Historic term begins in Michigan as Whitmer, others sworn in

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI

1 of 10 INCLUDES VIDEO

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the crowd during inauguration ceremonies, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023, outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sworn in for second term as the state’s 49th governor on Sunday, pushing a message of unity and working together during remarks on the state Capitol steps as Democrats took full control of the state government for the first time in 40 years.

Whitmer, who was first elected in 2018 after serving as a state lawmaker for 14 years, won reelection in November by defeating Republican Tudor Dixon by nearly 11 percentage points. Alongside her on Sunday were other top Democratic leaders, including newly reelected Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.

During her inauguration address, Whitmer pledged to pursue “common sense” gun reform, continue investing in K-12 education, improve worker rights, lower taxes for the state’s retirees and tackle climate change, adding that she would provide more specifics in her upcoming State of the State speech.

“For the next four years, our task is to ensure that every Michigander, present and future, can succeed,” Whitmer said to the nearly 1,000 people in attendance. “And our message is simple: We’re putting the world on notice that your future is here in Michigan.”

With a newly powerful Democratic caucus, Whitmer faces a test of delivering on years of promises in a swing state where Democrats must appeal to more than just their base or risk losing their majorities when the Legislature is up for grabs again in two years.

Whitmer acknowledged several Republican legislative leaders and promised throughout her speech to work across the aisle and with “anyone that wants to solve problems and get things done.”

Sen. Aric Nesbitt, the new Republican leader in the state Senate, congratulated Whitmer following the inauguration and said in a statement that he hopes she “actually follows through on her repeated promises of bipartisanship.”

The inauguration ceremony comes days after two men were sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms after they led a plot to kidnap Whitmer in 2020 ahead of the presidential election. Whitmer has previously blamed Republican leaders for stoking violent rhetoric and making light of the plot to kidnap and assassinate her.

Michigan Democrats officially took control of the state House and Senate at noon Sunday after winning slim majorities and flipping both chambers in November’s election.

Newly selected Democratic leaders in the Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and House Speaker Joe Tate, joined the governor in stressing the importance of bipartisanship during their speeches.

“A stunning opportunity stands before us to work together like never before across legislative chambers and alongside the executive branch,” said Brinks, who was selected as the Senate’s first female majority leader in December.

The new legislative session is required to begin the second Wednesday of January. The state’s budget will be among the priorities lawmakers tackle as they carry a nearly $6 billion surplus into the new year.

History was also made Sunday on the state’s Supreme Court as Kyra Harris Bolden was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the high court after Whitmer appointed the former state representative in November to replace retiring Justice Bridget McCormack. Bolden also administered Whitmer’s oath of office.
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Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Democrats, Republicans have sharply distinct priorities for 2023, AP-NORC poll finds


By —Hannah Fingerhut, Associated Press

Politics Jan 1, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eva Guzman’s expenses have swelled, but she feels comfortable financially thanks to the savings she and her late husband stockpiled for a rainy day. Nevertheless, the 80-year-old retired library clerk in San Antonio limits trips to the grocery store, adjusts the thermostat to save on utilities and tries to help her grandchildren and great-grandchildren get what they need.

It was difficult to raise her own four children, Guzman said, but she and her husband were able to manage. She doesn’t know how young families today stay financially afloat with such high prices for groceries and clothes.

“It’s really gotten worse in this age for a lot of people,” said Guzman, who identifies as a conservative and blames President Joe Biden for inflation and economic instability. “It’s really getting out of hand.”

Like Guzman, 30 percent of people in the United States consider inflation a high priority for the country, named in an open-ended question as one of up to five issues for the government to work on in 2023, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s roughly twice the percentage as a year ago, though down from 40 percent in June, with inflation easing somewhat despite remaining high.

READ MORE: Slowdown in inflation eases some pressure on American households

Overall, the economy in general remains a bipartisan issue, mentioned by most U.S. adults across party lines. But the poll finds Republicans and Democrats have sharply distinct views of priorities for the country in the new year. More Republicans than Democrats name inflation, gas and food prices, energy and immigration, while Democrats focus on health care, climate change, poverty, racism, abortion and women’s rights.

Elizabeth Stephens, a 41-year-old Democratic-leaning independent in Houston, recognizes that inflation is an issue right now. But she thinks there are other problems that the government should focus on addressing.

“Inflation comes and goes,” said Stephens, a manager working in learning and development. But issues such as poverty and health care disparities, she said, “are always there.”

“Even if the economy is great, there are still people who are suffering,” Stephens added.

There is broad skepticism from members of both parties that progress will be made on the issues about which the public most cares. In the poll results and in interviews with the AP, many people cite hostile political divisions as part of the problem.

Stephens said the country is so divided that “it seems close to impossible” to imagine there would be progress this year.

Glenn Murray, a 59-year-old in Little Mountain, South Carolina, also called out the distance between the left and the right, wishing that politicians would recognize the “truth in the middle.” But his priorities are different from Stephens’.

Murray, a moderate Republican, thinks inflation and the economy are critical issues and he worries that the U.S. will soon face a recession. But he is also concerned about energy policy, suggesting the nation’s reliance on foreign oil is driving up gas prices, and he describes the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as “unsustainable.”

“I definitely understand that immigration is what helped build this country … but you have to have guardrails,” said Murray, who works for a university’s audit services. “You just can’t open the gates and let everyone in that wants to come in.”

Named by 45 percent of Republicans, immigration is one of the GOP’s leading priorities. The Supreme Court recently extended Trump-era pandemic restrictions on people seeking asylum, as thousands of migrants gathered on the Mexico side of the border seeking to the enter the United States.

WATCH: Frigid temperatures create dangerous conditions for migrants gathering near border

Roughly 2 in 10 Republicans also name crime, foreign policy issues, energy and health care. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to specifically name inflation, 37 percent vs. 26 percent, and gas prices, 22 percent vs. 7 percent.

Among Democrats, about 4 in 10 rank climate change and health care, 3 in 10 prioritize gun issues and roughly one-quarter name education and abortion or women’s rights. Roughly 2 in 10 Democrats name racism and poverty.

For 24-year-old Osbaldo Cruz, the country’s minimum wage is insufficient, especially to keep up with high inflation. But the Democrat, who works as an assistant manager at a fast-food restaurant, equally prioritizes climate change and gun policy, issues that have been close to his home in Las Vegas.

Seeing record temperatures and increasing waste, Cruz worries that conditions on Earth won’t be livable in the future. “People pretty much think short term, so we never take the time to invest in proper long-term solutions,” he said.

And while he said he understands the importance of the right to bear arms, he’s concerned with how easy it is for people to get a gun.

Joseph Wiseman, a 52-year-old Presbyterian pastor in Wichita, Kansas, wants the country to prioritize protections for women’s health care, including access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and LGBTQ individuals.

“I’m very concerned that basic human rights are under threat,” he said. “The blatant politicization of the Supreme Court and the handing down of that ruling really brought home in stark circumstance how deadly important this is for the livelihood of 51 percent of God’s children.”

Wiseman was a lifelong Republican up until the past few years, registering instead as a Democrat. He said he worries about the “dangerous” shift toward authoritarianism and Christian nationalism happening in the country, especially within the GOP.

Still, he said he has to be hopeful.

“I have to be optimistic that the threat will be met and that basic human rights can be secured for all,” Wiseman said.

Most of those surveyed say the opposite. About three-quarters of U.S. adults say they are not confident in the ability of the federal government to make progress on the important problems facing the country in 2023, according to the poll.

About one-third of Republicans and Democrats name the state of politics as a critical issue facing the country.

Michael Holcomb, a 35-year-old audio technician in Los Angeles, wants less polarization in the election process, which he thinks leads politicians to be more extreme. But he sees the issue as extending beyond politics.

“I think that it’s more of a cultural problem,” the independent said. “We all have to figure out a way to get past it.”

The poll of 1,124 adults was conducted Dec. 1-5 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

THREE BLACK WOMEN LAW STUDENTS MAKE HISTORY AS EDITORS OF THREE OF PENN’S SEVEN LAW JOURNALS

Stacy Jackson

January 1, 2023

Chayla Sherrod (Image via LinkedIn/Chayla Sherrod), Simone Hunter-Hobson (Image via LinkedIn/Simone Hunter-Hobson), Layla June West (Image via LinkedIn/Layla June West)

These women have become part of a major network of scholars and prestigious alumni, and they have the support of their fellow classmates.

Black law students Chayla Sherrod, 25, Simone Hunter-Hobson, 24, and Layla June West, 27, are the selected editors for three out of the seven law journals at the University of Pennsylvania.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the women are a part of the 7.2% of Black students out of a total 824 student body at the law school.

After votes from student editors from the prior year, Sherrod was appointed as editor for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, one of the most prestigious law journals in the country. Hunter-Hobson, president of Penn’s Black Law Students Association, was appointed as editor in chief of the Journal of Constitutional Law. West was selected to head the Journal of Law and Social Change.

“I find it so important, now that we are leaders in the school, to give back to that community that poured so much into me,” said West, a Howard University graduate who got a master’s at New York University in Africana studies.

Reportedly, Penn has appointed the most Black editors of its primary law review compared to any other university. Vernon L. Francis, a partner at Dechert LLP in Philadelphia, was the university’s first when he was selected in 1986. with others following in 2000, 2009, 2015, and within the last four years.

“It would be nice to walk into an office and just see someone who looks like me,” said Sherrod, who got her bachelor’s in environmental studies and political science from Villanova.

“The continual denial of Black women’s existence and intellectual contributions in the classroom causes many Black women to work 10 times as hard compared to their counterparts just to prove their worth, and ultimately leads to serious health concerns, such as anxiety, loss of appetite, and self-doubt,” wrote Hunter-Hobson in a research report that examined racism and sexism in the legal field and its harm to the health of Black women.

Reportedly, Clara Burrill Bruce was the first Black editor, selected in 1926 at Boston University with a twenty-seven year gap between the next selection of a Black editor.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Colombia's president announces cease-fire agreement with main armed groups

6-month cease-fire includes five armed groups

Laura Gamba Fadul |01.01.2023

BOGOTA, Colombia

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro on Saturday announced a six-month "bilateral cease-fire" with five main armed groups operating in the country.

The five organizations that signed up to the agreement are the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Segunda Marquetalia and the Central General Staff, both dissident groups of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Gulf Clan) and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada.

The agreement is scheduled to be in force until June 30, 2023, “extendable depending on progress in the negotiations,” Petro said on Twitter shortly before the end of 2022.

“This is a bold act. The bilateral cease-fire forces armed organizations and the state to respect it,” he said. “It is my wish at the end of this year that peace is possible.”

The cease-fire will have national and international verification by the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, the Mission to Support the Peace Process of the Organization of American States, the Ombudsman's Office and the Catholic Church.

Since taking office on Aug. 7, Petro has been seeking a policy of "total peace" to end a 50-year armed conflict between the state and various groups of left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, all of whom are involved in drug trafficking.

Peace negotiations that were suspended by former President Ivan Duque were resumed by delegations of the Colombian government and the ELN last month. Talks with the group began in 2017 in Quito during the government of Juan Manuel Santos, and in 2018 they were moved to Havana.

The talks were interrupted by Duque in January 2019, a day after the group carried out a bombing in a police academy in Bogota that killed 21 police officers.

Bolsonaro Flees Brazil to Hide Out in Home of MMA Fighter in Florida

SUNSHINE STATE OF MIND

After denying his leftist opponent won the presidency and facing the end of immunity, Bolsonaro has fled to Florida in his latest Trumpian move.

Coleman Spilde
Entertainment Critic
Published Jan. 01, 2023 

EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images

After a contentious presidential race—seen by most as Brazil’s most consequential election in decades—the country’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, opted to take an unconventional route to get out of attending incoming President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva’s inauguration: Fleeing the country.

Bolsonaro faced extreme heat in recent years after his COVID denialism cost the country thousands of lives. Bolsonaro undermined efforts from medical and government officials to stop the spread of the virus, following the playbook set early on in the pandemic by U.S. President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro’s catastrophic approach to COVID weakened his approval ratings, but left him an ally in the eyes of many in Brazil’s working class, after he fought against isolation by claiming it would damage the country’s economy.

Bolsonaro faced a tight and combative election last fall battling against Lula, the country’s leftist longtime former president who was jailed in 2018 on corruption charges. Brazilian run-off elections were subject to claims of voter suppression from Bolsonaro’s camp. Even after Lula’s win was declared, Bolsonaro refused to accept defeat, with protests erupting across the country and constituents blocking roadways in scenes that called to memory the American January 6 insurrection.

Even Bolsonaro’s Calling for His Nazi-Saluting Fans to Quit
OUT OF CONTROL
Eduard Freisler


With Bolsonaro now facing multiple government investigations, The New York Times reports that the strongman has fled to Orlando, Florida, thousands of miles away from the country where a peaceful transition of power was due to take place. In a distinctly Floridian move, Bolsonaro is said to be staying in the home of an MMA fighter, and plans to be there for “at least a month.”

After a presidency that mimicked all of the calamitous points of Trump’s time in office, Bolsonaro is cozying up close by his favorite political idol. Now that he’s no longer president, Bolsonaro’s prosecutorial immunity privileges are null and void, and top prosecutors say that they believe there is enough evidence from Bolsonaro’s time as president to aim for a conviction—specifically in a case related to leaked classified information about a secret police investigation into a hacking attack against Brazil's top electoral court.

However, the only heat Bolsonaro seems to be feeling at the moment is the Floridian sun. If his time chowing down at a Florida KFC is any indication, he’s trying to assimilate with locals as best as possible.

Lula sworn in as Brazil president as predecessor Bolsonaro flies to US

By Katy Watson in Brasilia & Alys Davies in London

BBC News

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as the new president of Brazil - the third time he has held the country's highest office.

The veteran left-wing politician, known widely as Lula, also led the country between 2003 and 2010 - and defeated Jair Bolsonaro in October's poll.

In his first speech, Lula vowed to rebuild a country in "terrible ruins".

He decried the policies of his predecessor, who went to the US on Friday to avoid the handover ceremony.

A sea of Lula supporters gathered in front of Congress since early in the morning - decked out in the red colour of his Workers' Party. They travelled to see their leader sworn in - but also for a celebration.

More than 60 artists - including Samba legend Martinho da Vila - were booked to perform on two giant stages decorated in the national flag as part of a music festival dubbed "Lulapalooza".

"Love has won over hate," read one banner carried by a man dressed as Lula - complete with a presidential sash.

"Brazil needed this change, this transformation," said another backer of the incoming leader as she queued for Sunday's festivities.

Juliana Barreto - who is from Lula's home state Pernambuco - told the BBC that her country was "a disaster" previously.

• Lula makes stunning comeback in Brazil election
• In pictures: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beats Jair Bolsonaro
• How Brazil's famous yellow jersey became politicised

Lula and incoming Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin paraded through the city on an open-top convertible before proceeding to the Congress building - where the swearing-in occurred at the start of the formal inauguration ceremony.

The men have spent the past days selecting their cabinet and appointing supporters to key state-owned businesses.

Shortly after being sworn in, Lula sought to instil a sense of hope in the people of Brazil and promised to "rebuild the nation and make a Brazil of all, for all".

There were several instances when he got out his hanky. His most emotional moment came when speaking to the Brazilian people after the swearing-in ceremony - he started sobbing when talking about those who beg at traffic lights, desperate for food.

Media caption,

Lula broke down in tears as he talked about poverty in his country

Probably not even Lula thought this day would ever come - a return to the top job after two decades, despite a spell in prison after being convicted of corruption. The convictions were subsequently annulled in 2021.

Much of his speech to Congress was about unity and reconstruction. The two words are crucial in such a deeply divided country, hit hard by the pandemic and hugely polarised politically.

Lula knows that his ultimate challenge will be to convince those who feel he is a corrupt politician who belongs in jail that he does now belong in the presidential palace again and can be their leader too.

He pledged to undo the legacy of his predecessor's government, which he said involved depleting funding for education, health and the conservation of the Amazon rainforest.

To huge cheers from those watching in Congress, he also promised to revoke Mr Bolsonaro's controversial gun laws immediately.

Lula went on to state that his government would not be motivated by "a spirit of revenge", but that those who had made mistakes would answer for their errors.

In particular, he singled out Mr Bolsonaro's Covid-19 policies, accusing him of causing a "genocide" of deaths in Brazil during the pandemic, which would need to be fully investigated.

In another noted change of policy from the Bolsonaro administration, Marina Silva - one of Brazil's best known climate activists - was re-appointed to head the environment and climate ministry. She will be expected to achieve Lula's pledge - which was repeated during his speech - to reach "zero deforestation" in the Amazon by 2030.

The atmosphere in Brasilia couldn't be more different than when Mr Bolsonaro was in power. Lots of people were waving banners or wearing T-shirts with the words "Love conquers hate," a reference to the narrative many felt came from Mr Bolsonaro.

But diversity and inclusion too was a big part of today's inauguration. With Mr Bolsonaro abandoning his final official duty of passing on the presidential sash, it was left to Eni Souza, a rubbish picker, to do the honours. And standing next to Lula was an indigenous leader, a black boy and a disabled influencer. In this often racist country, it was an important image that will endure.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

The state of Brasilia deployed "100%" of its police force - around 8,000 officers - to the city amid fears that some supporters of Mr Bolsonaro could seek to disrupt proceedings.

One man was arrested trying to enter the area of the inauguration carrying a knife and fireworks earlier on Sunday, Brazil's military police said.

Last week, authorities arrested a supporter of Mr Bolsonaro who had allegedly placed explosives on a fuel truck near an airport in the capital on Christmas Eve. The man said he hoped to "sow chaos" ahead of Lula's inauguration.

And other supporters of the former leader have remained camped outside army headquarters, where they have been urging the army to launch a coup. Police attempted to remove the demonstrators on Thursday, but withdrew after they reacted violently.

However, Mr Bolsonaro has condemned the protests against his defeat, urging his supporters to "show we are different from the other side, that we respect the norms and the Constitution".

 

Iran's Maragheh University, Brazil's UEL University ink MoU

TEHRAN, Jan. 01 (MNA) – Iran's University of Maragheh signed a cooperation MoU

 with the Brazilian State University of Londrina (Universidade Estadual de Londrina).

The memorandum includes cooperation in the fields of guiding research projects, as well as benefiting from experimental, research, and laboratory facilities.

Doing research, developing educational objectives, and exchange of professors and students are among other fields of cooperation between the two universities.

The University of Maragheh is a public university in the city of Maragheh, in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. The university is a state-funded institution that has 4 faculties and 14 departments. Coming from different parts of Iran, approximately 3000 students attend Maragheh university.

Londrina State University is one of the public universities of the State of Paraná, Brazil.

MP/IRN84985308

7,000 Palestinians, including minors, arrested by Israel in 2022: report

The New Arab Staff
01 January, 2023

A report from a group focusing on Palestinian prisoners has revealed the number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli authorities last year.

Israeli authorities have carried out thousands of arrests of Palestinians in 2022 [Getty/archive]


Israeli authorities arrested 7,000 Palestinians this year, including hundreds of women and minors, with an increase in administrative detentions, a report by the Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies (PCPS) has shown.

The centre documented at least 164 arrests of Palestinian women as well as 865 arrests of children among the thousands detained by Israel in 2022.

PCPS director Riyad Al-Ashqar said all detainees were subject to abuse, torture or humiliation.

He says Israel escalated its crackdown on Palestinians expressing their opinions online, especially on Facebook, adding that 410 Palestinians had been detained following online activity, under the pretext that their social media posts were "incitement against the occupation."

Some received prison sentences, while others were transferred to administrative detention without trial.

Most, Al-Ashqar says, were ordered to stop using Facebook and other social media sites for several months.




Administrative detainees have neither been charged with a crime nor granted a trial, and they and their lawyers are prevented from seeing the evidence against them.

The detention orders typically last between three to six months and can be renewed indefinitely. The practice has been criticised by human rights organisations who consider it a breach of due process.

The PCPS report says there was an increase in the administrative detention of Palestinians by Israel this year, reaching 2,340, including the renewal of 1,239 detentions.

They ranged between two and six months, with some detainees having their detentions renewed five times according to the centre.

Among the 865 minors arrested, 142 of them were children under the age 12, and some hadn’t even reached nine years of age, the PCPS report said.

It added that fines imposed on minors by Israeli courts amounted to around $140,000 in 2022.

In Jerusalem, Israeli authorities arrested a total of 2,990 Palestinians, "affecting all segments of Jerusalemite society, with a specific focus on children," the report said.

Another 108 Palestinians from Gaza were detained, including 63 fishermen, and 34 Palestinians who allegedly tried crossing the border into Israel.

The Gaza Strip has been under siege by Israel since its pull-out in 2007, and Israel has placed tight restrictions on the Palestinian territory’s fishing industry.

Other than the arrests, Israeli authorities have killed more than 125 Palestinians in raids this year in the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations Mideast envoy says the violence has made 2022 the deadliest year for Palestinians for more than a decade.

A new extreme-right government in Israel has raised concerns among Palestinians who fear further violence and persecution.

Putin May Well Go Down in History as Last Ruler of a Place Called Russia,' Martynov Says

            Staunton, Jan. 1 – Because of Vladimir Putin’s vicious and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and his increasingly repressive policies at home, Russia over the last ten months has become “the symbol of a caricature of evil,” Kirill Martynov says, with the consequences of his actions spreading into all aspects of Russian life.

            Russia is now ruled by “a dictator besotted with infinite power, cut off from the people and from real life;” and despite several tens of thousands of protesters, there is no one in Russia to stop him from engaging in what looks like national suicide, the editor of Novaya gazeta now published abroad (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2022/12/31/mezhdu-otchaianiem-i-soprotivleniem).

            Russian society “reeks with fear; and in universities, schools and offices, people have learned to be silent and turn away” from what is going on around them, allowing Putin and his camarilla to continue to behave as they are and threatening the future of Russia and themselves as well.

            According to Martynov, “Vladimir Putin possibly will go down in history as the last ruler of a country called Russia” because it is “difficult to imagine how our motherland will be able to right itself after the catastrophe created in honor of his 70^th birthday. Nero with his fires was a piker: he didn’t have the present-day technologies” Putin does.

            Martynov offers what he describes as “an incomplete list of what the authorities of the Rusian Federation have done to harm their own people”: the demise of Russian education, demographic collapse, economic decay and decline, a legal system that doesn’t work, Russian sports in their worst shape ever, and Russian culture in a state of collapse.

            “There is not a single sphere of life that Putin’s war has not touched,” the editor says. As a result, he says he is “sure that ‘the special military operation’ will go down in history as an example of radical incompetence as it is difficult to find any other cases of such stupidity at least in recent times.”

            Because of what Putin has done, Martynov continues, “we are guaranteed the eternal hatred of our neighbors, a European people of some 40 million. I’m not sure if my friends in Kyiv will want to talk to me now. After all, when I promised to do everything I could, I still believed we could stop the killers.”

            He says that when he asked the readers of his paper last month what they were proud of, they spoke about “the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people, that in the face of aggression by a terrible enemy, Ukraine has reliable allies … and that even cruise missile, cold and darkness could not break the spirit of the Ukrainian people.”

            As Russians, Martynov says, we must be honest with ourselves and recognize that 2023 will be even worse than 2022 was. “Putin will dry to drag Ukraine, Russia and if possible all of humanity into hell after him.” Faced with that, each Russian must really try to do whatever he or she can to stop him and save themselves, their country and the world.

Old men helped cause the Soviet Union's collapse. Historians say it's a warning sign for the United States.

John Haltiwanger
Updated
Jan 1, 2023

Wally McNamee/Getty; Photo 12/Getty; Brandon Bell /Getty; Michael M. Santiago/Getty; Anna Kim/Insider

The Soviet Union became a gerontocracy in its final years, contributing to its collapse.

Historians say it's a cautionary tale for the US, whose leaders have been in power for decades.

One Soviet historian told Insider these US politicians "seem to hold on to office like grim death."

President Ronald Reagan once joked that Soviet leaders "kept dying" on him during his first few years in office.

Though Reagan at the time was the oldest president to ever enter the White House — he was 69 at his inauguration in 1981 — the US didn't hold a candle to the Soviets when it came to geriatric leaders.

In 1981, the average age of the powerful 14-man Politburo that ruled over the USSR was 69 — a solid 13 years more senior than the average age of Reagan's Cabinet that same year.

And Reagan was right: Soviet leaders had consistently died on the job. Leonid Brezhnev, who led the USSR for 18 years, died at 75 in 1982. He was followed by Yuri Andropov, who died in 1984 at 69. Andropov's successor, Konstantin Chernenko, died in 1985 at 73.

Fast-forward to 2022.

The United States' leadership has more parallels with the latter days of the USSR than those leaders might care to admit. President Joe Biden is 80. His predecessor, Donald Trump, entered office at 70 and six years later is considered a frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 82. The average age in the Senate is 63, and the average age in the House is 58. Meanwhile, the median age in the US is 38. When it comes to age, Congress is not especially representative of the general population.

Yelena Biberman, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, told Insider that the age of an individual politician should be inconsequential because "mental and physical acuity varies greatly between individuals at old age." But she added that it's "very concerning" when there's "an entire cohort of very old politicians at the highest levels of the federal government."

During the final decades of the USSR, its corrupt, aging leaders embraced policies that derailed the Soviet economy as they continued to live in opulence. They refused to embrace large-scale changes and helped set the next generation up for failure.

Historians and political scientists say the Soviet Union's morphing into a gerontocracy toward its end contributed to its demise, arguing that this serves as a cautionary tale for other countries — particularly the US, at a time when many of its top leaders are well beyond the age of retirement typical in other fields.

Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" series explores the costs, benefits, and dangers of life in a democracy helmed by those of advanced age, where issues of profound importance to the nation's youth and future — technology, civil rights, energy, the environment — are largely in the hands of those whose primes have passed.

Recent history from across oceans offers insight.

'Detached'

The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow on May 9, 1981. 

Laski Diffusion/Getty Images

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he was the fourth leader the Soviet Union had seen in three years. At 54, he was also the youngest Soviet leader in years. Within six years, he would oversee the downfall of a superpower.


In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR was largely controlled by old men who were increasingly detached from the public and whose calcified rule left Gorbachev with a mountain of problems that he ultimately failed to overcome. Gorbachev desperately tried to reform the Soviet system via perestroika and glasnost, vying to pump life into the stagnant economy by introducing elements of free-market capitalism while opening the door to increased freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

But the changes could not repair the damage. As Gorbachev put it in his resignation address in December 1991, "the old system collapsed before the new one had time to begin working, and the crisis in the society became even more acute."

Biberman, a Russia scholar who's an associate professor at Skidmore College, said the Soviet gerontocracy wasn't the main reason the USSR dissolved but was intrinsically tied to the problems underpinning the collapse.

Economic stagnation and "unsustainable levels of military spending" were probably far more to blame, Biberman said, but there was also a general sense that "the world-historical mission that motivated the early cadres of the Soviet state" wasn't worth believing in anymore. It made Soviet politics "a very stale affair which didn't inspire the younger generations and ossified the ruling caste in place," Biberman said.

Biberman pointed to similarities in the US system now.

"There is an aging — and already quite old — cadre of American politicians at the federal level who seem to hold on to office like grim death," Biberman said, adding that this "stagnant caste" of US politicians has been "quite detached from the material concerns of ordinary citizens since perhaps the end of the Cold War."

Much like the Soviet Union's leaders, these politicians — on both sides of the aisle — aren't offering society much in the way of "new ideas or political motivation," Biberman added.

Susan Grunewald, a historian of the Soviet Union at Louisiana State University, told Insider that she'd be hesitant to directly compare the US and USSR but that "you can certainly see parallels."

"It doesn't matter whether it's the Soviet Union or the United States — there's always a clash" between older and younger generations, Grunewald said.

The older generation is grounded in years of experience and years in power, meaning those people "don't necessarily want to change or radically alter the status quo," Grunewald said. "And the youth has a different life experience. They have different approaches. They look at everything with a different perspective. And so naturally there's going to be a disagreement."
'They clung to power'

Vladislav Zubok, a top Soviet historian at the London School of Economics who grew up in the USSR, told Insider that there was no single thing that led to the fall of the Soviet Union. But he emphasized that during that era of gerontocracy, "we were all aware of something going deeply wrong."

"It looked like the generation of Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and all of them — they clung to power. They were afraid to let it go," said Zubok, the author of "Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union."

The Soviet government in those days was a subject of ridicule, Zubok said. "When people began to realize, for instance, that Brezhnev couldn't quite speak properly, he quickly became a comical person," he added.

Brezhnev's health took a turn for the worse after a stroke in 1976, but he remained in power for years. The historian Roy Medvedev claimed in 1988 that Brezhnev had suffered clinical death in 1976 and went on to rule in a daze for the rest of his tenure.

"Many people in his entourage who were influential but totally wallowing in corruption needed Brezhnev to appear from time to time in public as at least a formal head of state. They literally led him around by the hand," Medvedev said at the time.

Zubok said the Soviet gerontocracy was largely derived from the generation who fought World War II and felt they had a "special credibility" to rule, but by clogging up the system for so long they made it difficult to prepare the leaders of tomorrow. They also resisted reforms that might have improved citizens' quality of life, a period that Gorbachev called the "era of stagnation."

By the time Gorbachev took over, Zubok said, he'd "inherited so many systemic problems converging at the same time."

Gorbachev's lack of experience created within him the impression that he was there to change history and made him more willing to take risks, Zubok said, adding: "He began to experiment without sufficient knowledge of how these experiments might backfire but with great idealism. And that did become a central factor in the demise of the Soviet Union."

'Pernicious role of money'

People hold signs and cheer during a rally calling for an end to corporate money in politics on January 21, 2015, in Washington, DC. 

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Though the political systems of the US and the USSR are drastically different, Zubok underscored that what happened in the Soviet Union still serves as a warning. The fact the US is a democracy makes it even "more painful" to see it move toward being gerontocratic, Zubok said, laying much of the blame on the "pernicious role of money" in the seemingly nonstop cycle of elections.

With no congressional term limits, incumbents in Congress are offered ample opportunity to consolidate power and influence. This often translates to congressional incumbents raising more money than their opponents and helps explain why they win most races each election.

For the past 40 years, incumbent reelection rates in the US House have hovered between 85% and 98%, according to the nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets. In the Senate, reelection rates for officeholders have ranged from 75% to 96%. And while some lawmakers choose to quit in their primes, others stay well into advanced age amid questions about their abilities to carry out their duties.

In short, it's very difficult to defeat a congressional candidate who's already in Congress. And it's a large part of the reason some congressional lawmakers remain in their seats for decades.

Even with "periodic elections" in the US, Zubok said, it's still ending up with "the same kind of people who grow old" in power. Biden is just one example of current leaders in Washington who've served in powerful roles for decades. He became a senator at 30 in 1973; half a century later, he's in the White House. Pelosi, meanwhile, has been in Congress for 35 years.

'People who don't know when to go'

Brezhnev's 75th-birthday celebration at the Grand Kremlin Palace in December 1981. Laski Diffusion/Getty Images

Fiona Hill, who served as the top Russia advisor on the National Security Council in the Trump administration, said that "of course" the gerontocracy in the Soviet Union contributed to its ruin.

But she also cautioned against writing off the elderly or succumbing to ageism, saying that "some of our greatest thinkers have come into their own late in life."

Even so, Hill said that in the US, some groups seem to "have been bypassed in the political system," and Americans have to ask why that is.

Joe Biden in 1978, when he was a US senator representing Delaware. Getty Images

Hill said the issue with politicians like Biden is not so much their age but how long they've been in power, which is why many voters turned against political dynasties like the Bush family or the Clintons in recent election cycles. "People were looking for something fresh and new," she said, emphasizing that the problem is the "ossification of the system."

Political institutions in the US "just seem to be dominated by people who don't know when to go" and appear to view their positions as "lifetime appointments," Hill said, creating the perception that it's "an arena that is so out of touch with reality, and increasingly so."

A system with clogged arteries

A gerontocratic government is not necessarily an inherent sign of democratic decline — but in a country like the US, it can point to deep flaws in the system.

"The American gerontocracy is composed of a group that has for decades refused to relinquish power," Biberman said. "A healthy mix of generations in political office would have its advantages."

Countries with younger leaders have been applauded for their approaches to major issues. Finland, led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 36, was ranked the happiest country in the world for the fifth consecutive year in 2022. As economic powerhouses with older leaders like the US struggled with their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, 42, was lauded for her measured approach that helped prevent the virus' spread.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin arrives for a European Union summit in Brussels on July 17, 2020. Photo by Pool/Getty Images

That's not to say that countries with older leaders cannot be innovative or that nations with young leaders are always prosperous. But there are few examples in the past century of countries ruled by a gerontocracy where the leadership adopted reforms that increased economic competitiveness or improved their citizens' quality of life.

Now, countries with older leaders clinging to power tend to be autocratic. The Chinese leader Xi Jinping, for example, turned 69 in June, breaking the customary age limit of 68 for top leaders in the Communist Party. He's overseen the elimination of presidential term limits and is on the verge of an unprecedented third term. That Xi broke from China's past efforts to prevent gerontocracy is one of many signs of the country becoming increasingly authoritarian under his rule. It's clear he intends to rule for life.

A country led by people who have been in power for decades — regardless of whether its government is authoritarian or democratic — points to underlying problems that can induce stagnation and instability.

"It shows that the system does not perform well, that the arteries get clogged at some point," Zubok said. "Instead of pushing new blood up upwards, they're clogged."