Many Democrats were deeply relieved when Joe Biden finally withdrew from the presidential race. Yet few can argue the current presidential candidates are the two most qualified Americans for the job. Donald Trump tried to reverse the last presidential election from the Oval Office. And Kamala Harris—despite today’s post-Biden glow—is hardly a generational political talent or great leader of women and men.
The presidency, however, isn’t the only branch of government failing to attract the best and the brightest. The median age in the Senate is 65 years old. The House of Representatives is teeming with under-qualified political zealots and preoccupied social-media celebrities. And discontent with judges is so bad that Biden is trying to impose term limits on the Supreme Court. According to the Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in the federal government is far below historical levels.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t any skillful public servants in American government. There are. But they are far too small a minority. Put simply, the U.S. government has a people problem.
An American flag flies outside the U.S. Capitol building.
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
There are several reasons why. First, incumbents stay in office too long. Biden may have withdrawn from the upcoming presidential election, but he’s still the president of the United States. While the nation’s focus has shifted to the election, the discomforting fact remains that the sitting president is no longer fit for the job.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg likewise held onto her job too long. She could have resigned from the Supreme Court (at age 80) during Barack Obama‘s first term, when the Democrats controlled the Senate. She refused. And several years later Donald Trump replaced Ginsburg with Amy Coney Barrett, who promptly joined a bare majority of justices and overturned Roe v. Wade. While most Democrats were afraid to criticize Ginsburg (at least publicly), many now boldly condemn Clarence Thomas‘ long tenure.
In Congress, meanwhile, the median age in the House is 57, and as previously noted, 65 in the Senate. Being an incumbent provides a big advantage. You can keep your constituents happy with results from office, not merely promises from the campaign trail. This dynamic populates Congress with people first elected long ago. Nancy Pelosi (who’s 84) has been in the House since 1987. Mitch McConnell (82) has been in the Senate since 1984.
Second, compensation is too low for elected officials. Most congresspeople make about $175,000 a year. Not bad. But compared to alternatives in the private sector—where top talent rakes in millions—it’s too low, especially in locations where the cost of living is high.
Federal judges make about $250,000 to a little over $300,000 a year. Again, not bad. But it’s a fraction of the alternative, where lawyers at large law firms make many multiples of that.
This low pay deters talented people from serving. And it attracts both people who are so rich that compensation doesn’t matter (about half the members of Congress are millionaires) and those without better-paying alternatives.
The third and most powerful driving force behind the American government’s people problem is political polarization. From MAGA zealots on the right, to hardcore extremists on the left, American government is overflowing with tribalism and rage.
This dysfunction leads to high-quality people getting run out of town. Liz Cheney, for example, was voted out for daring to condemn Donald Trump’s attempt to reverse the election. And, even worse, it deters rational people from running in the first place.
The result of these factors is a federal government increasingly unable to address the country’s myriad public-policy failures, which are mounting—from a broken immigration system, to deteriorating public schools, to excessive incarceration, to widespread drug overdoses, to startling economic inequality.
These and other challenges are only getting harder to address as the world gets more complicated. More than ever, it’s essential that all three branches of government are staffed with talented and responsible public officials. The American government’s people problem, however, is bad and getting worse.
William Cooper is the author of How America Works … and Why it Doesn’t.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
