It’s not even just the people running for president.
The top three House Democrats are ancient. Pelosi is 79. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is 80. Majority Whip Jim Clyburn is 79.
In the Senate, Schumer is 68 and Minority Whip Dick Durbin is 74.
Their Republican counterparts in the House (McCarthy and Scalise) are both in their mid 50s. McConnell is old, but the 2nd in command (Majority Whip John Thune) is only 58.
The Democratic Party has a SERIOUS age problem.
The Dems nominating an even more senile racist is too perfect for this terrible timeline we are living in so of course thats whats going to happen even though it makes no sense.
I’m trolling a bit and I don’t think the minimum age should be legally required to be 55+, but 55-65 is like prime age for POTUS. 40 is as much too young as 75 is too old. Like 20 years of high level experience in government would be a very reasonable minimum requirement if you were listing the job requirements.
It depends a great deal on the 40 year old. It’s true that it’s hard to muster a POTUS worthy resume by 40, and that’s already enough of a barrier IMO. The people that actually manage it are obviously serious people who should be treated as such.
See my edit and that’s what I’m talking about. Yeah, if you’re a state Governor or a Senator when you’re 20, maybe you’ll have enough experience by the time you’re 40.
You guys should see the 80 y/o judges. However, at least judges have to literally show their work, so it’s much easier to tell who is silpping. You could do basically nothing in Congress for a decade and no one would notice.
We all know old people.
It doesn’t help that that generation of Democratic politicians is absolute trash. They not only tolerated but embraced the lobbying culture in Washington after Roger Stone and company pioneered modern lobbying during the Nixon administration. They are incredibly corrupt as a group and will probably burn in hell if there is one.
You want to blame the GOP for all the awful shit they’ve done over the last 30 years? Go for it. Don’t forget that they only got to do that stuff because the Dems let them. If they had put their country first and done what ordinary people wanted the GOP wouldn’t have been able to mutate into its current form. That was made possible entirely by having incredibly weak opponents who were also stuffing their faces with the spoils of the political duopoly.
Yes. AOC is very likely going to be running for president in her late 30’s-early 40’s. I’m going to vote for her in the primaries almost no matter what the rest of the field looks like.
I will vote for her too. Experience is not the only thing that matters. It’d be better to have peak AOC at like 55, but I wouldn’t pass up the chance to have POTUS AOC if it’s possible.
Like the best candidate at being smart on policy and quick on her feet is obviously the 70 year old and that’s partly because of all her experience. 50 year old Elizabeth Warren <<< 70 year old Elizabeth Warren.
We only know about 70 year old Elizabeth Warren because 50 year old Elizabeth Warren was a god tier law prof at Harvard Law School. That woman probably would have been a better president than 70 year old Warren… but how were we supposed to know that?
Compare Elizabeth to Mayor Pete. Mayor Pete is like a genius who has been resume building his entire life, but he’s not ready. Like, he’s not the worst candidate. I him ok, but his age/inexperience is a negative.
Because she had no government experience at 50. The law prof experience was good experience, but someone who is a law prof and no gov experience running for POTUS? A HUGE negative.
What do you think she’d say about that? You think she’d say that the sum of all her experience isn’t what helps make her ready to be POTUS?
AOC as a candidate would be great. Even if she doesn’t win it would further drag the old moderate to right wing placeholders who dominate the party to the left.
The incrementalism and quest for making the party a corporate friendly moderate cesspool we have seen from Dem leadership is at least as much of the problem as the Republicans being complete scum. People like Pelosi, Schumer and the Clintons have completely destroyed the party. We are now at a period where those figures are digging in and doing everything they can to maintain control of the party at the expense of the farther left leaning members of the party. It’s disgusting.
Someone like AOC (and possibly Warren or Bernie this cycle) needs to gain power of the party. Even Obama bowed to this disease within the party after being elected. But I don’t think some of these current progressive members of the party would do that.
It’s why nominating Biden would be such a huge disaster. Whether he gets elected or not he doesn’t stand for any liberal values. If the party can’t be meaningfully moved left when we are facing off against someone as heinous as Trump it’s never happening.
Let’s be very clear… When AOC is in her late 30’s early 40’s the old moderate Dems you’re talking about will be dead. Totally agree with the rest of your post. The Democratic Party is just the liberal flavor of the duopoly that has absolutely pillaged this country since Nixon. Democratic politicians are just as beholden to lobbyists as the GOP politicians are, and the Dems have effectively refused to do anything positive for normal Americans since Reagan, which is why they keep losing elections to Republicans.
It’s super easy to not bother voting and say ‘both sides suck’ when both sides do in fact suck. The Democrats are responsible for sucking.
The thing is no one is actually qualified to be POTUS. There’s no other job remotely like it. As a result talent (charisma, intellect, ability to perceive reality, the flexibility to adapt rapidly to changing circumstances) and energy level are more important than experience…
Honestly experience in the political environment of the last 30 years in DC is kind of awful. If you thrive in this environment what does that say about you? In the case of Warren it says she can rise above the toxic sludge and get good things done anyway, but in the case of most of her ‘qualified’ opponents it means they are full blooded swamp monsters.
For the record I do not consider Sanders to be one of the tainted ones. I dislike him because I can’t find a single instance where he’s ever changed his mind in the face of new facts. That’s just immensely disqualifying for a role that is 99% about making decisions.
If it were possible to fast forward and observe a hypothetical AOC who is still politically relevant and has spent most/ all of her years between now and age 55 getting government experience, I kinda doubt that you would consider that AOC to be peak AOC.
I hope I’m wrong, but I think she’s either going to (a) stick to her guns and burn out on Washington or (b) make some compromises that would lead future seeing Microbet to consider her a machine pol.
And even if neither of those things happen, it’s really hard to stay cutting edge progressive as you get older. Technology changes, culture changes, politics evolves, and what was a mainstream or even progressive position one day can seem shockingly regressive in 5 or 10 years.
Being maximally progressive is not the only thing, understanding the job and knowing how to do it is also important. Anyone who has a fair amount of experience doing anything comes to understand that experience is important. And for what it’s worth, I personally am both more progressive and more technologically adept than I was when I was 30.
Consider AOC versus Elizabeth Warren. In all the ways that AOC is awesome she is really awesome and more awesome than Elizabeth Warren, but I would still vote for Elizabeth Warren over AOC for president right now. And I bet both Elizabeth Warren and AOC would agree with me.
Yeah 30 is pretty much too young. But 35-45 where you’ve been in the game in a major role since your mid 20’s is just fine. That’s enough time to have enough relevant experience, and if you have a ton of success in your track record at 35 it’s probably because you’re really good at whatever it is that you do.
Also this is less about ‘being a progressive’ and checking all the boxes on your beliefs than it is about sincerely serving the needs of your constituents. The great sin of this recent political era has been politicians ignoring their constituents to serve (very well!) the interests of people with money to donate.