If you’re wondering too: gerontocracy is rule by the elderly. And that’s indeed a good description of the US right now.

Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were all born within a year of each other, with Biden being 4 years older. There is a specific generation of politicians Born within a decade period who managed to get elected young and have clung to power in both parties very successfully, see John Bohner, Nancy Pelosi, and Ted Kennedy for other examples.

Tyranny of the boomers, or apathy of gen X?

That's the question I always ask when viewing the gerontocracy.

In academia at least it's been very clear that the boomers were shameless about working long past the time they should retire, preventing gen Xers from rising to top positions.

Most broad statements including GenX really need to be qualified by noting its size (slightly greater than half) relative to either of the two pigs working their way through the python before and behind it. Three when you count GenZ.

Apathetic? Maybe. But even if we were all on the same page as a group (which we're not) I don't see how we have the numbers to force a systemic turnover on our own.

I am, of course, a member of GenX. Sometimes, as Planck said, progress has to happen one funeral at a time. None of this brings me any joy to observe.

Same in Germany

Not really. German government is young compared to US. No-one in their late 70s anywhere near powerful positions federally.

We traded one wrinkly liar the media held accountable for another wrinkly liar the media views as their grandpa.

Bothsides posting should have stopped around 2005. There's nothing impressive about telling people how above it all you are.

2003, surely.

I'm not an ideologue so I don't derive my identity from my politics, and therefore don't view political opinions as "impressing" anybody.

I don't like the GOP for many reasons (maga) and I think the current iteration of Democrats are horrifically inept with economics to a degree where they are a net harm for the people they strive to help. Belief in policies such as rent control is as anti-science as creationism.

Most Americans have fallen into the trap of lesser of two evils to a point where they don't hold their chosen side accountable at all and the result is predictable. Incredibly dysfunctional policy.

Locally the person that I know that was most heavily involved in politics, serving as organizer for a well known local non profit, campaign manager for a mayoral campaign, etc, finally reached the limits of their patience. Now they use their very considerable organization skills as a marketing exec at a startup.

Lessig proved tiresome in the later parts of his media campaign, but I don't think he was wrong about this basic asymetry: there's some political positions that are far more likely to receive substantial financial support, and this distorts nearly everything in our political system. The people who crusade against this are generally speaking, doing something irrational out of principle, meanwhile the people they're fighting just get more money and power.