Wednesday, January 7, 2015

"New Wave" just recycling of old material


 

Disclaimer: I am 70 years old, more resistant to change, and a wee bit out of touch with some aspects of our modern society.

 The buzz phrase for today is ‘Senate Congressional Geriatrics.’

As we prepare ourselves to be governed by the new rulers recently elected to Congress, it may be somewhat shocking for some to learn that this “new wave” leadership in the Senate really is just a recycling of old material.

It appears that the baby boomers and others that just recently revolted at the polls to forge a new direction for our country did so because they felt that the President and Congress, which this year was one of the most dysfunctional in American history, acted in ways which were no longer in sync with the wishes of our modern society.

However, if we look closely at some of the changes this “new wave” produced in leadership in critical Senate Congressional Committees, we find that they mostly served as an opportunity for the Republican geriatric leadership to come out of the closet as exemplified by their ages that are listed below:

New Agriculture Committee Chairperson- 78 years old

New Appropriations Committee Chairperson-77 years old

New Armed Services Committee Chairperson-78 years old

New Bank, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairperson-80 years old

New Budget Committee Chairperson- 70 years old

New Environment and Public Works Chairpersons-79 years old

New Finance Committee Chairperson -80 years old

New Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairperson-74 years old

New Veterans Affairs Committee Chairperson- 70 years old

New Judiciary Committee Chairperson-81 years old

Contrasting these statistics with the fact that 1/4 of the top 100 performing companies in the U.S. are run by CEOs 35 years old and younger, and the Harvard Business Review’s  2014 findings that the 100 best-performing CEOs in the world have a median age of 59, one has to wonder if it isn’t time for our U.S. Senate to follow suit and let the younger folks take over. 

Now that’s not to say that those of us 65 and older should be put out to pasture because we are no longer competent, but the major slogan of the recent election was as Mr. Bill Cassidy and others put it “a time for a change and new  leadership.”

When one thinks about the number of years a 70 plus year old has been a member of Congress, and the number of PACs and advocacy groups that he or she has made deals with to get political donations for continual re-election, one has to wonder about this “new direction” put in power in the Senate.

Just maybe the recent election was really more about resistance to change and holding on to the past, rather than a genuine desire for new, innovative leadership, for it appears the “new wave” has simply put in powerful positions a different version of old ideas.

However, we now live in a world of great turbulence and it’s important to remember that, as Peter Drucker once stated, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic." 

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