Old, white, rich men – US politics having a senior moment

“When are rich old white guys in this country going to catch a break?”

The American satirist Bill Maher was joking when he came out with this quip a couple of years ago, but never has the question, with its attendant irony, had greater relevance than it does today.

Unless Elizabeth Warren (a rich old white woman) surges in today’s Super Tuesday Democratic primaries, it is as certain as certain can be that the next President of the United States will be old, white and, at the very least, comfortably off.

Senator Bernie Sanders is 78 and white. He’s not rich, but he’s comfortable, with a net worth soon to exceed $3 million. He is also, like all previous occupants of the Oval Office, a man.

Fellow Caucasian Joe Biden, is 77. In the 2017-18 tax year, having completed his term as Vice President to Barack Obama, he earned $15.6 million from books and speaking engagements.

Mike Bloomberg, as co-founder and majority shareholder of the Bloomberg infotech corporation, is, of course, way out ahead when it comes to wealth. Having spent $500 million of his own money on his insurgent bid for the White House, he retains a net worth of something like $65 billion, give or take a billion. Although small, he is also white, and aged 78.

On the other side of the ballot paper, as it were, sits Donald Trump who, while currently a disturbing shade of orange, is understood to have begun life as white. The Republican President will be 74 when the election comes round, and not obviously in peak condition, but will no doubt be sustained by an alleged fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at a tad over $3 billion.

And there you have it. When the musical chairs elimination process known as the primaries began earlier this year, there was a wealth of choice on the Democratic side. There were, among others too anonymous to name, Pete Buttigieg (young, white and gay); Andrew Yang (young and Asian); Amy Klobuchar (middle-aged, white and female); Deval Patrick (middle-aged and black); Cory Booker (young and black), John Delaney (middle-aged and white) and Kamala Harris (middle-aged, female and of mixed race). Plus Elizabeth Warren (known to Trump as Pocahontas due to her claim of Native American heritage), who at one point was seen as a front-runner but faded fast. All of these could be described as either rich or en route to riches, most obviously Andrew Yang, a start-ups supremo said to be worth more than $2 billion.

None of the above had a chance. And not a Latino among them.

Politics in the US is fast becoming an analogue of the identikit gerontocracies that ran Communist China and Soviet Russia for many years.

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, will be 80 this month. In addition to being white, though deeply tanned, she is rich, with a personal fortune estimated at $200 million.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, is 78. Although frequently likened to a turtle, he is in fact a white man, with some $10 million in the bank. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, will be 70 when the election rolls round. Another white guy, though with barely a million dollars to his name, his is the fresh face in this particular collection.

The average age of US senators is 68. House members average out a sprightly ten years younger.

On the diversity front, the news is better. There are more African-American members of the House of Representatives than ever before – 53 out of 441, all Democrats. There are also two black senators, also Democrats.

Latinos – also known as hispanics – have seen a dramatic rise in representation, to a current total of 44, of whom just six are Republicans. There are four Latino senators, two from each party, three of Cuban ancestry, one from Mexico. Given that the hispanic population of the US now nudges 60 million (against 42 million African-Americans), out of a total population of 330 million, they still have some distance to go, but are clearly on their way.

To the surprise of many, and the disquiet of some, there are now two Muslim women – one of Palestinian origin, the other from Somalia – and one Hindu in Congress. Thirty years ago, politicians of Indian heritage were virtually unknown. Since then, they have made a considerable impact, counting two state governors and one UN ambassador among their number in recent years. Indian-Americans (not to be confused with Native Americans, who have just four members in the 116th Congress) are also among the most generous contributors to campaign funds.

How long it will be before any of these ethnic politicos vie for the White House is anybody’s guess. In the meantime, America is having a senior moment, in which not only are all the leading candidiates white, male and well-to-do, but would each be pushing 90 if they got to complete a second term.

The nation has to hope that whichever of them makes it, he has a running mate likely to survive the ensuing four years. The last US President to die in office (other than Jack Kennedy) was Franklin D Roosevelt, and he, a mere stripling of 63, had held the job for the previous 12 years. At least we can be reasonably sure that the new President will not emulate Boris Johnson and either marry or have a child while in office.