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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by simonswords82 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @03:26PM (#37327601)
The average age of the 118th Congress is 58 years old. The average age of the Senate is 64 years.

Source: https://fiscalnote.com/blog/how-old-118th-congress

For most people with Alzheimer's — those who have the late-onset variety — symptoms first appear in their mid-60s or later.

Source: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-are-signs-alzheimers-dis....

So, yeah. Of course there are individuals in Congress on Alzheimers drugs.

Edit: Oh, and Mitch has frozen up for a second time: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-66663389.

There really should be a baseline health test that people in public office must pass.

Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by hammock on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @03:34PM (#37327736)
One quarter of Congress is over age 70, the highest portion ever. Chart: https://twitter.com/thisisinsider/status/1569785511388262400
Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by Vicinity9635 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:43PM (#37328812)
Feinstein's daughter has power of attorney over her, and she looks like she should be in hospice. It's wild how barely functioning some of them are.

edit: and staffers are telling her how to do her job: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/dianne-feinstein-aides-age...

Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by lepus on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:55PM (#37328992)
The idea of a health test keeps getting tossed out a lot as a solution, but it has the issue of all qualification tests for office -- the loss of perceived legitimacy of representatives if it was seen as a biased tool that's open to manipulation at worst, or functionally useless by being too narrow at best. I can't think of another trait besides maximum age to use that would be seen as fair, and good luck getting any constitutional amendment done in our political climate right now.
Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by munificent on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @05:41PM (#37329521)
> There really should be a baseline health test that people in public office must pass.

It's called an election.

The problem is that people either don't bother to show up and vote, or vote for candidates purely by party affiliation or campaign marketing dollars.

Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by the_snooze on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @06:39PM (#37330080)
>The problem is that people either don't bother to show up and vote, or vote for candidates purely by party affiliation or campaign marketing dollars.

The first part leads directly to the second. Primary elections are low-turnout affairs, but the extremes of each party are far likelier to participate in them than moderates. We get bad choices in general elections because we abdicate nomination power to nutsos by not voting in primaries.

Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by oliwarner on Thursday August 31, 2023 @11:00AM (#37338228)
> The problem is that...

People only get one choice, so view it as a binary choice on party lines.

Give people a transferrable vote and you'll see parties putting more than one candidate forward with different focuses. Voter's might actually stand a chance of getting what they want rather than voting against something they don't like.