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Dianne Feinstein has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#41

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #33
jliptzin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is how it’s supposed to work. She was 85 when she got elected the last time. If voters don’t want 90 year olds in office, maybe they shouldn’t vote 85 year olds in for a 6 year term. If she can’t be beat in a primary, then we need something like ranked choice voting so people can safely vote for an alternative third party without risking spoiling the election for a candidate they definitely don’t want.

I encourage you to run a campaign, just in a local county. You will find there are things one can't see from the outside that make this sentiment naively false.

List them here! You aren't actually saying anything.

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#42

Post by MisterBastahrd »

coldpie wrote: post #10
bhouston wrote: post #6

She was mentally unfit to serve for the last couple years. It was a travesty many countries seem to have no mental bar required to serve or even reasonable age limits (Feinstein was 90!) Any decision "she" was made in the last couple years was made by her aids and not her. This is not how democracy is supposed to work. Details: > Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffer…

Yes, and she's not the only one who is (edit: was) serving without being functional[1]. We need to start talking about upper age limits for public office. I believe it'd require a constitutional amendment, but I expect there's lots of support for it from all sides. I'd suggest 65 as a maximum age for being elected, which means one could serve to about age 71, for a six-year Senate term. [1] This article is from six y…

Why exactly should the elderly be exempt from proper representation? There are plenty of things to criticize Nancy Pelosi about, for example, but still she's more intelligent and coherent than 99% of Congress.

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#43

Post by cableshaft »

bhouston wrote: post #12
chongli wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between her and McConnell and the other gerontocrats in Washington, I’m really baffled. Why do these people grip the reins of power until their knuckles turn white? What is so important about political horse trading that they have to literally haul you out of office on a stretcher?

Even though I lean left more than right, we should probably also include Biden in that list. That guy is highly managed by his staff.

This is true of pretty much every high profile figure in Washington. They all have staff that manage a lot of the day to day operations.

Could be a bit more true of Biden, I don't know, but I doubt it's significantly more than other high profile figures or other presidents.

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#44

Post by iamwpj »

panax wrote: post #26
chongli wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between her and McConnell and the other gerontocrats in Washington, I’m really baffled. Why do these people grip the reins of power until their knuckles turn white? What is so important about political horse trading that they have to literally haul you out of office on a stretcher?

Why does everyone keep reelecting them? Vote for someone else. We also need a better voting system than first past the post.

It would require voting for the other party. The big issue is the parties being willing to back aging candidates. But of course, party leaders are just as old -- so they see no problem.

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#45

Post by bhouston »

alistairSH wrote: post #38
chongli wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between her and McConnell and the other gerontocrats in Washington, I’m really baffled. Why do these people grip the reins of power until their knuckles turn white? What is so important about political horse trading that they have to literally haul you out of office on a stretcher?

Why do they cling to power? I imagine the personality type that seeks political power in the first place tends to want to keep it. It's good to be the king. At the end of the day, the people continue to elect them. If voters were unhappy with Feinstein's performance (or that of her key aides), the solution was as simple as voting her out. Name recognition is powerful. Seniority leads to leadership of key committees i…

> If voters were unhappy with Feinstein's performance (or that of her key aides), the solution was as simple as voting her out.

Often these incompetent people are in "safe seat" regions. Either heavily democrat or republican. Voters won't switch parties just because representative is incompetent. There should be another options.

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#46

Post by alistairSH »

alexb_ wrote: post #3

Can someone give a QRD on all of the political ramifications that will come from this? I've heard things about judges being harder to appoint, what else is there?

Newsom can replace her fairly quickly, so it won't have major impact on critical Senate votes.

But, her death leaves her committee seats open. Filling those seats will take time and where she was in a leadership position, that needs resolved. Committees often have a 1-vote edge to the majority party, so those committees may be effectively deadlocked until replacements are nominated/approved (this is almost exclusively a Senate task - so can the Democratic leadership in the Senate get new members into committees in a timely manner).

Edit - typos

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#47

Post by ryanblakeley »

One of our serious cultural flaws is powerful individuals don't divest their power, and the system doesn't force them too. A prerequisite to becoming rich or attaining political power is a desire to have it. And those people never in their life reduce their scope.

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#48

Post by dfxm12 »

cableshaft wrote: post #37
garba_dlm wrote: post #30

are senators in USA a lifetime position?

No term limits, but they have to be re-elected every 6 years. She kept voting the way the majority of the people in her state wanted to, so she kept getting re-elected (presumably).

Don't discount the huge advantage incumbents have, both in campaign contributions [0] and name recognition.

0 - https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/incumbent-adv...

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#49

Post by mcphage »

wolfram74 wrote: post #34
Enginerrrd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather see a proportional system.

The problem is first past the post is in the running for the worst way to run a democracy, so basically any reform option would work, and it's hard to get consensus around change.

Are you saying that First Past the Post won at being First Past the Post? :-)

Re: Dianne Feinstein has died

#50

Post by rasz »

coldpie wrote: post #10
bhouston wrote: post #6

She was mentally unfit to serve for the last couple years. It was a travesty many countries seem to have no mental bar required to serve or even reasonable age limits (Feinstein was 90!) Any decision "she" was made in the last couple years was made by her aids and not her. This is not how democracy is supposed to work. Details: > Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffer…

Yes, and she's not the only one who is (edit: was) serving without being functional[1]. We need to start talking about upper age limits for public office. I believe it'd require a constitutional amendment, but I expect there's lots of support for it from all sides. I'd suggest 65 as a maximum age for being elected, which means one could serve to about age 71, for a six-year Senate term. [1] This article is from six y…

>not the only one who is (edit: was)

is: "McConnell’s frozen moment renews questions about America’s aged leaders" https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/31/politics/mitch-mcconnell-...

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