This is how I see the current situation via the status of the Democratic Party

[Peacetrain]

It is a rebuild time.. Time to get those youngest Boomers and Gen Xers and older Millennials in the pipeline.

I cannot believe how Trump and his ilk have gone to war with each other and they are not even in office yet!!

As we have all been reading, the manure has been hitting the Westinghouse with the incoming party.

This could work out for us in the long run of it. We were getting a little stale.. and as an older Baby Boomer (maybe not as old as Trump) we need new people to lead and now is the time.

[elleng]

1. *the manure has been hitting the Westinghouse

with the incoming party.

This could work out for us in the long run!!!!

[Peacetrain]

2. Starting to feel those juices rise back up..

and looking to the future

[IA8IT]

14. This older Baby Boomer has HOPE Ernst and Grassley choose Constitution over clown car....

[Peacetrain]

15. Amen to that!!!

[Sympthsical]

3. I'm middle aged now (Xennial)

It has been the same. damn. people. my entire adult life.

It is . . . really something. How can we complain about oligarchy when our own structure is designed to install and perpetuate a calcified hierarchy of concentrated power and influence?

I'm in my 40s, and I've only now started thinking, "I will be 60 before this shit changes." We talk about our bench and new blood and bandy about names of younger politicians. We've been doing that for ages. Then that new blood gets older, they fade, they go find other things to do, and the same people sit there at the top.

We have lost generational talent to this stuff over the past 20 years. Only Obama has really broken through since 2000, and with him it was due to an extremely rare combination of charisma, oratorical skill, and ability to connect. We also had Ted Kennedy willing to puncture through the machine. Who do we have now with that kind of influence and willingness?

Every time we've gotten an inkling of what the future can be, it's "STFD and STFU, because seniority."

Talented people won't hang for that, and they generally haven't.

What the Democratic Party has the potential to be and what it actually is are very far apart in my mind, and that distance grows with every passing year. If two terms of Trump isn't enough to start chucking the baggage, I legitimately don't know what it'll take.

[Docreed2003]

5. Agree completely

I'm sure some will scream "ageism" at your post, but it's very apparent that a generational shift in leadership is needed. This late-40's Gen-xer agrees completely with your post

[mr715]

7. Right there with you

Remember your 20s when it didn't hurt to wake up?


I think it is a delicate balance. I don't understand Nancy Pelosi jerking around with AOC - I thought they were lockstep by now.

[Peacetrain]

8. I was in my 40's when the first Baby Boomer President got elected

and I was more than ready to see someone who was from my generation in power.. My son is in his late 30's and he is more than ready to see his generation start leading..

[Bluetus]

13. Here is how old Dem Presidents have been when taking office

Franklin Roosevelt, age 51
Harry Truman, age 61
John Kennedy, age 43
Lyndon Johnson, age 55
Jimmy Carter, age 52
Bill Clinton, age 46
Barack Obama, age 47

and then
Joe Biden, age 78

[Bluetus]

12. "It has been the same. damn. people. my entire adult life. "

Exactly. And these are people who didn't build much over their careers. They inherited a strong middle class, a strong union base, a strong set of party values built by FDR and added to by JFK and LBJ. There has been a whole lot of sitting on laurels the past 2+ generations.

There have been some gains in some special interest areas at the expense of our core values, but even those special interests have been backsliding recently and are in more jeopardy today than they have been for 15 years.

The worst of it is that, while many Democrats still talk about the values that Americans largely want, Americans don't see us DELIVERING on these things. And when we do deliver, we are spectacularly bad at blowing our own horn. Biden had the fewest appearances, by far, of any modern President. Being the "adults in the room" is not a winning electoral strategy.

We can't count on Americans "getting it" and voting with us. On the contrary, 30 years ago, the electorate was party-defined. Almost all Americans identified as either Republican or Democrat. Yard signs and campaign literature proudly proclaimed "Republican Jane Smith, she's a conservative like you" or "Vote for Democrat Rollie Jones, the friend of the working family". Today, you never see any signs literature or electronic ads that even mention the party, and the electorate now identifies as 50% independent, 25% Republican and 25%

And with Biden leaving the scene and Harris defeated in a way that makes people wonder if we can ever elect a woman (that is tragic but true), we have no leader at all. We really must start a new era, and we have lots of strong young progressives. That is very good news. But then we have Pelosi fighting any rejuvenation of the party by clinging to the generation that should have made a graceful exit long ago.

[alarimer]

4. Yes.

We need the institutional know-how of the elder statesmen and women but we need the fight of younger people.

A lot of what they have to do is just wait. Trump will die, sooner (hopefully) or later and when he does, all of his voters will go too. They do not like any other Republican in quite the same way. Trump has some kind of weird "charisma" that none of the others have. This is all the hope I have.

And as soon as he starts coming for them, maybe by deporting people who thought they were safe or by tanking the economy, some of those people will switch back or stop voting.

[bronxiteforever]

6. We need in your face fighters.

With the legacy media being a right wing showcase adding to the already known right wing media, with the richest man in the world allowed to purchase votes and control over a party, with an endless series of right wing think tanks funded by the other richest people in the world, with an endless growing broligarchy of tech creeps controlling algorithms, we have to fight as nasty and as dirty as possible.

How did we get labeled as an elite party with the richest people in America and the world backing the GOP?
Harris was substantially younger than TFG. It didn’t matter, Bob Casey lost to a billionaire. We are elite?

Biden was old.where are the Dems complaining that TFG is feeble? The press is never going to do that. We need to do that.

Vance defamed Ohio residents. Why do we let that go? Someone needs to question his truthfulness on a regular basis.

I just want us to fight back. That is the game the GOP created. They are not playing by the rules. We need to stop. No insult should be off the table. We need a heartbeat.

[delisen]

17. You mean in your face fighter like elderly TRUMP?

Amazing how MAGAs managed to not whine about the age of their candidate and got him into the Oval Office twice.
Maybe it is not the age or gender of our candidates. Maybe it has more to do with our willingness to whine and potshot and denigrate our way to Election Day.

I a personally tired of listening to the whining within the , party, the sexism, ageism. Leaders do not let themselves be held back. AOC has made herself a leader. She will soon be a committee head.
Others before her who whined that leaders needed to step aside to give them a shot are either gone through election defeat or in the shadows.

I do feel contemptuous of would be leaders who who demand others clear the field to give them a chance. If you can’t figure out how to compete without getting someone else erased, don’t tell me how great a leader you will be.

[Fiendish Thingy]

9. I think you've mixed up your generations

Time to get those youngest Boomers and Gen Xers and older Millennials in the pipeline.

They're already "in the pipeline" (unless you mean the pipeline to retirement) ; we need to include more Young Millennials and Gen Z'ers like Maxwell Frost and Anderson Clayton and David Hogg in the "pipeline to power" and in party decision making.

They are the future of the Democratic Party- excluding them by deferring to the gerontocracy will mean the death of the party and perhaps of democracy.

[LilElf70]

10. I have been saying ot since 11/6/24

I am a boomer, life long democrat, and not happy about how the democrats have lost the last 2/3 presidential elections. Especially to a lunatic each time. We NEED change. We need it bad. We need it NOW!!!. By change, I don't just mean the sex of the candidate. We need policy change. We need real change. It should be about the people, not the politician. Healthcare, Citizens United, Tuition free college. It's time to make it better for everyone, not the few oligarchs that have control.

[usonian]

11. In slightly different order ... Citizens United makes it a money race, so that the wealthy can make demands.

Section 230 of the CDA unleashes hate and lies on "social media", and even I (not a lawyer) see that media owners are not neutral "passers through of user generated content" but powerfully editorial. TikTok's algorithm was found to be an editorial opinionizer in a recent court decision mostly hidden from sight.

I have given my opinions and a core party message that needs to be delivered 24 by 7 by 365, not just at election time, as out opponents do.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219858408

And if I can editorialize here myself, money and time and talent spent on messaging every day of the year is cheaper and has way more leverage than that spent in the furious election campaign period. Because it builds credibility and constantly disproves lies.

[msongs]

16. has any nation been ruled by a geriatric party based in nursing homes? can' think of any nt