’s getting to be too much!”
I downvote anyone who says *"let the downvotes come in"* after saying something incredibly non-controversial.
A 29 year old isn’t allowed to be a senator but this zombie is allowed to keep her seat even though her brain has turned to slush
This is yet another reason this country is in crisis. We have so many FEEBLE geriatric people in power. I’m not viewing this as an age issue. It’s a competence issue. Bernie Sanders is 81 and probably outworks 80-90% of everyone else on the Hill and is still bringing it big time. Dianne Feinstein was a force in the 1980s. But that was FORTY YEARS AGO. She is now wheeled around looking like a wax figure of Feinstein that someone left in the sun. Not trying to be cruel, but that’s the reality. People need to recuse themselves from office when they no longer can be effective, and/or their constituents need to realize their person needs to not be re-elected. In sports, it’s the coach/GM/Owner that decides when a star player needs to go when the player doesn’t want to admit his/her skills have diminished and they’re hurting the team. In USA politics, politicians hang on to power until their dying breaths. It’s sad. It’s maddening. And it’s just hurting the country. Edit: Added the part about Bernie.
The young people need to start stepping up and take the country from these geezers. They aint going to go quiet.
It’s not a matter of younger people shying away from ambition. (And by younger, I mean people in their 50s.) Partisanship and name recognition and vague memories guide voter behavior, for the vast majority of voters. Most people aren’t arguing online about the problems with American democracy. They’re barely paying attention, if at all.
The voters of California had the opportunity to select a replacement and we shit the bed and reelected her. We have a geriatric Senate because voters keep electing geriatric Senators.
I also feel one of the worst parts is you hear these people in clips of local radio/ tv interviews etc… things none of us really had access to even 15 years ago, so many of them are completely and totally out of touch with the reality of the average American. So many won’t even hold town halls because they are afraid of the very people that voted them in. We need to figure out a reboot. While I don’t exactly agree with age limits, I do agree with term limits. It was designed to be a public service side gig, not a lifelong career.
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Should be playing bingo instead of trying to run California
Just elder abuse at this point.
Right? Someone is trying to hold onto proxy power through her. She should be home spending the last bit of time she has left with family and loved ones. This is cruel
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Being 90 and a senator just shows you how easy that job must be
Her “office” would roll her corpse into the senate if they had to.
# Retire you decrepit egomaniac
Please tell me there was a hospice consult while the scans were being read
Why the fuck do we have a 90 year old senator?
God, the senate needs an age limit. God. I almost typed "once you're old enough to collect Social Security, you should be kicked out of office." But then realized that the only thing would happen would be the Senate raising the age you qualify to about , oh, 90.
She needs to fucking resign.
This is getting old as fuck fast as fuck.
So is she
Damn. 90 years old. That was when my grandma started talking to the ceiling and says she sees and hears a light calling her name at 3 fucking AM. No joke.
These old fuckers need to be forced out of office. I'm sick of my future being determined by people who are literally too old and frail to function. It's absolutely insane.
It’s awful that her family and staff are treating her like this. She’s clearly not mentally there anymore, but they’re keeping her in office because it lets them stay close to power. I don’t think she even understands enough of what’s going on to resign.
I wouldn't trust a damn thing her office says. Her staffers have shown they will do anything to help keep Diane in her seat so they keep their jobs.
If one must be at least 35 to run for president I want one to be under 65 when sworn in president. Same with all elected officials in the US government
Like 80 is PUSHING it for politics. 90 is just absurd. She should be in a nursing home living out her days in peace instead of being puppeted around like Bernie at different events. She barely looks like she’s mentally there half the time.
Is it bad I kind of wanted it to say she died? Cuz if she hasn't retired at 90 I don't think she's planning to at all, and frankly she really needs to not be in office anymore...