Harry Reid is 74.
Nancy Pelosi is 74.
Steny Hoyer is 72.
Bernie Sanders is 72.
Joe Biden is 71.
John Kerry is 70.
Dick Durbin is 69.
Hillary Clinton is 66.
Elizabeth Warren is 64.
Except for President Obama(age 52), our Party's leadership and its most prominent members are all pretty old. Not just in age, most of them have been in politics since I was still in elementary school.
The party does almost nothing to promote our younger members. After the 2014 elections, Reid will remain Senate Majority Leader. If we retake the House, are we planning on having someone other than Pelosi as Speaker?? And then begins the campaign to elect the second oldest President in US history.
I'm sorry but this all seems strange to me. The Democratic Party is the party of youth. In any other profession we would be wondering when people this age are going to retire but in politics, age is not seen as a detriment to the most important jobs in the country. While we might recognize that seniors have some wisdom and ask them for advice, under normal circumstances we would give them so much power to run things. Plus, it is hard to get excited about voting for people as old as your grandparents.
Terms limits are sometimes discussed but I have another idea, mandatory retirement. We already have a minimum age for most of these offices so why not a maximum? I propose a mandatory retirement age of 65 for all federal offices. Elected officials who reach that age would be allowed to finish their term(grandfathered in, pun somewhat intented), judges and non-elected officials would have until their birthdays to retire.