Bill McKibben is co-founder of Third Act, which mobilizes people over 60 for action on climate and justice. He is the author of “The End of Nature” and 20 other books. Molly Schen is co-facilitator of Third Act Maine, supporting statewide legislation for the environment and climate resiliency as well as protections for democracy.
Susan Collins is counting on the votes of older Mainers to return her to the Senate this fall. They’re familiar with her since she’s been in office for almost 30 years, and they supported her in the past, including in her 2020 win over Sara Gideon. But it’s possible that she’ll lose that demographic this time around — in fact, we think it’s likely.
Third Act’s Maine working group has endorsed her opponent, Graham Platner. There are a lot of reasons for that, most of them having to do with his support of progressive policies on democracy and climate change — and our deep hope that a Democratic majority in Congress would offer at least a little protection from the wars, tariffs, slush funds and other policy errors of the Trump administration.
But there’s another reason too. And that’s that we should be trying to turn over more control of our government to younger people who will have to live for many decades with the decisions being made today. This is not an ironclad rule — policy and capacity should still decide who we send off to Washington or Augusta. But age is important for several reasons.
One is that … people age. We are well aware of how many capable and committed older Americans there are; it’s our great joy to organize entirely among people over the age of 60, and so we know people all across the country who are able and vigorous. And we also know better than others that aging can be precarious, as the decline of both Biden and Trump should remind us regularly.
But it goes beyond that. One of our working principles at Third Act is “Support the youth” (and once you reach a certain age, Graham Platner, at age 41, seems quite youthful!).
There’s a deeper reason, too. Being in Washington creates a gulf between Capitol Hill and life back home. Susan Collins has been in D.C. since the year Princess Diana died, and it seems to have slowly robbed her of the ability to see how bad things have gotten.
It’s become a standing joke that when Trump does something truly awful — sets up a slush fund for violent rioters, say — she expresses some form of “deep concern,” and then returns to business as usual, voting to make sure that the GOP stays in charge of the Senate and that nothing is ever done to stop him. With Platner we’ll get a fresh take on things, coming from someone who’s lived a somewhat normal life amid normal people in recent years.
We don’t understand everything about that life, of course. We grew up before social media, and we’re relieved that every dumb thought we had in our younger years isn’t preserved for posterity. But we also grew up during the Vietnam War, and we know what service in violent and pointless conflicts did to many of our friends and family; we’re glad Platner has been able to rebuild his life in a useful way.
We obviously don’t think that older people should stay out of politics — just the opposite. We’ve spent the last few years building Third Act so that seniors can take part in our civic life. (And they played a real role in Augusta this year, passing new legislation to make solar easier to install, and to consider the cost of damages the biggest climate polluters have caused).
But “playing an effective role” and “holding office” are two different things. We’d be happy if Susan Collins wanted to join our ranks — at various times she’s professed concern about climate change and democratic erosion, even if her votes have been at odds with those professed concerns. But she doesn’t need to do it from the Senate.
We know — and we appreciate — that these are sensitive questions for others to take up. Ageism is very real in our society, and it’s right that people should tread carefully around it.
But growing old gives one certain insights, particularly into age itself and the beauty of passing on important roles to those the age of our kids and grandkids. It’s a joy to share the world with them, including the responsibility for that world.