There is a renewed movement in the Democratic Party to have older members removed and replaced with younger ones.
The most recent time the issue arose, the push was spearheaded by David Hogg, who was effectively ousted from DNC leadership for his stance on this issue.
Now, a House Democrat is making a move on a senator from his own party who has been in office for about five decades.
When the Democratic National Committee (DNC) elected Hogg as its vice chair, the party was giddy to have such a high-profile, young activist in its leadership ranks.
Well, Hogg held to his word that he would seek to primary incumbents if he did not think they were doing their job or were incapable of living up to expectations.
After his plan of targeting these individuals was put into place, he attempted a bit of damage control, stating, “There’s a lot of people out there who want to make this all about age and say that we’re just targeting people because they’re above a certain age or something like that -- that could not be further from the truth.”
He then added, “There are older people who are great; there are young people who suck. Unfortunately, it’s not like you just get above a certain age and you start being terrible. It’s a lot more nuanced than that.”
I have been all over this issue since I started writing about politics about a decade ago.
To me, it is all about age and health, as politicians have a very demanding schedule IF they are doing their jobs correctly. They are supposed to be in D.C. for four days a week of legislating, then they should head back home to their districts to hold office hours over the long weekend to serve their constituents.
It’s a young man’s game, particularly regarding the ability to relate to the concerns of voters, yet 57% of senators are over the age of 60, and 44% of House members are also in that bracket. In most private sector companies, these people would have been forced to retire, yet voters continue to pull the lever for them in every election.
This cycle is no different, as we have numerous members of the House and Senate who are over 80 years old who are vying for re-election once more.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) just said the quiet part out loud, as he announced that he is going to primary Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), who is 79 years old.
Moulton stated, “Is he too old? Look, every political consultant will tell me not to say this, but the honest truth is, yes.” He then added, “Senator Markey is a very nice guy, but he’s been in Congress for 50 years, and he’ll be 86 years old at the end of his next term as our junior senator.”
Moulton attacked Markey’s age in his campaign launch ad as well, stating, “We’re in a crisis, and with everything we learned last election, I just don’t believe Sen. Markey should be running for another six-year-term at 80-years-old. Even more, I don’t think someone who has been in Congress for half-a-century is the right person to meet this moment and win the future.”
I agree with him completely, and not just because Markey is a Democrat. My regular readers know how passionate I am about this issue, as I believe we should have age and term limits in Congress. Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed to see someone holding a seat for 50 years, as that was just not the idea behind Congress when it was created. Markey, among others, needs to go.
