The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congress Every Year Since 1789

Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by aphextron on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @12:53PM (#17135681)

This is all I can think about these days watching the news. My generation (millenials) are forced to just sit by and watch as these senile dinosaurs rip our country to shreds and destroy our standing in the world for their own blind greed. And the pieces that we will be left to pick up after these cretins die out may not be enough to put back together.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by surgeryres on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:06PM (#17135810)

At what point though must we consider that we, the American people, elected these people into office? They are there because we put them there.

To play my own devil's advocate, my perception is that the barrier to entry into politics, i.e. money, has risen substantially which prevents younger candidates from even running for office.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by emodendroket on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:59PM (#17136392)

Who are "we"? I didn't vote for them.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by pwinnski on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @02:38PM (#17136790)

That's how democracy works. If you can convince enough people in your area to vote for your preferred candidate, you're happy. If not, then not.

Every one of these representatives is there because they got the majority of votes.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by emodendroket on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @02:59PM (#17137052)

Taking this idea to its most extreme expression, we would end up saying that a minority persecuted by a democraticrally-elected government is to blame for its own persecution, as it failed to convince others to vote against ethnic cleansing.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by maxxxxx on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:48PM (#17136275)

"My generation (millenials) are forced to just sit by and watch as these senile dinosaurs rip our country to shreds"

Don't stand by but make yourself heard. It happened in the 60s and can happen now.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by dsfyu404ed on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @02:11PM (#17136510)

The social unrest of the late 60s made the country far worse off. All sorts of social progress was happening at a moderate and steady pace over the 1950s and 1960s. Then the late 1960s came along and the backlash basically halted or severely stunted all progress on basically every domestic social issue.

Basically the hippies got us out of 'Vietnam slightly quicker but they carelessly threw the poor and the non-white under the bus to do it.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by maxxxxx on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @03:37PM (#17137412)

The hippies were not the only thing that happened in the 60s. Think of the civil rights movement for example. That certainly had a big impact but required people to go marching in the streets and protest in other ways.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by Aloha on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:40PM (#17136170)

I'm in that gap between millennial and genX - but, I'm not concerned, we'll get our chance, and we'll fix it up right.

Nothing is permanent.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by emodendroket on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:59PM (#17136397)

Those rising sea levels might as well be.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by Aloha on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @10:14PM (#17140476)

they were not the last time.

Again, if you look at things with a long enough timespan, nothing is permanent.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by emodendroket on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @10:58PM (#17140715)

As the often-cited Keynes quote goes, in the long run we're all dead.

Besides that, many changes are permanent. The passenger pigeon will literally never darken the skies again. It's gone, permanently.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by forapurpose on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @05:42PM (#17138605)

Kurt Cobain once predicted,

We are patiently waiting for the dinosaurs to die out. They will die, and then we will move into their homes.

Or was he warning us?

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by ISL on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:07PM (#17135817)

There are plenty of ways to take action (watchful waiting is a choice among many).

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by emodendroket on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @02:00PM (#17136400)

Don't be shy; let us know what we're supposed to do.

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Re:The Average Age and Years Served of Members of US Congres... by wilsonnb on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @03:47PM (#17137530)

Run for local government, or state government. Some millennials are old enough to run for a seat in the House. Depending on when you define the first birth year for millennials, some might be old enough to run for the Senate.

Work for a lobbying group. Work for a non-profit. Volunteer for an organization that encourages people to vote. Protest. Donate.

There are plenty of things that people can do regardless of their age.

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