Data from the Democratic Politburo

Thanks to the commenter who noted that the last EIGHT members of Congress to die in office are Democrats:

• Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia–age 75, cancer
• Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona–age 77, cancer
• Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas–age 70, heart attack
• Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey–age 87, just being really old
• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas–age 74, cancer
• Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey–age 65, diabetes
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California–age 90, all the things
• Rep. Donald McEachin of Virginia–age 61, cancer

Maybe if you have cancer, it’s time to step away from elected office. Just maybe.

Moreover, thanks also to the commenter from the earlier post who ran some numbers about the makeup of the current Congress.

Senators over 80: 3 R, 3 D
Senators over 75: 3 R, 11 D

Reps over 80: 3 R, 12 D
Reps over 75: 10 R, 29 D

Yikes.

People can complain about so many of these posts. I’d say that the bigger problem is us losing a Democratic congressperson a month to death so far in this Congress. That this reflects the presidential election as well suggests just what a systemic problem this is. How many more Democratic congresspeople have to die before people get that electing ancients over and over again is disastrous?