Diane Feinstein Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
If he is not careful, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) could be Ruth Bader Ginsburg from the US Senate.
Ginzburg was a feminist icon who served many honorable years in the Supreme Court, but did not know when to leave. Although she survived cancer at the age of eight, she refused to step down while Democrat Barack Obama had a friendly Senate to appoint her successor. She died just before the 2020 election, allowing then-President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Senate to appoint her successor and create a 6-3 Conservative super-majority in the Supreme Court – which, not coincidentally, is likely to overturn Rowe against Wade. sometime soon. For Democrats, Ginzburg’s decision not to retire was a disaster that would be felt for decades to come.
Feinstein, 88, probably can’t create such chaos with her own reluctance to leave the Senate: she’s from California, a state firmly in the grip of Democrats. Her deputy – whether elected by the governor or by state voters – will almost certainly be a Democrat as well. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend her continued service as an elected official. The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that some of her colleagues (all of whom are anonymous, of course) believe she has become mentally unfit to serve, saying she is increasingly suffering from memory lapses that make it difficult for her to hold long conversations. .
“She was an intellectual and political force not so long ago and that’s why my meeting with her was so shocking,” one MP told the newspaper. “Because there was simply no sign of that.”
Feinstein published a statement in front of the newspaper defending her record, saying that “there is no doubt that I still serve and give for the people of California”, and several colleagues – including Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-California) – also they spoke in it. service. But concerns about Feinstein’s capacity for her work have been a mystery for years. They will not go anywhere.
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They also do not seem to be Feinstein’s colleagues of the same age. Senator Chuck Grassley (Iowa) is also 88 and running for re-election. Pelosi is 82. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) is 71, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Is 80. President Joe Biden – you may have heard – also fast approaching 80. There is a tradition of this kind of thing, especially in the Senate: Strom Thurmond (RS.C.) served in the hall until he was 100 years old.
This is not really a precedent – Thurmond’s inability to do work in his Senate years in recent years was also widely known – but this is what some of Feinstein’s allies are now quoting in her defense. They “shudder” at the criticism of the senator, writes the Chronicle, “when the history of Congress is filled with aging male politicians who have remained in office despite their declining status.”
Let’s call it “Ginzburg’s defense”.
When the late judiciary came under liberal pressure during Obama’s second term in office to retire, some of her allies speculated that sexism could be the real root cause of the scrutiny. “Tell the strong woman what to do too many times and she will tell you (politely, if you’re lucky) to fill it,” Emily Bazelon wrote in a 2013 Slate article entitled “Stop Telling Ruth Bader Ginsberg is retiring. “
How did this end up with the problems that interested Ginsberg? Bad, I would say.
Understandably, Ginsburg and Feinstein – who served in national leadership positions almost unthinkable for previous generations of women – may find less-than-decent motives among their critics: both have certainly been very sexist in their careers. But time is merciless and comes for all of us, regardless of gender. Sometimes it’s time to leave the stage.
As much as it’s worth it, it’s not just Diane Feinstein’s question. According to David Graham of The Atlantic, the average age in the Senate is 64 – the oldest collective membership in the House ever. There may be some experience and wisdom that benefits the country, but compromise is a breath of gerontocracy for the whole company, a sense that the country is run by and for a group of people who (as well as well-meaning) are not necessarily a big bet in the long run. his future. There is a danger that the government will be full of elected officials who have stayed too long.
Good leaders have an eye for this future, for a time when they will no longer be in control. Sometimes this means reading the policy and leaving while there is a chance to find a suitable successor, as Ginsberg failed to do. Sometimes this means recognizing that a new generation of leadership is needed or that someone else can bring a new infusion of energy into a leader’s work. This is an opportunity that Feinstein – and Grassley, and so many of their aging counterparts – need to consider right now. This is the thing for the future: it continues without us, sooner or later.
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