Congress currently operates via seniority, meaning members gain more power depending on how long they’ve served.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, abruptly stopped speaking in the middle of a press conference before he was escorted away by other senators and an aide. One day later, reports emerged that McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, has fallen several times this year and now uses a wheelchair to navigate crowded airports.
And on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, the oldest member of Congress, appeared confused in the middle of a Senate hearing vote when she attempted to give a speech, only to have to be reminded by an aide and Sen. Patty Murray that all she had to say was “aye.”
The back-to-back “senior moments” from McConnell and Feinstein, two of the most senior and powerful members of the Senate, illustrate just how much of a gerontocracy, a society governed by the old, the US has become.
