If Vice-President Kamala Harris wins the election in November, she’ll be sworn in as America’s first woman president in January. Around the same time, women will likely become the majority on the Alaska’s Supreme Court for the first time in the state’s history.
But this isn’t a column about breaking glass ceilings. Both possibilities are due to retiring incumbents, neither one of which evokes the selfless spirt of our first president.
In his farewell address, George Washington recognized the “weight of years” made retirement “as necessary to me as it will be welcome.” The life expectancy back when was only 40. He was 64. He died three years after leaving office.
His decision not to seek a third term is considered the cornerstone of our nation’s most honored tradition — the peaceful transfer of power. He couldn’t have done it without the humble recognition that he was not indispensable to the cause of America’s new democracy.
At 81, President Joe Biden mistakenly believed only he was up to the task of defending democracy from the autocratic threat posed by his predecessor. It was with great reluctance that he decided to end his campaign for a second term and endorse Harris.
“For him to agree to step aside means, on some level at least, he is acknowledging that he is entering a difficult final chapter of his life” Peter Wehner wrote in The Atlantic. “Coming to terms with mortality is never easy.”
Biden isn’t the only national politician who struggled emotionally against the currents of aging.
Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) was in the U.S. Senate until her death at the age of 90. With the help of her staff, she ignored age-related mental health concerns for at least three years. After returning from a 10-week absence a few months before she died, she told reporters she’d been present and voting the whole time.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is the same age as Biden. He has no plans to retire, even though on two occasions last summer he froze while speaking to reporters and remained unresponsive for several minutes.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) turned 90 while serving his eighth term. Three other senators are older than Biden. At 87, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) was one of the dozen House members in their 80s. He died this week.
And Don Young served as Alaska’s Congressman at-large until his death at the age of 88.
None of these stories inspire confidence in our government.
But let’s move on to the lifetime appointments of federal judges. In 1977, Judge Joseph Woodrough died at the age of 104 after 61 years on the bench. He’d already served 42 years when Alaska’s constitution was ratified. Perhaps the delegates who drafted it were thinking of him when they adopted the mandatory retirement age of 70 for judges.
That’s why one of the five seats on Alaska’s Supreme Court will soon be vacant. Chief Justice Peter Maassen will turn 70 in January. Currently there are two women justices and only women applied to replace him.
For Maassen, retirement from the court is not a choice. But he may have decided to step down anyway. Like Sandra Day O’Connor and David Souter did. They retired from the U.S. Supreme Court at 76 and 70, respectively.
But they’re the only two in the last 40 years who voluntarily let go of the power they held before turning 80. The rest hung on as if no one can do a better job than them.
It wouldn’t be a problem if the bill passed by the U.S. Senate in 1954 became law. That would have set a mandatory retirement age at 75 for all federal judges. But because 30 other states mandate they retire between 70 and 75, we can argue that the majority of Americans would support it now.
Washington’s lesson in humility should apply to every public servant. But most don’t seem get it. Our choice to is make this an important national conversation. Or to accept the status quo of living in a republic that’s losing faith in our governmental institutions partly because so many septuagenarians and octogenarian are clinging to power.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.