After the humiliating and ridiculous loss in November, you’d think the Democrats would decide to shake things up and change a few of the top brass. You’d think wrong.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lost the bid to be the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, following reports that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was actively plotting behind the scenes on behalf of her challenger, Rep. Gerry Connolly.
The 74-year-old Virginia Democrat ended up winning by a margin of 131 to 84 in a secret ballot vote taken by the entirety of the Democratic caucus.
In a report published by Punchbowl News last week, the outlet wrote that Pelosi was “actively working to tank” AOC’s bid and was “making calls” on behalf of Connolly.
Not only is Connolly old, but he was recently diagnosed with cancer. Pelosi just had hip replacement surgery.
Fresh off hip replacement surgery, Nancy Pelosi, 84, secured another victory. House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon decided that 74-year-old Gerry Connolly—who announced his throat cancer diagnosis in November—will serve as ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, besting 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a closed-door caucus vote. “Gerry’s a young 74, cancer notwithstanding,” said Virginia Democrat Don Beyer, a Connolly ally. Pelosi had opposed the 35-year-old’s run for the role, “approaching colleagues urging them to back Connolly over Ocasio-Cortez,” Axios reported last week.
Connolly will join fellow septuagenarians in top committee spots next year. Richard Neal, 75, will lead Democrats on Ways and Means while Frank Pallone, 73, will be the party’s top representative on Energy and Commerce. Eighty-six-year-old Maxine Waters will be the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee, and Rose DeLauro, 81, will helm the Democrats’ presence in Appropriations.
Jesus christ, this is insane. I can say that, because at 67 years old, I can recognize that my age is a limitation, and that I should be stepping back to let younger colleagues place their stamp on my institution. When I’m in my 70s and 80s, I should definitely not be the one shaping policy in my department — I’m already too remote from modern science in my field.
But the Democrats are wed to money and power, and they’re not going to shake it off.
In other democracies, the leadership of parties that have endured humiliating defeats like the one Democrats saw in November—or even just regular defeats—resign. That kicks off a process by which members determine a new, ideally more successful direction, represented by different people. But the Democratic Party isn’t really a “party” of the sort that exists in other democracies, with memberships and official constituencies, like unions, who have some say over how it’s governed. Members mostly make decisions based on their own interests rather than to drive some shared, democratically decided agenda forward.
That’s part of what’s so depressing about the Oversight Committee ordeal for the couple dozen journalists and political junkies who pay attention to that sort of thing. Pelosi and the old guard’s continued opposition to younger talent seems breathtakingly counterproductive in the face of the Democratic Party’s numerous challenges right now. Simultaneously, the House’s “resistance” to Trump and the GOP in the House will be led by people of all ages who don’t seem particularly interested in that project, despite having spent the entire election cycle warning that Trump’s Republican Party represents a second coming of fascism. If incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries really believes that, then why is he advertising his willingness to work with the GOP? Why are so many other Democrats, for that matter, trying to make nice with Trump acolyte Elon Musk?
Capitalism and a gerontocracy — we are cursed. They’re going to lose the next election, and the next after that, aren’t they?
Yep. The Democratic party is a private club and the old guard membership is there to serve their own interests, not the people who vote for them. Their staunch refusal to embrace and campaign on popular progressive policies only worsened in the last election when the completely embraced Republicans and most of their agenda in order to appeal to some mythical right wing voters that would not line up behind Trump. Now they are lining up to kiss his fascist ass and ensure that a bad situation can only get worse.
Good luck!
QFT.
Yeah, that sums it up.
An inbred gerontocracy.
After an election defeat like the last one, they should be doing a review, an autopsy, and searching the imaginary souls of the Democratic party.
Why do the same old things over and over again, when they fail?
Strangely enough, at least their candidate for president, Kamala Harris, was relatively young for a national leader. She is 60.
I’ve always though the Democratic party lacks any real leadership. I don’t even know who the party head is.
.1. At this point, they should already be identifying candidates for the midterms.
Contest every race since the GOP is intellectually and morally bankrupt.
.2. They should have a farm system like Major League Baseball.
Which means identifying young people like AOC, or like Obama and Bill Clinton were, with intelligence and talent to eventually be national leaders and electable.
On the bright side, the GOP isn’t any better.
Their leader is a 78 year old with obvious age related cognitive problems.
You really think they’ll be more elections now? At least actual legitimate free~ish and fair~ish ones?
I doubt that. Given Trump and Musk and Murdoch and all that
jazzfascist ideology triumphing with unchecked power now.(Thanks Vicar, Beholder, Purity Disunity mob who didn’t turn out and vote for Kamala when it was your ONLY easy, democratic chance to actually stop what everyone should see is coming but clearly too many didn’t actually see coming because a majority – if slight – of Americans
arewere too collectively fooled by propaganda to do the obviously right things.)RIP USoA. Pity you didn’t choose more wisely. For all of us. Fuck yáll forever for being so fucking guillible, willffully deluded and badly informed and poor of rationality. You have totally screwed the restof us and yourselves. But hey, something something Biden not perfect, old, Kamnala, well, woman, not the unicorn farting rainbows you insisted upon,, Oh and Gaaaaaaaaaza.. as if that’s not also going to be made so much worse, so very, <very, very much worse becoz of you now.. Putin thanks you for your temporary, disposable usefulness and foolishness with scientific notation and a couple of baziliion figures in the superscript after that.
every day a new embarrassment
Of course the boot licking tankies are quite happy to lick Putin’s boots, cheer on his genocide in Ukraine and then Putin’s other genocides to come and celebrate the total destruction of their country and the world order until the metaphorical fucking leopard becomes a not so metaphorical actual thing that metaphorically -maybe even actually sarts eating THEIR fucking faces.
As everyone with a working brain already warned them. But too late now.
Yeah, not seeing much reason to show faith in the Democratic leadership. Guess it’s grass root work ahead of us.
The USSR developed into a gerontocracy too and collapsed when Gorbachev tried to revive it.
@ coffeepott : To whoem? Why? Care to elaborate and specify please?
@6. Recursive Rabbit : Mor eunderground than grassy roots. Deper and harder. So to speak.
No one in our organization has supported either corrupt political party (DNC RNC) in this country. We voted against tRUMP by holding our noses and voting for Harris. When we contribute we do so to specific individuals and organizations based on their honesty and decency. We support the Squad (AOC, Tlaib, Omar, et. al.) We do all we can to avoid any support of the corrupt abusive corporations and their ceos that run this country.
But @3 StevoR is correct, we think that this country is circling the drain due to the above disgusting corrupt forces. Oh, I almost forgot, the xtian terrorists are allied with that destruction.
Welcome to the new Dark Ages.
The Democratic party is probly now history.
(Yay? Apart from y’know, all the carnage, human pain, deaths, implicatiions, consequences, that’s about to result.)
I’m pretty sure American Democracy – such as it already was – which wasn’t much – is definitely now hstory.
Ditto what was formerly the United States of America.
I wish I could say I was being hyperbolic here. I don’t think I am.
I wish you Americans hadn’t just fucked up the rest of our pale blue dot that we all live upon and share. But you have.
I don’t blame you for being upset, but this really is completely out of touch with what happened and is happening in the US.
It’s especially weird that you’re still posting strawmen about “unicorn farting rainbows” while refusing to direct any of your otherwise justified ire at the uniquely dysfunctional party apparatus in the US. Even on a post which explicitly calls out the wildly out of touch corruption which cost the Democrats the election (and, as you say, maybe the rest of us our democracy).
The election outcome absolutely did not turn on third party votes in battleground states. Or even turnout. It’s true Democratic turnout was down overall (which I take as a tacit indictment of the party’s offer to voters), but NOT in swing states, where democratic-aligned voters did their duty. In the end, there were simply too many voters in those states who desperately wanted a change, and (correctly, frankly) saw Trump as the only one offering any, however shambolic and wrong-headed that offer was.
(Besides Have any of those folks confirmed that they live in a state where it would really matter?
You do understand that many people live in states where a protest vote for a third party can be made with no material effect on the outcome. Many people in closer states may also “trade” votes with someone in one of those states, so that their protest can be registered without affecting the outcome.)
Vicar’s arrival to the thread in 3…2…1…
US Democratic party is one of the most pathetic opposition parties I have ever seen. Please Democrats, for the love of whatever you hold dear abandon the fucking stupid seniority rules. It’s stupid AF.
Stevo you’re drunk. Again. Sleep it off and don’t post until you’ve sobered up.