This was a big week for fossils stepping down from office.
In an earlier report, we noted the retirement of an Illinois House member who had been in office for a quarter of a century.
Now it is being reported that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), one of the more powerful Democrats in the Senate, will not be running for re-election.
Time to go
Durbin, 80, started his political career in 1983 after winning a seat in the House for IL-20.
He held that seat until 1997, when he ran for the seat vacated by Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL).
So, after more than four decades of collecting a taxpayer-funded check, Durbin is finally going to turn the seat over to someone else.
On Wednesday, Durbin posted a video announcing his decision, stating, “The decision of whether to run for re-election has not been easy.”
Durbin continued, “I truly love the job of being a United States Senator, but in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch, so I’m announcing today that I will not be seeking re-election at the end of my term.”
“The people of Illinois have honored me with this responsibility longer than anyone elected to the Senate in our state’s history, I’m truly grateful,” he concluded.
Durbin is the seventh-oldest member of the Senate, which is saying something at his age.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 91, shamefully ran for re-election again in 2022, and he is now serving what will hopefully be his last term in office.
He is followed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), 83, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 83, Jim Risch, 81, Ben Cardin, 8, and Angus King, 81.
Of the 100 senators in office, more than 60% of them are over 60 years of age, so let me ask you, how can they possibly relate to the voters of today?
They don’t represent us or even our generations; they represent their own agendas and the people who write massive checks to their campaigns.
A political office was never meant to be a career when our Founding Fathers established this country.
Politicians were supposed to be a mix of locals from the community to truly represent the people of that city and state, not people who went to college for political science, then immediately dove into politics overseeing legislation for things for which they had no real-life experience on which to base their decisions.
Sadly, it did not take long for this country to go to the dark side in terms of political careers.
In the late 1820s, the “spoils system” came into play, which is when people started appointing friends to government posts.
The presidency of Andrew Jackson is largely cited as the root of today’s career politicians.
The term came from New York Sen. William L. Marcy, who defended appointments made by Jackson, stating, “To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy.”
In other words, right around the time the last of our Founding Fathers was passing away, our political system became corrupt, and it has remained so ever since.
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Author: G. McConway
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