And why the solution isn’t age limits.
[...]The most straightforward explanation for why America’s elected representatives have been getting older is simply that the American population as a whole has, too. The median age in the United States is now 39, according to the US Census Bureau, up from 30 in 1980, and baby boomers are staying in the workforce much longer than earlier generations.[...]Polls show that most Americans support imposing age limits on federal lawmakers, and there have been some efforts in recent years to try to implement them. But while age limits would certainly remove the possibility of having too many older people in office, they also have many problems: For starters, they’re discriminatory, barring people from participating in certain aspects of democracy simply because of their characteristics. People also don’t age uniformly, and while one person might start showing signs of cognitive decline in their 70s, another person might be perfectly capable of serving in office well into their 80s. Deciding an age cutoff based on scientific averages of physical and mental health can also be relatively arbitrary, especially with medical treatment getting better and life expectancies getting longer over time.