Fort Worth-based Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) continuing to serve on Congressional payroll while secretly living in a dementia care facility is a massive disgrace, wrote right-leaning Never Trump commentator Charlie Sykes for The Atlantic — and it speaks to a broader problem of American politics becoming increasingly dominated by people of advanced age.
This follows a presidential cycle that, for the first half, was dominated by speculation about President Joe Biden's cognitive and physical fitness to run for a second term and the transparency with which his administration presented his health to the public, which culminated in his leaving the race, and President-elect Donald Trump, also approaching his 80s, facing allegations of even worse cognitive deficits.
This is far from just a problem with the presidency, Sykes wrote — it is pervasive throughout the federal government.
ALSO READ: Why ABC settled a case they knew they would win — and why the Lincoln Project didn't
"As the Granger story reminds us, having a politician stay in their role even while suffering cognitive decline is damaging to those who rely on them," he wrote. "Constituents and local officials in Texas seemed stunned to learn that their representative had vanished."
Meanwhile, he wrote, "elderly members of Congress and Supreme Court justices alike have resisted calls to retire; Senator Dianne Feinstein and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg both died in office. For much of this year, our politics has been dominated by octogenarians, including Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Grassley (who, at the age of 91, is actually a nonagenarian). But Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection at the age of 80 was the strongest case against the gerontocracy."
These issues develop, he wrote, because the people around these powerful figures, both family and staffers, who care about them and worship their legacy, struggle to be honest with them about when their mental fitness and overall health are diminishing.
"At its core, this is an issue of honesty: Didn’t the American people have a right to know that Biden was struggling? Didn’t Texans deserve to know about Granger? And if either of them was being lied to by those supporting them, didn’t they themselves deserve the truth too?" wrote Sykes. "Eventually, Biden did bow out — and one consequence is that the next president of the United States will, like Biden, be 82 years old at the end of his term."
