Sen. Mitch McConnell's Hospitalization Proves Again That Gerontocracy Sucks

McConnell is no outlier: The U.S. Senate is the oldest directly elected upper legislative chamber in the world.

"We have a sclerotic gerontocracy," posted then-48-year-old Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.) back in 2024. Gerontocracy means rule by the old. And we Americans certainly are dominated by a cadre of elderly politicians. The U.S. Senate has the oldest average age of members for any directly elected upper legislative chamber in the world, according to the latest data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The fact that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) has been hospitalized for nearly a month proves Khanna's point. The 84-year-old legislator suffered a serious health emergency and was hauled away in an ambulance from his Washington, D.C., residence on June 14. In his absence, already-feckless Congress is even more unproductive. Legislation proposed by the Senate's Republican leadership has remained stalled since McConnell's vote is necessary for its passage.

While the former Senate Majority Leader may not be dead yet, bear in mind that eight of the 16 members of Congress who died in office since 2020 were over age 75.  Most notoriously, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) tottered along for years before dying at age 90 in 2023. The average age of U.S. senators is now around 65, with 10 members aged 79 and older.

Gerontocracy is demonstrably harmful for economic growth. As "a direct consequence of the obsolescence of their personal human capital," aged elites fail to "seize the opportunity offered by new technologies and to implement the best choice for the economy as a whole," according to a 2017 study in the Journal of Applied Economics.

In a 2023 Pew Research Center poll, 79 percent of Americans favored setting maximum age limits for federal elected officials. In another Pew poll, only 3 percent of Americans favored having presidents in their 70s or older. Yet here we are.

See my May 2025 Reason article, "Can America Get Out of the Gerontocracy Trap?" where I examined the problems and possible solutions to our sclerotic gerontocracy.

Comments

[MasterThief]

Yeah, the right has been calling for getting him out of office for years. Same as we said when RBG and Biden's corpses held station.

[charliehall]

Grassley is 8 1/2 years older than McConnell.

[Rick James]

Yeah man, like, what's up with the old people... we need younger, vibrant politicians like Mamdani, AOC, Katie Wilson and Darializa Avila Chevalier.

Gillespie: whycome people less patriotic?

[minus the clever name]

We don't need young or old we need patriotic common sense godly and wise folk.

[minus the clever name]

Except from what I know from a family member who witnessed this guy in his early career, he should NEVER have been elected. Too old now, but too corrupt ALWAYS

[Nardz Leftist Kill Count:0]

There needs to be an age limit for congress, presidency, and the federal courts.

Call this an unfair generalization if you must, but old people are no good at everything.

[charliehall]

Herman Wouk published a book at age 100.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

My old man died at 55.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Age restrictions are not libertarian, therefore I can not support them. If you feel your elected official is too old, then vote against them at election time.

Personally, my take on the issue is that it's not necessarily about age, but just about how health conditions of elected officials have been routinely hidden for centuries. Grover Cleveland's secret cancer surgery on a yacht, Woodrow Wilson's stroke, Franklin Roosevelt's decades-long hiding of his paralysis so that no pictures would come out showing him disabled, John Kennedy's various health issues, just to name a few. Futterman of Pennsylvania managed to distort the extent of his stroke, Tom Kean hid away for 100 days because of "depression".

[Nardz Leftist Kill Count:0]

Are you against age minimums for holding office as well? Should an 18 year old be able to be elected President?

Politicians have shown they can hide their medical conditions from voters.

Kind of unrelated but I think the President and party leaders in congress should do a Prime Minister’s questions type thing regularly. It would go along way in preventing a medically unfit person from holding office.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

MORE TESTING NEEDED.