How 'Bout Now?

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is 91 years old. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is 84. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is 83. Jim Risch (R-ID), 82. Angus King (I-ME), 81. Dick Durbin (D-IL), 80. 

Donald Trump is 79 year old, unhealthy, in shit shape, and deteriorating fast in all ways. 

If Donald Trump gets dementia, how will we know? Donald Trump’s mental decline, which is more and more obvious, started from such a low level of mental processing power that it’s hard to track his decline. It’s from low to lower.
~ Lawrence O’Donnell

While Congress is getting slightly younger it's still older, on average, than the general adult population. The average age of our senators is 63.8 and the average age of our house reps is 57.7. Meanwhile the a average age of US adults is 38.9. Assuming we want the most intelligent, rational, emotionally mature, and logical of our peers representing us, overseeing the executive branch, creating laws and legislation, would it not make a shit-ton of sense for these people to be from a relatable age range as the majority of folks they represent?

The two oldest House Reps are Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who is 87 and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) at 86 years old. They are, by far, not the only octogenarians in the House.

Oldest Senators? Chuck Grassley and Bernie Sanders.

WHY aren’t these people retiring? Age CAN bring the wisdom gathered over time but it can also give ossification. Chuck Schumer’s only 74 BUT he seems frozen in a past time, in a way of doing things that hasn’t worked for a very long time. The man’s just not rising to meet the weird, fresh challenges. He brings a sternly worded letter to a lightsaber fight.

Are there no up and coming intelligent, motivated, talented, savvy, lawmaker types out there looking to represent the citizens of this former (and hopefully future) democracy? I find that hard to believe.

Jon Ossoff (D-Ga) is currently the youngest U.S. senator at the age of 38. Maxwell Alejandro Frost who represents Florida’s 10th congressional district is the youngest House Rep. It seems, with the zombie fascist republican party, following Stinky in lock step off a cliff, NOW would be a great time to bring out some new talent, eh?

Check out the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. They do nonpartisan analysis to understand and eliminate partisan gerrymandering at a state-by-state level. 

The Supreme Court acknowledged the validity of our math but declined to act. Looking ahead, the strongest route to reform is at a state-by-state level — a federalist approach.

Our interdisciplinary team aims to give activists and legislators the tools they need to detect offenses and craft bulletproof, bipartisan reform. Our analysis is published widely, and our work is used by legislators and reformers of all communities, without regard to partisan affiliation. (source) 

Head on over and have a look see. The map on the site is interactive. You can see, state by state, the scores for House and Senate and click to go in for deeper data dives.

Maybe there will never be an ideal time to bring new Democratic representation out in horrifically gerrymandered states like Florida, Ohio, and Texas but you can’t win if you don’t play.