Age, Term Limits, Anyone?

In viewing how the framework of the U.S. government collapses when a president makes the decision to ram into it, steps must be made to enact laws instead of slovenly relying on norms. It’s been obvious with the current president and his officers that obstacles are few. When confronting or stymied by one he runs around the legal system stretching it until he arrives in the embrace of another cozy ally. The goal here is to reimagine stronger links and protections at every level of government. No matter the tenant in the White House.

Reimagining Age + Term Limits

Any octogenarians in the back looking to legislate themselves out of cushy careers where they only have to work for about a year, every few years? Why rot in a retirement community when you can glide the halls of Congress and have a lost cause senator on one side of you, a vaccine denier on the other, and a colleague that blocks all legislation created to investigate child sex traffickers? Add the idiot directly opposite your door that has the controversial idea to author a bill making voting easier for Americans. That’s a diversity of thought in the U.S. that doesn’t benefit anyone.

That’s more mental dexterity than any evening of bingo, trivia, and prestige television that you’re only watching because your kids talk over you on their visits so you ache to carve your lane into the dialogue. All these activities force you to yawn. You tried their period drama. It was boring and pointless, but it’s clear everyone got a check for their time. Out cold you were ten minutes into the first act. You too can get paid for barely caring about what you’re supposed to do.

Who says the U.S. has a crisis when it comes to how the country allows elders to arrive at their sunset years? They’re thriving as senators, representatives, and judges in every courtroom across the nation. Most of them allowing a moron to further erode the declining reputation the outside world already held of the U.S. before the red hats were elected into power. Willingly. By American voters. Not by war.

What are your 87-year-olds doing with their afternoons? Fuck your hot yoga and protein-enhanced smoothies that’s made its way into everything. Leave my peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich alone. Stop infusing foods with synthetic protein variants.

Our seniors are banking REM sleep at a time when the U.S. has the most sensible, fair, and considerate occupant to ever walk the grounds at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When he isn’t remodeling it without the approval of Congress.

Elderly people can often be labeled as self-involved, adoringly belligerent, unencumbered by the feelings and thoughts of others and what lifestyles opposite their own entail. Some countries send mature citizens to swimming pools for exercise. The U.S. allows theirs to collect six-figures – alongside the illegal trading most of them amass fortunes doing – bypassing the realities that future generations of Americans face in trying to make it to their golden years with dignity and a place to live.

Can I reason with you on a maximum age across government offices?

Age Limits in Congress

A bill of this magnitude appears daunting but it’s long overdue for remedies to fix what the U.S. Constitution ignored as it got white-guy wasted in Philadelphia. The Founders got some of the foundation for the new nation correct but most of them owned slaves while preaching freedom – and happily trying to eradicate Native Tribes from land settled for centuries — so there’s that.

If there’s to be a world where the Constitution is a document to be respected once it’s pulled from President Donald Trump’s crack and cleaned, this is a start. Amendments are tough at any time. Especially so in today’s political climate where MAGA is one party and Democrats comprise the second.

The Founders should’ve never signed any of the founding documents without including age restrictions. (Again, African slaves should’ve been converted into Americans immediately, freed, and had equal rights to whites to begin the “experiment” the right way. That was too radical then. Humorously, it still is in 2026.) Now I can place myself in the shoes of aging white men and come to the terrifying truth that including such a ceiling would limit my influence in the world. I can’t have that! This all belongs to me! Any liberties that I afford others infringes on my own.

Removing myself from a white hive mind, it’s lazy to leave the operating procedures how they’ve been. Let’s breathe new life and common sense into what’s left of the government moving forward. Trump is the antithesis of American democracy and can’t be your choice if you honestly believe in what America claims itself to be. Claims is purposeful here.

The Right Age Limit?

We’re starting in both houses of Congress. The oldest any representative or senator can be on the day they are sworn in is 64. There are legions of politicians doing an historic amount of nothing to be proud of in the current class of Congress so having what are viewed to be thought-leaders decaying in their chairs needs to end. Washington’s octogenarians find themselves with one foot in a classic time of America that is detached from the concerns unescapable in April of 2026. Older generations that closed on homes for $60K, got in early on all the iconic brands when they were starting out – and right as they went public can’t honestly relate to U.S. taxpayers anywhere from their early twenties-to-late fifties. How could they?

They’ve sat in Washington engorging themselves with every perk of their titles. Inside information to influence stock purchases? Check. Developing comfy relationships with every lobby on Capitol Hill? Yes. These examples contain ripples over decades of policy that trickles down to influence American lives each day.

Today, home ownership is a fairytale. No longer a guarantee if someone wants to pull themselves up or some form of that garbage line that never truly existed once the circumstances face any investigation. Securing a mortgage was a byproduct of doggedness and a reliable wage at one point. No longer is that true. For generations of Americans, home ownership isn’t in their future – and it isn’t because they don’t have the drive to snatch it.

The 80+ class can’t converse on the finer details of a living wage with the new college entrant or graduate. The voter that will be directly impacted from the legislation they sign. They fail to grasp how current companies keep portions of their workforce locked at the part-time classification so they skirt having to offer medical and dental coverage – which are somehow unlinked in the U.S. system.

Those predatory practices shift the full-time positions into a secret chamber. Making them arduous to access which feeds into the continuous and targeted churn among part-timers. It’s a business practice that’s spread across industry. Those jobs keep pay low because the numbers prove employees that take them turn in their two-week notice as soon as a role with higher pay calls. Those part-time positions are strategic to benefit the company over being fair to the concerns of the employee.

The age limit is 70. For the Senate and the House of Representatives.

We’re not done because you can’t have one without…

Term Limits Across All Government, At Each Level

Seventy is the ceiling across the entire government in all key positions, i.e., elected officials with voting power. Those older than 70 can still hold advisory staff roles for senators, congress people, and the like. Their experience is valuable and that expertise could still pay dividends. There’s a role for mature politicians to bridge generational divides by introducing younger politicians with the groups they’ve fostered influential connections with.

Term limits would also be key in this reform. There are no term limits for most of the federal government. That’s archaic. Especially when a government governs against the public that elected them. Senators can serve three six-year terms provided that last term ends before they munch on their 70^th birthday cake. If not, they can serve up until that benchmark and a special election will be held for the remaining time of that term. The absolute limit on years served is 18. Consecutive terms or not is of no consequence in the equation. Representatives would have the same limit of 18 years applied. Consecutive terms or otherwise.

In writing it out, I’m fidgety about anyone holding office on the doorstep of 20 years. It feels to be an imbalance of influence. Maybe the term limit could be 16 years with the final senate term – if two have been already completed – sliced to a four-year commitment. This is growing on me.

It’s no longer growing. No. The term limit is ten years for Congress. Senate terms are now cut to five-year appointments instead of six, and a senator can only serve for 10 years (or two terms). Same term limits for representatives; maxing out at five two-year reigns. Don’t remodel any offices.

For the career types who despise their children, a senator can go for congress and vice versa after completing their run in their respective wing. Strategically. That 10 year ceiling applies to your name.

Hypothetical Senator Apple can serve for one, five-year term. Then, if Apple kills someone accidentally, embezzles campaign finance funds, is recorded on a call asking a state official to commit voter fraud, incites an insurrection, is convicted of a felony at any time while campaigning for the presidency, or sexually assaults someone — because no one reaches high office carrying these — and decides to ply their trade in the House, Apple has five years of eligibility remaining to win two terms as a representative. If they don’t hit the age limit they can attempt a third reign but they’d warm the seat for one year — and a special election would determine the representative for the remaining time.

The Supreme Court

Jeez, the U.S. Constitution is lazy. Age limit of 70. Term limited by one 10-year stint. The oldest any justice-to-be can be on the day they are sworn in is 60. After that they can take their gavels to lower courts across the U.S. Or tour the country in a motorhome more expensive than those without wheels that a private billionaire can purchase without any expectations afterward.

President

Since everlasting cleaning must be done on the Constitution for the MAGA Party who can’t seem to read or believe the words they digest that don’t align with their perspective, iron it out. Make it large. The president serves two, four-year terms. Whether they’re successive or not, it’s a total of eight years in the office. Then, call the fucking movers. Same for the vice-president; two-terms.

Now, if a president were to hit the maximum and attempt to outwit Sherlock Holmes by featuring on the next ticket as the vice president, well, having once held the office of president disqualifies said party from serving as vice president. Period. Ever. Not set to happen. A former vice president can run for the top office.

The presidential age limit is 72. The oldest the president-elect can be on Inauguration Day is 68. That means there is no second term. There isn’t any elasticity to the age limit. If a second term you seek, run earlier. These limits apply to the vice president identically.

The companion piece to this:

Democrats Moving Forward

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Feb 23

Democrats in the U.S. must realize as a party that there’s one battle that might be lost to them in the present and possibly for long into the future: A large portion of this country will never vote for them.