{"id":697,"date":"2026-07-13T20:39:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T20:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=697"},"modified":"2026-07-13T20:39:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T20:39:45","slug":"the-real-reason-congress-keeps-getting-older","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=697","title":{"rendered":"The real reason Congress keeps getting older"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story appeared in <\/em>Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Read more A reminder that the pope can and will excommunicate you<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hi, friends, and good afternoon \u2014 I\u2019m delighted to be coming to you, for the very first time, at this far more civilized and adequately caffeinated hour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As I previewed here on Friday, Today, Explained<\/em> has undergone a little makeover: We\u2019re now shipping this newsletter on weekday afternoons. And we\u2019ve tweaked the format to make it more useful, entertaining and elucidating, with a renewed focus on exploring the fascinating, big ideas and hidden forces that drive the news cycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Every afternoon, my pal Cameron or I will catch you up on the two to three big stories you need to know to feel grounded and informed about the day. Then we\u2019ll go deeper on one thread from one story: a fascinating bit of related science, an economic concept that might change the way you think, or the little-known context behind a pop culture fad that suddenly and surprisingly explains everything.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My goal here isn\u2019t to help you \u201ckeep up\u201d with the news \u2014 as if the news were some terrible, never-ending treadmill you could fly off the back of \u2014 but to find better, smarter, more durable ways to think about the fast-moving infopocalypse that is our inescapable reality now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaking of inescapable realities: What better place to start, really, than with an\u2026unexpected death? South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham died on Saturday of likely complications from heart disease, shortly after traveling from Ukraine back to the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Graham was 71 years old, and \u2014 at the risk of sounding ever-so-slightly macabre \u2014 no one had the late senator on their Congressional death watch bingo card. A number of other high-profile national politicians are<\/em> in visibly poor health: Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, for instance, who on Sunday finally explained that his mysterious, weeks-long hospitalization followed a minor fall. Or President Donald Trump himself, who often appears in public with visible bruising on his hands, and who is maybe\/probably receiving a high-powered, experimental obesity drug to treat pulmonary hypertension.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The White House strenuously disclaims all speculation about Trump\u2019s health, of course. But in America\u2019s so-called gerontocracy, health problems are something of an occupational hazard.<\/p>\n

Read more The one thing MAGA nativists get right<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How Congress got so old<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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You\u2019re not imagining it: Congress has never been this old. In January 2025, the median age for a sitting US senator was 64.7 \u2014 up more than a decade from 40 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The simplest explanation is basic demographics: America is getting older as a whole.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But there\u2019s also another, more troubling reason for Congress\u2019s demographic shift. Over the past century, growing political polarization and partisan gerrymandering have made congressional elections far less competitive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As a result, many races are essentially decided by the primaries, where older, incumbent candidates have huge advantages: More voters recognize their names and more donors contribute to their reelection funds, for instance. Despite some high-profile upsets \u2014 like the recent triumph of political newcomer Melat Kiros in Colorado \u2014 only a handful of incumbents lose their primaries each cycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Critics have floated a number of interesting remedies, including term and age limits for federal lawmakers. Lots of Americans say they\u2019d support those types of reforms. But the problem with the gerontocracy isn\u2019t actually lawmakers\u2019 ages \u2014 after all, older people benefit from a lifetime of accrued experience! \u2014 but the sense that voters don\u2019t really have the opportunity to elect younger candidates, even if that\u2019s their preference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Changing that<\/em> would require sweeping structural reforms that help newcomers challenge incumbent politicians and that make it more possible for either party to win a given district. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not at all the direction the US is moving in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One link for later<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u27a8 Keeping up with friends is hard.<\/strong> A weekly photo dump can help. Vox\u2019s Allie Volpe observes this little digital ritual in her own group chat. Every Friday, her friends share a handful of casual, lo-fi photos from the preceding week to keep up with the small stuff in each other\u2019s lives. It\u2019s quick, it\u2019s easy, and it\u2019s actually in keeping with recent research about the most effective ways to nurture friendships online.<\/p>\n

Read more This US state has become an unexpected epicenter of the global extinction crisis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before you go\u2026<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
See More:<\/span><\/p>\n
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    Here\u2019s the real reason Congress is getting older.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe real reason Congress keeps getting older - American Living Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=697\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The real reason Congress keeps getting older - American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s the real reason Congress is getting older.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=697\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-13T20:39:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8\"},\"headline\":\"The real reason Congress keeps getting older\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-13T20:39:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697\"},\"wordCount\":758,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/aaa18a8c6f571d0bdf289d9f2b0bfed3.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=697\",\"name\":\"The real reason Congress keeps getting older - 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