Today is the 40th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre. It seems that, still, the government is out-of-touch.

In 1965, Jack Weinburg, leader of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, coined the phrase “Don’t trust anyone over 30″. Of course, the Constitution mandates that, to be elected to the Senate, you must be over 30. But, although this quote is an arbitrary standard, let’s see how it holds up against the Senate today (the 111th) and the Senate on May 4, 1970 (the 91st):

Some interesting numbers:

• The average and median age of Senators in the 91st: 58
• Average and median age of Senators today: 64
• Number of Senators today were over 30 at the time of Kent State: 30
• Number of Senators today who were under the age of 15 at the time of Kent State: 16
• Number of Senators who served in both sessions: 2 (Robert Byrd and Daniel Inouye)
• Number of Senators today who were 19 or 20 in 1970 (the age of the fallen): 9

Interesting point: All these numbers are very, very close to evenly split between political party.

The median age of the US by the 2000 census was 35.

It always seems that, by polling numbers, the older generation is out of touch. When fully half of the senate falls in the 65+ category, consider these numbers:

• One of my favorite recent infographics, on gay marriage
• Gallup numbers on Health Care Reform:

Very current Gallup numbers show young people being hugely disillusioned about voting for the Senate Midterms. And no wonder, when there are no viable candidates to represent them.

I guess I’m still floored that 30% of our current Senate wouldn’t have been trusted then.

(Above numbers I got using Freebase, naturally)