The Democratic Party has an age problem

[Baconator]

Democratic leaders across both the legislative and executive branches are generally older than leadership on the other side of the aisle, leading to some restlessness among the lower ranks who have been patiently awaiting their turn at the top.

The most recent blow to those hoping to climb the ranks? Dianne Feinstein, 84, the oldest senator currently serving in the chamber, just announced a bid for re-election to the seat she's held for two and a half decades.

The presidential field also looks like an uphill climb for young Democrats: apart from a couple of standout young senators, names like Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden still loom large among the potential hopefuls.

Part of the problem for Democrats is one of recruiting. Historic losses over the last decade in statehouses across the country have not helped create a bench of energized new lawmakers. Further Democrats have had difficulty winning new seats in the House since the tea party wave of 2010 and redistricting in the wake of that year's census


http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/10/politics/democrats-age-problem/index.html?CNNPolitics=fb

_____________________________________

Data and more info at the page. Limited by 4 paragraph copy rule.

Posted in GD as I don't think this qualifies as news. This is not a slam on anyone so much as an attempt to help folks understand what it's going to take to stop Trump in 2020.

[greymattermom]

1. Love Jon Ossoff

and we need more like him.

[JI7]

2. Too bad those who complain about age didn't do much to support him

[octoberlib]

59. Bingo. I'd suggest they actually start voting especially during mid-terms.

If they don't like the candidates on offer then they should run themselves.

[shanny]

37. The guy who--according to Joy Reid--

did everything except run as a Republican and yet under-performed Hillary in his district? That guy?

I disagree and so does Charles Pierce, who says it way better.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a12781302/democrats-alabama-mississippi-progressives/

[Binkie The Clown]

3. The elderly are always struggling to keep the youngsters from rising in the ranks.

And I say this as an elderly person myself. Personally, when I retired I was all too happy to turn the reigns over to the younger generation. It's time for the old folks to step aside and let the next generation take over.

[snowybirdie]

14. I agree

We WWII generation folks also want younger ideas and actions coming up. Time for the next guys to take over.

[RKP5637]

17. Agree!!! n/t

[marybourg]

35. Well, since all us old folks

agree that we want to see young people take over, then it can't really be true that "the elderly are always struggling to keep the youngsters from rising in the ranks."j

[Binkie The Clown]

36. O.K., then SOME old folks cling to power long after they should retire and

let the more energetic youngsters take over and bring fresh ideas to the mix.

To quote Max Planck (even though his subject was physics, and not politics...)

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

The same principle applies to political ideas.

[nini]

4. You know what pisses me off about these kinds of posts?

Is this notion that it's age. It's far more than that. I for one like experience and people I agree with but beyond that we are up against.:

Fox News
Gerrymandering
Racists
Christian right wing fanatics
Corrupt media
etc etc etc


The youthful Democrats will rise. Kamala Harris, Joe Kennedy III, etc are getting noticed. There is something to be said of our Dems in positions of power and I'll be god damned if I want to see that lost.

I've got my flameproof chonies on so fire away!

[elleng]

7. I REALLY like experience.

Thanks.

[nini]

11. I absolutely love Kennedy and Harris and I do hope they run or get in the mix for President

But I just can't go to not looking at older powerful Dems either.

[Willie Pep]

16. Politics is the one area where experience is a negative to some people.

But if you think about it this prejudice makes no sense. Politics is a job like any other in the sense that you have to learn the ropes and gain experience to become good at it. People saw Trump's lack of experience as a good thing because he is a "maverick" and an "outsider" but look how that has turned out. It is like hiring a mechanic who says "I know nothing about cars but I have a lot of energy and I yell a lot so hire me!" Sadly, for some people Clinton's decades of public experience meant that she was a "hack." Nobody ever calls mechanics with decades of dutiful service a "hack" but here we are.

[TheFrenchRazor]

26. true; experience, not just in politics, but in life generally, is important. nt

[cloudbase]

30. It's great if the person actually absorbs the lessons of that experience.

I've worked with people who claimed many years of experience, but in reality had one year of experience
many times.

[Willie Pep]

10. The Republicans have built up powerful political machines.

Koch Brothers dark money, the Tea Party, and gerrymandering. It has little to do with age by itself. In my area the local Dems ran a young, professional, attractive candidate against an entrenched, older Republican with a strong machine behind him and she got creamed despite her many postives. We need to stop looking at demographics and image as the beginning and end of everything and go back to street-level politics and old school precinct work.

[nini]

13. I agree completely

We need to fire up the base, take over local/state seats..congressional seats as we can.

They set this nightmare in place 40 years ago during Reagan's days. They have brainwashed half of the country. Our half needs to get off their butts - show up and get to work.

[awesomerwb1]

58. Yes, I agree

And I think that highlights the problem with Dems. Poor leadership.

We need to learn from the mistakes of the past. Need to better organize, communicate, and act. Don't get me wrong, I see that from awesome outside groups, but they have limited funds and we all have to work together.

There's a whole lot of anger out there but it's too divided. Right now, it should be everyone for country and against the Cheeto nutters. A lot of egos on the left "leadership". Wouldn't put it past the Dems to not be able to channel this huge anger into results in 2018.

The longer the reps are in power, the harder it will be to beat them in the future. And we don't want a 3-7 or 2-8 supreme court in the next few years either do we?

[nini]

62. I could bring up the real reason

But it would start a fight on last year's election cycle so I'm not taking the bait.

[LisaM]

5. What's happened at the state level is extremely harmful in this regard.

People are getting gerrymandered out of even trying.

EMILY's List has been trying hard to recruit women to run and create a new pool of women candidates, but I don't know anything about the demographics of what they've attracted so far.

[elleng]

9. It's BEEN happening.

[LisaM]

12. I agree!

We seem to either have fifteen candidates running for a position, or one. This means that there is some disorganization somewhere. In a lot of our races, they're taking the top two candidates, no matter the party, and I don't think that's working very well. If it's a safe district for one party, you get almost no one in the other party and then in my congressional district last year, we ended up with two good Dems running against each other so you knew one would lose. I'd rather they ran for different offices or maybe one moved a few miles away or something.

[crazycatlady]

49. There's a district in upstate NY that has something like 8-9 Dems running in the primary

While I'm happy they're all excited to take on a GOP incumbent, I think that in that part of NY (haven't done the research so I don't know for sure) there's many other positions that some of these candidates can fill. County leg, County executive (multi county district), State assembly, state senate, etc. They should be running for these lower positions too.

[Willie Pep]

6. I don't think age is the problem.

Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the country and he is in his 70s. People are living longer and are more capable in old age now so it is not surprising that many politicians are still active well into their golden years. Plus, I see age as a sign of experience. For some reason politics seems to be the one area where some people see experience as a negative but we need people who can work within the system and know the system to get stuff done.

The Democrats need to develop younger politicians for the future but I am not on board with dumping older politicians and pushing young ones just "because." We already have age discrimination in the workplace we don't need it in politics.

[sheshe2]

20. The Harvard Harris poll again?

Please stop.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-bernie-sanders-is-most-popular-u-s-politician/

The survey found that 57 percent of the public view the Vermont independent favorably while 32 percent said they view Sanders unfavorably. Hillary Clinton defeated Sanders in the Democratic primary for president last year. The next two most popular politicians among the public are Vice President Mike Pence and President Trump -- each with 44 percent viewing them favorably.

............................

Bogus poll. Debunked as such.

[NurseJackie]

44. We can learn a lot about those who continue to cite it...

Bogus poll. Debunked as such.

We can learn a lot about those who continue to cite it, and it reveals much more than they probably realize, and it's not at all flattering. It suggests to me that some people hold truth and accuracy as mere secondary concerns. And, frankly, I just find that to be a bit sad. I can't even get angry about it any more. It's still annoying, that's for sure.. but mostly sad.

[sheshe2]

47. Yup

[lunasun]

27. Experience is a plus to support . I agree it's not age and as far as getting votes and winning

look at republicans like John McCain and. McConnell who get reelected . Trump is 70.
Republicans don't seem to mind

[spanone]

8. and yet....Donald Trump is the oldest president elected in US history

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-oldest-president-us-history-2016-11

[liberal N proud]

15. Go figure

[LenaBaby61]

32. "And yet....Donald Trump is the oldest president elected in US history."

Yep, thuglicans don't have an age problem.

And, as long as they can gerrymander, voter-suppress, collect and count the votes, get the ruskies involved and meddling into our elections and take away the power of Democrats to vote, they can run an old, orange, racist, sexist, fascistic Methuselah in fatso tRumputin and STILL win the presidency

ANY young Dem can be done the SAME way as Hillary was done (And treated in a sexist way if the person running for POTUS is a woman). Like ANY Democrat would be immune to GOP cheating and ruskie meddling, and especially with that pig tRumputin installed into the White House (with putin as his Lord and Master) and with a thuglican Congress?


Hey OP, did you know that the Department of Homeland Security STILL only has an acting Secretary of that department (Elaine Duke) heading it? tRump, putin and most in this GOP-lead Congress are in NO hurry to appoint a permanent Secretary of Homeland Security, and as we know, the Department of Homeland Security has a LOT to do with voting across this country.

[spanone]

33. yep

[crazycatlady]

50. The GOP has a bench of younger candidates

They have a bench full of Gen X governors, senators, and other key leadership positions. I may not like them but they're light years ahead of the Democrats in that regard.

I can't think of very many Democrats with national potential that were born after 1960 (a few but nothing like the GOP in this category).

[loyalsister]

61. I noticed that trend beginning in the early 2000s

New gen Xer legislators in the MO GA were overwhelmingly republican. A republican gen Xer was elected governor in '04 and another last yr. The Gen xers grew up in the Reagan yrs, televangelism, and prosperity gospel. I have also noticed it among my peers whose minds seem to be intellectually saturated with Reagan era stigmatization of poor people, as well as the greediness of the 80s and early 90s.
There are exceptions, but I have noticed that among active democrats I see at fundraisers and other events. There is an age gap with the liberal baby boomers and the younger Gen Xers and millennials the majority. And very few in the middle (now in their mid 40s - early 50s). Congress looks similar. Paul Ryan's fellow Ayn Rand followers, started in their 30s and are reaching the prime age for elected leadership now. Fortunately, they have opposition in the form of a younger, very committed liberal up and comers.
We desperately need them and those who have been around for awhile really need to be thinking about the future and mentoring newbies rather than focus on winning elections and their last hurrahs.

[samnsara]

18. im all for experience!!!!

..we need a tried and true warrior to fight this next battle.

[Baconator]

19. ... and then they die

... and a gap opens up instead of a natural progression.

We're essentially two generations inbetween now...

Add to that the trouble an 85 year old has relating to someone in their 20s.

How much can you expect from someone who literally doesn't have to live with the consequences of their actions?

[Blue_Tires]

21. Kamala Harris tried to stand up

but the purity Dems smothered her with lightning quick speed...

Feinstein holding on to a safe seat isn't a problem, if they party youth are going to make some noise it needs to be in purple/red seats

[shanny]

38. ...

https://newrepublic.com/article/144230/lefts-misguided-debate-kamala-harris

Depends on the purity in question I guess...or do you consider The New Republic far left?

[Blue_Tires]

52. And just who might you be?

The sooner the Dem punditsphere realizes there's no magical candidate with a 100% pristine past and who is 100% aligned with DU on every political issue, the better...

[shanny]

56. ??? Did you read the article?

[Squinch]

22. Another bullshit "Democrats are doing it all wrong" article that actually even includes the

following statement:

Hillary Clinton won voters under 30 years old by nearly 20 percentage points, while Donald Trump won voters over 65 years old by 7 points, according to exit polls.

So they are arguing against their own thesis.

[Baconator]

24. Waiting until those folks die out is likely not the best strategy...

I'm just not that patient...

[Squinch]

25. No one is waiting until those folks die out, and we have a great stable of younger congresspeople.

It's just bullshit.

[TheFrenchRazor]

28. so you think older people should just "step aside" in favor of less experienced, less knowlegeable

younger people, because they're impatient and want to be able to skip to front of the line? young people can work for it, just like evreybody else, IMO.

[Baconator]

41. It's not skipping the line...

That's kind of the point.

What happens when there's responsible change is that those younger people gain their experience while they are still young enough to do something about it.

It's a very real concern that someone approaching their 90s has some ideas and parts of their personality set and can't understand the challenges that someone in their 20s is facing.

Anyone have a depression era grandparent who took bread from other tables at the restaurant and put it in their purse? That's the only way they know how to be because they were formed in a completely different time.

No one is saying that Diane Feinstein has to hand the keys over to a 22-year-old aide either btw...

[crazycatlady]

51. Would you rather have people retire or leave office in a body bag?

I see an 84 yo running for senate and I'm constantly reminded of the fiasco that came with filling Senator Lautenberg's seat after his death.

[JI7]

39. also, the only republican in recent years who has been able to get some young voters was Ron Paul

and nobody is supporting Paul Ryan.

people keep talking about the ages of the republicans but young people are not supporting them. it's old people who support the republican party far more.

it just makes no sense.

it goes against facts.

[delisen]

23. The problem is not attending to winning

non-presidential elections.

It happened 2 years into Bill Clinton's presidency and 2 years into Obama's presidency

In B. Clinton's presidency health care was tackled early and failed. It gave an opening to a Congressman from Georgia to devise A Contract with America.

It took years to win back the 34 national incumbent Democratic seats lost to Republicans in 1994. (No Republican lost their seats).

In B. Obama's presidency heath care was tackled early and was won-but Democrats were unprepared for the blow back-rise of the Tea Party.

Possibly we address big issues for the people and then fumble.

Both Clinton and Obama brought energy and young people into their campaigns and into the White House-but the party lost strength.

[bluestarone]

29. somehow i see divide and conquer here and

i don't like it

[Me.]

31. Nonsense

[pnwmom]

34. You're comparing apples and oranges.

Diane Feinstein's seniority gives her a Senate leadership position that gives California a special advantage. CA voters would be wise to think about that.

There is no special advantage to nominating Presidential also-rans of a similar age, and the work of a President is much more demanding than of a Senator, even a Senator in a leadership position.

I hope our next nominee is younger than Hillary or Bernie.

[msongs]

40. difi needs to retire. she did not respond to my snail mail suggesting retirement nt

[Scruffy1]

55. It's pretty much about the gerrymander.

With only about 1o% of Congressional seats being competitive it's pretty much a given that legislators will run safe races forever. This happens on the state level, also. If you have to fight for your seat, it's a lot easier to retire.Face it, elected officials of all stripes love the attention they get and are laoathe to give up power.This is normal. If we want new and better faces, we need to take back the state governments in places like Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. Governors are particlarly important because they are the head of the party on the state level.

[FSogol]

42. Bullshit. n/t

[Baconator]

43. Which part of the data did you find the least convincing?

[FSogol]

45. The part where people try and divide our party with a load of bs.

[Squinch]

65. .

[Baconator]

66. Ahh.. You just didn't like what it told you...

Slightly different but go nuts...

[treestar]

46. If they are in good health and want to run

I do not care how old they are. We don't need to kick them out, when they are willing, just because age. If Difi can win, that means the voters don't care.

[MineralMan]

48. Hmm...yes...a problem with younger voters, I think.

In reality, ageism is a lousy excuse.

[doc03]

53. Democrats were so confidant that Hillary Clinton was going to

be president we have no second string. I thought she would win too.
I agree totally we have a serious age problem when everyone being considered
is on Medicare. I am nearly 70 and I realize myself and everyone I know
my age don't have the physical or mental capacity we had 20 years ago. Look at the
last election the Republicans had 20 people running for president granted we think most of them
are bat shit crazy but not to Republicans.

[LonePirate]

54. This story has the potential to make things awkward around here.

Kind of tough to want new leadership while also supporting one particular leader.

[left-of-center2012]

57. My younger friends have told me ...

"The 2016 election was like choosing between my grandparents"

We need to get back to what JFK said,
and pass the torch to a new generation.

We honor and respect our older Democratic politicians,
but I am often attacked for saying it's time to pass that torch.

[frazzled]

60. The Republican Party has an age problem

Of the top 10 oldest members of the current Senate, 2 are Democrats, 8 are Republicans (Bernie avoids the top ten list by a year; he's 76):

Republicans:
Chuck Grassley 84
Orrin Hatch 83
Richard Selby 83
Jim Inhofe 82
John McCain 81
Pat Roberts 81
Thad Cochran 79
Lamar Alexander 77

Democrats
Dianne Feinstein 84
Patrick Leahy 77



I haven't computed the House yet, but if it's much younger on the Republican side, they can have it: the young ones are all the Tea Party ideologues who are causing all the chaos and destruction.

ON EDIT: I can't find a list of representatives in the House by age, and I'm not looking up 435 members. All I can say is that the average age in the House is currently the highest its ever been (and since there are more Rs than Ds, we'll assume they are part of the problem as well). The average age is currently 57.8 (the previous two Congresses were avg. 57.0 and the one before that 56.7)
https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R44762.html#_Toc475027524

[Initech]

67. Roy Moore is 84 and Joe Arpaio is 85.

There's no way either of them would make it past their first term. Or is that intentional?

[ucrdem]

63. And CNN can take credit for it.

Take a bow CNN for making Dem politics a scandal-ridden sh#t show where only saints need apply as all others will inevitably fall prey to the 24-hour bimbo cycle. Accept campaign donations? The FBI will be sure to arrange a stingeroo and CNN will broadcast your perp walk 24/7 the week before your next election. Ever smoked weed? Filed for divorce? Gotten a lot of parking tickets at some point in your life? Sent an email, ever? Yep, your gotcha is coming. Ain't life grand?

[LexVegas]

64. Bullshit. nt