<story><title>Dianne Feinstein has died</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/us/politics/dianne-feinstein-dead-senate.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bhouston</author><text>She was mentally unfit to serve for the last couple years.  It was a travesty many countries seem to have no mental bar required to serve or even reasonable age limits (Feinstein was 90!)  Any decision &amp;quot;she&amp;quot; was made in the last couple years was made by her aids and not her.  This is not how democracy is supposed to work.&lt;p&gt;Details:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress told The Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory is rapidly deteriorating. They said it appears she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sfchronicle.com&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;dianne-feinstein-senate-17079487.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sfchronicle.com&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;dianne-feinstei...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;With our aging population, we need to figure out how to be inclusive of those who can contribute, while identifying those who can not.  Hard age limits are likely becoming less desirable as the population ages - retirement at 55 will seem like a joke.  But that doesn&amp;#x27;t mean we should just accept people who are not with it in various positions of power.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chongli</author><text>Between her and McConnell and the other gerontocrats in Washington, I’m really baffled. Why do these people grip the reins of power until their knuckles turn white? What is so important about political horse trading that they have to literally haul you out of office on a stretcher?</text></comment>
<story><title>Dianne Feinstein has died</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/us/politics/dianne-feinstein-dead-senate.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bhouston</author><text>She was mentally unfit to serve for the last couple years.  It was a travesty many countries seem to have no mental bar required to serve or even reasonable age limits (Feinstein was 90!)  Any decision &amp;quot;she&amp;quot; was made in the last couple years was made by her aids and not her.  This is not how democracy is supposed to work.&lt;p&gt;Details:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress told The Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory is rapidly deteriorating. They said it appears she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sfchronicle.com&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;dianne-feinstein-senate-17079487.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sfchronicle.com&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;dianne-feinstei...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;With our aging population, we need to figure out how to be inclusive of those who can contribute, while identifying those who can not.  Hard age limits are likely becoming less desirable as the population ages - retirement at 55 will seem like a joke.  But that doesn&amp;#x27;t mean we should just accept people who are not with it in various positions of power.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hirundo</author><text>Say we have a professional psychiatrist, or a whole board of them, evaluating the mental competence of candidates. Occasionally they would designate one as incompetent, who would then be removed from the election.&lt;p&gt;This would seem to be less democratic rather than more. The voters have less options than before, so the shift in power is from voters to experts.</text></comment>