It’s the year 2023, and our country is run by nursing home escapees. Nearly every major political figure in modern American politics is over 70, and they’re not sharp on either side of the political aisle. It’s official: we have an old people problem in America.

Our President stumbles off stage before fielding any post-speech questions and his opponent is just as old and muddled; the Senate minority leader is freezing up during news conferences and overwhelmingly, Americans are letting themselves get used to this new reality in politics.

Let’s be honest, we look like a joke. And no one in America is laughing anymore.

Today, the average age for European heads of government is 53. In America, the average age of our senators is 64.3, and our primary presidential candidates are significantly older than both of these averages.

So much older, in fact, that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are older than ex-president Bill Clinton currently is. Bill Clinton, who was president over 20 years ago, is still younger than both of America’s major presidential candidates projected to be on the 2024 ballot.

These politicians are more than ridiculously old; however, often times they don’t even have our interests at heart.

I mean, look at the recent political topics up to bat. 62% of Americans consider climate change a major problem, but many of our politicians are doing near nothing to solve the issue. The rapidly rising global temperature is something that could— and likely will— end lives, but making an effort to lower emissions would mean upsetting rich corporations for something that will not come into full effect for another twenty or so years. This isn’t a concern for half of Capitol Hill, though, when they won’t even be alive to deal with the fallout. Why upset the people lining their pockets for a problem that will never affect them?

And, of course, there is more at play in the climate change debate than the age of our politicians (there are always a million facets to every political issue, no doubt), but at the end of the day, the elderly do not have a sense of urgency. They are walking, not running, to a climate solution. 

So not only are America’s geriatric politicians making our nation a global laughing stock, they are also— literally— killing us. Climate change is not the only major issue our politicians have not revved up their electric mobility scooters for, though, and plenty of voters are sick of it.

Not only are our politicians slow, they’re so out of touch that it’s embarrassing. At the recent “Tik Tok Trials,” where Tik Tok’s CEO fielded questions ranging from cybersecurity to “Does Tik Tok have access to the home WI-FI?” America’s Congress showed the world, once again, just how old they are. Our politicians might be at the head of one of the most powerful countries in the world, but they don’t understand how modern technology works to the most basic degree.

Still, despite the quick action Congress took to address their concerns with Tik Tok, when it comes to more social issues, much of the newest generation of voters— Generation Z— see Congress’ movements as “too slow.” Many citizens in Generation Z are in full disagreement with the slowed-down-hands-off approach American politicians take to problems in our country. 70% of Generation Z believe that these politicians need to do more to solve problems, rather than leaving individuals or businesses to find these solutions for themselves.

The youngest generation of voters are not the only ones fed up with these elderly politicians either. Ironically, in the midst of America’s highly polarized political climate, geriatric politicians have made citizens of all political parties agree on something: we need to get rid of these old people. 73% of Americans believe there should be an age maximum in politics, and this percentage crosses party lines. 

With so many citizens in favor of these age maximum laws, how do these ancient politicians keep getting re-elected? Unfortunately, the problem may lie in ourselves. A large percentage of Americans aren’t voting, and Baby Boomers continue to outvote younger generations. These Baby Boomers are voting in people in their age range, and without the effort of every generation of voting age, these Boomers are going to continue to elect dinosaurs.

As citizens, we need to start asking ourselves how we allowed our country to get to this point— and more importantly, we need to get out and vote. How are we letting these geriatrics continue to sweep elections? I mean, do we really want the next American president to enter the inaugural stage on a walker?