Across the country, many younger voters, and some not so young, have been arguing that members of Congress of a certain age should bow out and pass their seats to someone from a newer generation. This popular opinion is shaped, in large part, by the diminished capacity of Joe Biden as president and his slow withdrawal from the reelection campaign, resulting in a second term for Donald Trump.

This argument has been aimed at senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus and, here in Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey, who will turn 80 before he faces a reelection test in September. Congress has no term limits or upper age limits, though the Constitution does establish a minimum age for both House and Senate members.

Everyone ages differently, and octogenarians are not all alike in their vigor of mind and body. To see them as all being like Biden, who turned 82 before he left office, reflects an indiscriminate mindset. There’s a word for it — ageism.

What’s more, nobody gifted their high offices to Biden or the members of Congress under scrutiny. They all ran and won, again and again, in the case of senior members of Congress. Markey, for example, defeated 11 other candidates in a Democratic primary to capture a House seat in 1976. He moved to the Senate in 2012.

To insist that anyone, after expending all that effort and money to get elected, will hand their seat to a designated, younger successor is naïve. Elected officials have that choice, and some have pulled it off, but they are exceptions to the general rule of competitive electoral politics. Not to mention that voters, not an incumbent, decide who gets to serve in office.

One of the Black Caucus members targeted for criticism is Jim Clyburn from South Carolina. He will be 86 in July, ahead of the November election. In the past, Clyburn has been the third-ranking member of the House and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

A journalist who covered Clyburn in Congress after he first arrived in 1993 watched him being interviewed earlier this year and concluded he sounded as sharp as he did back then. Clyburn has said he wants to be present in the next term to advise Hakeem Jeffries, who stands to become the first Black speaker if Democrats regain control of the House. Jeffries has indicated he wants Clyburn’s sage counsel, as well he should.

Another Black Caucus member under criticism for running again is Maxine Waters from California, who turns 88 this year. If reelected, she will be in line to chair the House Financial Services Committee.

Generational change will occur in Congress. Actuarial tables make that a certainty. Such change has happened before. After a round of redistricting in the early 1990s, the membership of the Congressional Black Caucus expanded and shifted from being dominated by veterans of the Civil Rights Movement to Baby Boomers who had served in state legislatures and other government offices.

Seniority counts in Congress. Never was heard supporters of the racist politics of senators Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond from the Carolinas urging them to step aside for younger candidates.

If members of newer generations want the seats occupied by Markey, Clyburn, Waters and others, run against them and take it. That’s what Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a GenXer, did here in Massachusetts in 2018. That’s what Adriano Espaillat, a Boomer, did in Harlem, defeating senior Black Caucus member Charles Rangel in 2016.

That’s the way to force the generational change that the critics want.

That’s the way of competitive politics.

Ronald Mitchell
Editor and Publisher, Bay State Banner