Is America Stuck in a Gerontocracy?

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

New York Times, Journalism, News, Society & Culture, Ross Douthat

4.0 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

American politics has an age problem. At least, that’s what voters think. According to a new New York Times/Siena College poll, 33 percent of Democrats who want a different candidate for president in 2024 pointed to Joe Biden’s age as a motivating factor. But a nearly equal percentage say they aren’t keen to have Biden for a second term because of his job performance — or lack thereof. Could the answer to appease voters be that Democrats just need some young blood? Or is there a deeper rift between voters — especially young ones — and political leadership? Jane Coaston brings together Michelle Cottle, a Times editorial board member, and David Brooks, an Opinion columnist, to parse out what we are really talking about when we talk about age in politics. “What is age actually a proxy for?” Cottle asks. “Is it your concerns about fading ability, or is it concerns about a lack of fighting spirit?” But for Brooks, the question is centered more on stagnancy: “Why has the gerontocracy been able to stay in power? What is it about these people that they’ve been able to persevere and just stick around?”

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the argument.
0:03.2	I'm Jane Kostin.
0:07.4	Everyone is old, including you.
0:11.6	Sorry.
0:13.6	Maybe that's a little excessive.
0:15.7	Not everyone is old.
0:17.6	But President Biden is, so is Bernie Sanders, and Nancy Pelosi, and Elizabeth Warren.
0:23.5	For Democrats attempting to hold on to Congress, and in two years the White House, that's
0:28.0	a problem.
0:29.0	There's some evidence that younger voters might want to vote for a politician who, I don't
0:33.5	know, maybe didn't have first-hand memory of the Korean War.
0:38.1	In a new NYT survey, 33% of Democrats who want a different candidate for President in
0:43.1	2024, as a lot of younger voters do, wanted to Biden's age as a motivating factor.
0:49.8	But let's be real.
0:51.5	There's no age limit on being a bad politician.
0:54.4	And I think that younger voters might be reacting less to the data on their birth certificate
0:58.3	and more to how they are or aren't meeting the political moment.
1:02.4	So today, age, gerontocracy, and what we're actually talking about when we say, everyone
1:08.7	in politics is too damn old.
1:11.4	My guess today are times editorial board member Michelle Cattle.
1:14.9	Of course there's a gerontocracy issue.
1:17.5	There's a gerontocracy issue throughout our society.
	...

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