“Just say aye.”
Free advice from Patty Murray of Washington to her Senate colleague, the senior senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.
A clip of this exchange quickly made the rounds on social media, along with more commentary on the geriatric nature of our regime. The day before the “aye” affair, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze during a press conference and had to be escorted away by fellow senators.
As my friend Logan Hall tweeted, “our nation declines/decays in tandem with our leaders.”
“Sadly, his face is the face of our entire Gerioligarchy,” tweeted new Blaze Editor-in-Chief Matthew Peterson (congratulations, by the way, Matt).
The criticism is well deserved. Between the 90-year-old Feinstein who puts the senior in senior Senator, our octogenarian Senate Minority leader, and a doddering president stumbling through an equally doddering presidency, there’s always fresh material for those commentators who analogize our over-the-hill elites to our over the hill empire. But even that narrative can get old on occasion.
The “aye” affair, some say, is evidence of “gerontocracy” because it was the wrong place and wrong time for Feinstein to get on the stump. But watch the full clip of Feinstein closely:
Feinstein seems surprisingly lucid while delivering her remarks on defense spending. She even seems to roll her eyes when she’s repeatedly told to “just say aye,” and laughs.
Surely, Feinstein’s continued presence in the Senate is alone enough proof of our “gerontocracy.” But perhaps there’s an even more direct connection than the metanarrative of our “gerontocracy.” But Feinstein’s comments illustrate more than just our increasingly elderly elite. The truth is that this is how most elected representatives, not just senile senators, go about the work of legislating—following the lead of staff members, agencies, and experts while hardly bothering to inform themselves.
Staffers and colleagues tell them “vote yes” or “vote no”—and they listen. Most, except for a few standouts, haven't even read the bill they’re voting on, if they know which one they’re voting on at all.
It’s not just a problem in the United States, either. It’s endemic throughout the western world. In the European Parliament, the most useless parliamentary body ever assembled (members can’t even propose legislation), MPs vote on so many rules and regulations that typically parties have a representative sitting in the front of the chamber signaling how party members should vote during voting sessions.
As the European Parliament functions as the body of yes men for the European Commission, American lawmakers have been reduced, oftentimes on their own accord, to yes men for the bureaucracy and the administrative state.
Some of our legislators are dying, but it appears the art of legislating died long ago.