Gerontocracy watch

Written By:

Oliver Wiseman

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Gerontocracy watch

https://thespectator.com/newsletter/gerontocracy-watch-dc-diary-08-04-23/

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There has been no shortage of reminders of the gerontocracy in which we live lately. Last week brought two in the Senate.

One was Mitch McConnell’s worrying freeze-up at a press conference when he had to be helped away from reporters. The second came courtesy of Dianne Feinstein, who had to be prompted several times when asked to cast her vote on the Defense Appropriations Bill. “Say aye,” Senator Patty Murray of Washington told her ninety-year-old colleague from California. There are presumably other examples courtesy of the octogenarian commander-in-chief, but they are so frequent these days that…

There has been no shortage of reminders of the gerontocracy in which we live lately. Last week brought two in the Senate.

One was Mitch McConnell’s worrying freeze-up at a press conference when he had to be helped away from reporters. The second came courtesy of Dianne Feinstein, who had to be prompted several times when asked to cast her vote on the Defense Appropriations Bill. “Say aye,” Senator Patty Murray of Washington told her ninety-year-old colleague from California. There are presumably other examples courtesy of the octogenarian commander-in-chief, but they are so frequent these days that it can be hard to keep track.

Feinstein’s age-related shortcomings have made news again. In a story published yesterday, the New York Times reports on Feinstein’s family fight over her late husband’s estate. The Times’s Tim Arango and Shawn Hubler write:

In one legal dispute, the family is fighting over what’s described as Senator Feinstein’s desire to sell a beach house in an exclusive neighborhood in Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco. In another disagreement, the two factions are at odds over access to the proceeds of Mr. Blum’s life insurance, which Senator Feinstein says she needs to pay for her growing medical expenses.

For those close to Senator Feinstein, the struggle over Mr. Blum’s estate has exacerbated a recent and regrettable chapter that has marred the twilight of a long and successful public life and that has raised concerns about her ability to manage her own affairs.

But for those of us on gerontocracy watch, the real story is that Feinstein has handed power of attorney to her sixty-six-year-old daughter Katherine. It is the latest sorry sign of Feinstein’s obvious unfitness for office: a sitting US senator not trusted with her own affairs.

Feinstein is an outlier, of course. A more accurate representation of our gerontocracy problem would be a no-name seventy-something senator you’ve never heard of. But that the Feinstein situation is tolerated says something very unflattering about Washington.

Meanwhile, the appetite for an alternative to this gray-haired bunch crops up in all sorts of surprising places. One example, I think, is Vivek Ramaswamy’s mini-bump in the GOP primary. Ramaswamy is the first millennial Republican to run for president. A billionaire in his thirties who talks at what feels like 500 words per minute, he is also a conspicuously high-energy candidate.

(Ramaswamy committed an unfortunate blunder this week when he was asked on BlazeTV whether 9/11 was an inside job. His reply: “Do I believe our government has been completely forthright about 9/11? No.” Maybe doddering veterans aren’t so bad after all…)

Another, higher profile if less obvious expression of the anti-gerontocracy mood: Donald Trump’s staying power. Yes, he’s seventy-seven. But his obvious vigor and energy are at the heart of his enduring appeal. That’s not an endorsement: just an observation that a lower-energy version of the Donald would be toast. But then who knows what condition Trump will be in by the end of his second term were he to win next year. It’s a point some of his primary opponents have tried to make. But if the polls are close to right, Republican voters don’t seem too worried.

On our radar

LABOR NEWS The labor market slowed slightly in July, according to data published today. The US economy added 187,000 jobs last month.

LAKE IN LA-LA-LAND Failed, uber-MAGA Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake floated a bright new idea on a recent cable news hit: House Republicans should vote to decertify the 2020 election and reinstate Trump to the presidency.

Scenes from the Trump arraignment

It was our summer intern Michael Bachmann’s last day with The Spectator yesterday. For his final assignment, we sent him to cover the circus of kooks and attention seekers outside the Trump arraignment in downtown Washington, DC. He came back with this excellent dispatch:

As former president Donald Trump was ushered into court in DC Thursday afternoon, dozens of protesters and counter-protesters lined the blocks around the E. Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse. Some danced in celebration at “Trump’s indictment party,” while others marched down the road waving American flags. Obscenities were flung, insults traded, but the presence of any real agitators was small.

For what was billed as such a historic event, the afternoon was shockingly calm. Protesters clashed occasionally, but the Trump supporters and his critics mostly ignored one another. Both groups were, perhaps unsurprisingly, far outnumbered by the media and onlookers on the street.

At its best, the afternoon resembled a raucous block party — a man in an inflatable baby Trump suit waddled about crying, giant speakers blasted techno music and Trump 2024 flags flew high. Observers posed with the most colorful characters, while counter-protesters danced to a live band’s “Fuck Trump” song. At its worst, protesters shouted curses within inches of each other’s faces. One protester wearing a MAGA hat was told to “kill herself” if she wanted to make the country great again.

You can read the rest of the article here. Thank you, Michael, for this piece and all your excellent work over the summer.

–OW

Rude Boy Rudy

It’s been a rough week for Rudy Giuliani, or as Special Counsel Jack Smith now calls him, “Co-Conspirator 1.” America’s Mayor was sued for sexual harassment earlier this year by Noelle Dunphy, a former staffer at his firm. After denying everything and smearing Dunphy, she and her lawyer provided the following video recordings of Giuliani, transcripts of which were made public this week:

On Noelle Dunphy: “Come here, big tits. Come here, big tits. Your tits belong to me. Give them to me [indiscernible]. I want to claim my tits. I want to claim my tits. I want to claim my tits. These are my tits.”

On Matt Damon: “Matt Damon is a fag. Matt Damon is also 5’2”. Eyes are blue. Coochie-coochie-coochie-coo.”

On Jewish men: “Jewish men have small cocks because they can’t use them after they get married. Whereas the Italians use them all their lives so they get bigger.”

On the Jews generally: “[They] want to go through that freaking Passover all the time. [They should] get over the Passover because it was 3,000 years ago. OK, the Red Sea parted. Big deal. Not the first time that happened.”

Those last two seem to be the most damaging to Rudy’s reputation. Thankfully for him, a writer over at the Jewish Chronicle thinks he has the makings of “one of the funniest Jewish comedians of all time.

“Close your eyes,” writes Josh Kaplan. “Imagine Jackie Mason saying that, or Woody Allen, or even Larry David. It would not sound amiss from the mouth of any old New York Jewish comedian. I pride myself on being able to separate the art from the artist. And sadly, that’s art.”

Time to follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth Taylor and convert, Mr. Mayor. Mazel tov!

–Cockburn