Howie Klien writes,
The Ossification Of The Democratic Party Establishment Is Part Of The Problem
The L.A. Times Nicholas Goldberg asked timely question before dawn yesterday: Are Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein too old to do their jobs? “Feinstein, who turned 89 last week,” he wrote, “has kicked off a heated national debate by refusing to step down from her job even as people begin to clamor about her age and competence… Incumbency turns out to be a very pleasant place, and power an aphrodisiac that is difficult to give up— to the point that the word ‘gerontocracy’ has suddenly become common.”
Goldberg sees the problem. “In Feinstein’s case, it is especially so because of the parade of reports on her cognitive diminishment” with a “rapidly deteriorating” memory and increasing “befuddlement.” [...] And he worries that two slow old men, Trump and Biden are thinking about running for president again. “Call me ageist, but I’m not the only one worrying about this. A recent article said that Democratic leaders all over the country are concerned about Biden’s age, vigor and political viability and that many don’t want him to seek another term. If he were to win, he would be 86 at the end of it. Trump would be 82. A recent YouGov poll found that 58% of Americans support an age limit for elected officials.”
Right now 33 seantors— a third of the body— are over 70 and only one, Jon Ossoff, is under 40. “Studies suggest that between 15% and 25% of people over 65 suffer from mild cognitive impairment. But physical problems also need to be considered… One way to address these problems would be to enact an upper age limit for public officials. The Constitution already sets lower limits. [...]
Yesterday Philip Bump followed a similar, but not identical, path in his Washington Post column, The last of the institutionalizes are the leaders of the Democratic Party. Referencing Biden’s disappointing speech after the Dobbs v Jackson decision overturned Roe, exhorting people to vote, Bump wrote that “The response to his speech was not effusive. For one thing, voters could be forgiven for remembering that they had, in fact, voted in support of candidates who would protect Roe: They’d done so in 2020 to elevate Biden to the presidency and to secure a Democrat-run House; they’d done so in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021 to give Democrats a majority in the Senate. For another thing, Biden and other Democratic leaders were seen as (or admitted to) being less outraged about the decision than their party’s base, particularly its younger arm. [...]
Then Howie quotes:
The White House was pressed on Biden’s response over the weekend. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked whether Biden supported “reforming the court,” a phrasing that often implies expanding its size to reshape its composition.“That is something that the President does not agree with,” Jean-Pierre replied. “That is not something that he wants to do.”[...] Public opinion polling, incidentally, shows that confidence in the court is at a historic low and that the decision to overturn Roe was seen as political. But hobbling forward with a damaged institution was seen as preferable or equal to changing it.
This encapsulates how the leadership of the Democratic Party appears to view the current political moment. In part because its leaders have been on the job for so long— Biden has been in politics with limited interruption since 1973, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since 1987 and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer since 1981— they retain some obvious confidence that the system will work out its own kinks.That’s probably been reinforced by a period of American politics in which former president Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly targeted the solidity of those same institutions. The left has somewhat incongruously been pushed into the role of defending the establishment [the definition of conservatism] as the right exploits its loopholes— making the left less likely to embrace similar exploits in favor of demonstrating fealty to How Things Ought To Work.
The post continues. Again, this link to read the full item.