A belated happy 81st birthday to Joe Biden – but why won’t he, and other aging politicians, actually retire?!
One theory is that it’s denial. For others, it’s identity-driven after long careers in politics.
https://theconversation.com/why-are-us-politicians-so-old-and-why-do-they-want-to-stay-in-office-217024
#uspolitics
@TheConversationUS Your political system maket it take ages to acquire influence. Especially so in the Senate. And senators look in the mirror and see presidents.
Also: money dominates, and fundraising also benefits from a long, deep buildup of a sponsor network. Politics has degraded inti marketing, nsme recognition rules.
Finally, your system allows incumbants to determine a lot of factors, making incumbancy a special superpower.
Geared towards a stagnant gerontocracy.
@js but you overlooked the requirement that voters actively go out and vote to empower those players.
We really can't talk about these outcomes without also talking about the voters who not only allow but actively elect and re-elect this status quo.
For example, incumbancy is only a special superpower if voters go out and pull the lever to say "Yes, I want this person to continue in office, here's more power"
@volkris @TheConversationUS i wouldn’t claim voters to be rational, informed and autonomous, given the dynamics at play. Moreover, what it takes to get your vote in varies a lot - also, under that dynami, that entails structural disenfranchisement and other shenanigans. And even if you get to vote, your vote may be irrelevant due to other tomfoolery - gerrymandering, ‘winner takes all’ equalizing at superlevels, the electoral college.
Tl;dr there’s no democracy there.
But even if voters aren't rational or informed they are still at the root of the process, the necessary piece of the machine that fuels all of the rest.
It's missing the key part of the picture to ignore the voters at the center of the whole thing.
If anything, the rest of these qualities around how voters operate represent openings by which to fix other parts of the system, but only if you recognize voters in the first place.
Say you think voters are all open to being bribed for their votes. Great! Get to bribing to push for a better tomorrow.
Or ignore voters and let others set the way as they see fit.
@TheConversationUS
