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“I see the Soviet system as what can stroika, unburdened by what has stroika-ed” —Gorby, probably
Seriously though, what do you mean by this? That Harris is supposed to be an infusion of new blood, a last-ditch effort to stave off gerontocratic stagnation?
Yes, basically. She's relatively new in the sense that she's much younger than either Biden, Trump or many senators and political bosses. Assuming that she wins the election one way or another, which does seem likely to me, she'll probably be promoted in the mainstream as a youthful (again, relatively speaking) reformer and the nation's new hope (but not an outsider by any means) after a long era of political gerontocracy (when the political class showed a clear unwillingness to entrust anyone under 65 or so with any significant responsibility on a national level), economic stagnation, vibecession and social anomie. And if Soviet history is anything to go by, she'll be a spectacular failure.
Obama was 47, Bush was 54, and Clinton was 46. There has been no "long era of political gerontocracy".
Obama was relatively young, but I think it was already observable back during his double term that the political class in general is unwilling to let people of his age or younger to enter electoral politics as candidates. I can only assume that such politicians are generally seen as too radical and too likely to screw up in elections, and maybe the entire Democratic Party become too conceited after Obama's win to recruit and train younger cadres who can appeal to the normies. Either way, I think that era didn't start in 2016 or even 2008.
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It’s been
848 years.In fairness, Obama is the only president we’ve ever had born after the 40s. Gerontocracy is probably too general but there is a dynamic of Clinton, W, Biden, and even Trump all belonging to the same era.
It wasn’t gerontocracy 30 years ago but now it can feel that way. It’s probably more accurate to say the same generation has kept a hold on power. Scanning through a table of presidential birth years it’s not obvious to me how uncommon it is. It’s definitely frustrating though.
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