America’s leadership class is aging — fast. Some of the most powerful figures in Washington are well into their 80s or beyond, clinging to office with visible signs of decline.
We’ve all seen the freeze-ups, the missed steps, the confusion in front of cameras. And yet the institutions around them—Congress, staffers, media—pretend nothing’s wrong. No one wants to say the quiet part out loud: some of our elected officials are no longer fit to serve.
Calls for term limits and cognitive testing grow louder with every new incident. Voters are frustrated, not just by the visible decay of leadership, but by the stubborn refusal of the system to address it.
When those in power become too frail to understand or respond to threats—whether from foreign adversaries or domestic scammers—the consequences go beyond political embarrassment. They become dangerous.