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this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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This title almost reads like The Onion.
On a serious note, why? These people (on both sides) have enough money saved, health benefits etc to comfortably retire. Why don’t they? Are they so bought and paid for that their ‘investors’ won’t let them?
Power. And need to feel useful.
"Need to feel useful" feels like an altruistic decision. I believe most of these people are all but that.
What I meant is a retiree crisis. You have been working for 40/50 odd years, and all of a sudden you loose the one thing that gave structure to your life.
Right, like my father who only now has been forced to retire at 70 after a covid induced blood clot behind his eye took his vision. He only had the one good eye after an accident in his teens blinded the other, and he doesn’t complain about the near total blindness, he complains about the boredom from lack of stuff to do.
Maybe he should run for office? With a resume like that I bet he could at least score a seat in the house of representatives
Just look at all the life experience he has! The whole 70 years of i!
The need to feel useful isn’t really altruistic. Sure, it can be, but the vast majority of the time it’s a selfish urge to satisfy one’s own dopamine rush of accomplishment mixed with “I’m the only one who can do this” thoughts. Throw in a dash of mental illness and a sprinkling of “this is how we did it in the good ole days”, and it’s more harm than help.
Maybe we can increase the laughing stock factor so there's less of a pull. Maybe then they'll have some better candidates?
To be fair, after trump biden has a big act to follow and going for a nap hardly cuts the mustard...
I don't think it'll work with the batshit crazy politics the us has, just fuels the division
When these people are strong and healthy they need to foster the next generations so that the party has a good idea who their successor should be so that there party doesn't fall into shambles and infighting every time one of them dies or retires.
The problem is that they don't do that. It is in their interest that there are no viable alternatives to them because good alternatives to them threaten their power. Until they are suddenly 80 that is and nobody knows how to replace them so they have to sit on their thrones and hold on for as long as possible.
The US legislatures give a lot of power based on seniority. There's a lot of incentive for a party to keep members in office as long as possible.
People who made it that far up are usually very driven, their job is their whole identity.
It's probably hard to walk away from something they dedicated so much of their life to. More so if it involved sacrificing time for relationships, family, friends, etc.
Also their job is probably pretty good. I mean, you probably don’t really have bad days the way the rest of the working world does.
I’m self employed and I love what I do, I can’t imagine ever walking away from it. I slow down my pace as I get older, but I won’t stop completely.
Someone else recently explained it best: It's elderly abuse.
The entourage encircling these elderly congressional leaders are profiting greatly. As soon as these senators retire, these leeches lose nearly everything.
It's a Weekend At Bernie's movie plot, but with extra steps.
Seniority plays a major role in committee appointments. Sure, you could replace the senile 95 year old who doesn't know the cold war is over with a younger candidate, but that senile 95 year old has been in Congress for longer than the other guy has been alive, and he's on some important committees because of it that the younger candidate wouldn't be able to be in