Power over progress? Critics say ageing Democrats hurting party’s future

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Mitch McConnell, 83, was clearly ailing when he stepped down after 18 years as Republican leader in the Senate in January. — Reuters pic

WASHINGTON, May 28 — As a damning expose on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline scandalises Washington, Democrats in Congress are facing their own reckoning over a seniority system that critics say is holding back younger talent.

Six Democratic lawmakers have died in a little over a year — dispiriting bereaved colleagues but also leaving the rank-and-file critically under-resourced when it comes to opposing President Donald Trump.

House Republicans passed Trump’s sprawling tax relief and spending cuts by a solitary vote last week, approving a package that Democrats say will deprive more than eight million Americans of health care.

Democrats did not have the numbers to cause problems for the bill because of three empty seats on their side — all recently vacated by lawmakers in their 70s who had died after battling cancer.

“Imagine if one of the older and sicker Dems would’ve retired instead of died in office and what that would’ve meant for millions of people,” political consultant Rebecca Katz posted on X.

The complicated math means that even a full Democratic contingent would likely only have been able to delay rather than torpedo the bill.

But it is being seen as a lost opportunity that has laid bare the party’s problems with ageing members clinging to office despite ailing health — in a party desperate for new blood.

One of the vacancies was the Virginia seat formerly held by Gerry Connolly, 75, who had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and died just a day earlier.

Oldest president

Democrats had just picked Connolly to be their leader on the powerful oversight committee, choosing his experience over the energy and social media savvy of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, 40 years his junior.

“By elevating someone who was more of a standard politician, they sort of lost out on getting into the culture,” left-leaning political commentator Molly Jong-Fast told MSNBC.

“And ultimately that was, I think, a miss for Democrats.”

Age is a touchy subject among Democrats, with 82-year-old Biden’s inner circle denying accusations in a new book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of covering up his glaring infirmity.

In the Senate the party is led by 74-year-old Chuck Schumer and in the House former speaker Nancy Pelosi, 85, still holds enormous sway two years after giving up the gavel.

Democrats do not have a monopoly on ageing issues.

Mitch McConnell, 83, was clearly ailing when he stepped down after 18 years as Republican leader in the Senate in January and Trump, 78, is set to become the oldest US president in history.

But the so-called “gerontocracy” has been more harmful to Washington’s minority party, frustrating the agenda of Democratic White Houses and allowing Republicans in Congress to absorb more defections.

At the heart of the problem is the Democrats’ long-honoured seniority system, which prioritizes lawmakers based on experience when allocating plum committee assignments, leadership posts and office space.

‘Contemptible little twerp’

As a result, top Democrats on more than half of the House committees are aged 70 or over. The mean age of these 20 party grandees is 69, compared with a more youthful 62 for Republicans.

And the problem is not confined to Congress.

Mourning gave way to frustration over liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who clung on until her death in 2020 at age 87 instead of retiring with Barack Obama in office, allowing Trump to fill the vacancy.

There have been baby steps to address the gerontocracy but progress has been halting.

Gun safety campaigner David Hogg, 25, was elected as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in February and promptly called for primary challenges to “out-of-touch, ineffective Democrats.”

This did not go down well among the party’s old guard, with 80-year-old strategist James Carville calling Hogg a “contemptible little twerp.”

But the revelations about Biden’s deteriorating health, including a newly announced prostate cancer diagnosis, are an illustration for activists and analysts that the party needs to change course.

“If you are saying that democracy is on the ballot, if you are saying this the most important election of our lifetime, which they did say to the base, then the base expects you to act like it,” Jong-Fast added.

“They expect you to elevate the people who can speak better than the people who are your friends... And I think this is a sea change for the Democratic Party.” — AFP