Guest Post: Boomers need to let go.

By comparison with the Biblical patriarchs, we are led by young people.

-- Adam was 930

-- Seth was 912

-- Methuselah was 969

I am 76, and my college classmate Chuck Schumer will turn 76 in November.

Chuck Schumer

Erich Almasy looks at it in the other direction. In comparison with the population of the United States, we are led by very old people, who need to let go.

While at my college's 55th reunion of the class of 1971 I am presenting guest posts by classmates that they prepared the week ahead. I wanted to have them ready to publish during a busy week when I looked around and tried to notice what had changed. Back in the late-1960s the barber shops all closed. We didn't need haircuts. I will be curious to see if barber shops are back, and if so, what a haircut costs nowadays. [I just learned: $30, with an expected tip of $10.] Almasy rowed at college, went to Harvard Business School, then had a long career on the consultancy/business management track. He and his classmate wife, Cynthia Blanton, live in Mexico.

Erich Almasy ID photo for European hostels.

Guest Post by Erich Almasy

Changing of the Guard

Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance” – a quote attributed to the playwright David Mamet, but probably much older. During the 1984 debate with Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan pounced with his prepared zinger, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.” Proving at least that the Gipper could still remember his lines. At the time, Mondale was 56 and not exactly a spring chicken. Reagan was 71, and at the end of his two terms, came close to matching Biden and the current age frontrunner, Donald Trump. Reagan was not formally diagnosed with cognitive decline (nice word for dementia) until 1994, five years after leaving the White House. But as early as 1984 and by the end of his second term, Reagan was clearly showing the signs, like someone else we know. Back then, a Nancy Reagan/Ken Duberstein “bubble” wrapped the president, and his own ebullient personality and his polished delivery of completed policies let him avoid critical review of his health. Biden was unable to employ any of these subterfuges and was seen to be in decline. Neither president faced a real threat from the 25th Amendment, which empowers the Cabinet and Congress to force a president to resign.

At the start of the 119th Congress in January 2025, there were nearly 120 members of Congress aged 70 or older. More are Democrats than Republicans. The present number, which represents over a fifth of all members, includes:

· 86 members in the House of Representatives

· 33 members in the Senate.

· 24 members of Congress who are over the age of 80.

To my aging mind, we (and by that I mean Democrats) clearly need to reduce the average age of our leaders and quickly. The Vietnam Boomers must give way to the Iraq/Afghanistan Millennials. White men must give way to Hispanic, Black, and Asian men and women. It’s not because the oldsters have become irrelevant; it’s just not our future at stake. I still find value in the African proverb, "The youth walk faster, but the elderly know the road." Will it be possible to find a way for the party elders to step aside while the newcomers listen to sage advice and consult a road map? At 64, Obama is almost ready for Medicare, yet younger people still seem to value what he says. Not sure who else among senior Democrats has both a Yiddisher Kop (the “Jewish head” for street smarts and common sense) and acceptability. Can Maxwell Fish (28), James Talarico (36), Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (36), Graham Platner (40), and Bobby Pulido (55) find common ground with Peter and my classmate Chuck Schumer?

It won’t be easy, but the models for vigorous youth creating positive change are there, from Teddy Roosevelt at 42 and JFK at 43. They worked with senior advisers such as Elihu Root (56) and Henry Cabot Lodge (51) for Roosevelt, and W. Averell Harriman (69) and Maxwell Taylor (59) for Kennedy. Both Roosevelt’s Bully Pulpit and Kennedy’s Camelot were imperfect, but the former brought forth the Progressive Age, and the latter moved us beyond ourselves with the Peace Corps, the New Frontier, and the space program. Over 50 years passed between Roosevelt and Kennedy. Over 60 years have passed since JFK. We need a new, younger vision if we are to progress. It can be done, and it should be done.






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