My worry about Pelosi, and Sanders, and Hillary and Biden
(There have been discussions about Pelosi and since I added my comments at the wrong place, decided to start a new thread..)
They are all in their seventies, or close to. Yes, throw Warren to the mix. We need newer blood and I don't see it anywhere. Cory Booker is the only one.
When you realize that besides Trump, the others who won states are Cruz and Rubio - both are 46 - and many among the clown car were in their 40s and 50s we should worry.
No, I don't think that Pelosi should be removed; not for the sake of change.
I would hope that all of them - listed in the title - are busy traveling the county searching and encouraging young people to join.
Ossoff was a gamble that failed. Came from nowhere with nothing to offer. No meat on bones developed from experience.
Sure, Franken came without elective office but he is rare. And, first time around won by 300 votes. We need to encourage some to start at the school board, or the water board, city hall, planning commission, park and recreation - something. To learn about political life, to learn about walking the streets, knocking on doors meeting citizens face to face.
As I posted the day of the GA defeat: Trump notwithstanding, voters prefer some experience. And even that is not always enough.
Look at MN 3rd. Terry Bonoff was a successful state senator easily winning her elections. But Paulsen presented himself - at least while in the minority - as not a rabid one, never endorsed Trump. Now, of course, it is different.
As with Ossoff, the DCCC poured millions into that race and she lost. She ran as anti Trump and this was not enough. And to add insult to injury, her senate seat was taken by a Republican.
For a while I thought that we, Democrats, should go to these special elections and vote for the Democrat, any Democrat. Now I see that it is not enough. We have to seek good candidates. And I hope that our elders - listed at the title - could lead this mission. Take Obama along.
OK, shoot
= new reply since forum marked as read
Politicians have a knack for presenting themselves to the public and drawing attention to themselves, their accomplishments, and their ideas. They will let us know that they are ready, willing, and believe they are "able".
Work on congressional committees can be just as important in terms of experience as the leadership offices.
Moreover, we live in a time where people in their seventies are productive. We need the experience and the institutional memory. (Far too much of what I read on political forums are opinion without facts to back them up or with "alternative facts"
. Sometimes I am shocked but then realize that the posters didn't live through the history.
I never use age as a guide because people are individuals and circumstances we find ourselves in change. The power dynamics of the branches of government may be changing; the role of the citizenry and the media may be changing.
A person in his 80s, Adenauer, was the right person to lead a defeated and broken Germany after World War II. I am glad the Germans didn't sit around and opine that he might be too old.
After World War 11 the US was the the economic power of the world. It was inevitable that the situation would change. Large parts of American industry were in decline long before NAFTA.
Industry often didn't re-invest in their plants and increasingly had to compete with free, more efficient industry in other countries. For decades General Motors refused to build vehicles people wanted and then bitched when consumers turned to imports.
Oil and gas industry is doing the same thing now. They want to fight and suppress change that is good and inevitable.
We need to acknowledge that automation and robotization are going to end the workplace as we know it and start laying the groundwork for the just society. -which is not going to be primarily about "jobs"; it is going to be about justice and equality in all spheres of life.
Politicians know this but are not addressing it. Corporations know it and are making their own survive and thrive plans.
Political activists who are stuck in old 19th century or early 20th century economic theories aren't able to see the big picture.
The leadership is most likely going to come from the citizenry. We have certain historical antecedents that can be adjusted and utilized to meet the future without sacrificing democracy.
One is "individualism"; another is the "frontier." We are at a new frontier, and an unswerving belied in the worth of each person will be needed to prevent human disaster.
If we view people primarily as economic units or as "parts" --members of classes or groups, we lose. That is what human rights must always be the foundation of the system we build.
We can build any system we want-little is written in stone.
