If Democrats were winning elections, the fact that its leadership, especially in the House of Representatives, has remained the same for a decade or more would be a source of happiness and pride.
But the reality is that, during this decade, Democrats have gone from being the predominant party to an on-the-outside-looking-in annoyance to Republicans. Yet, still, those “leaders are firmly ensconced in power, as they continue to run things in exactly the same way they did as this politically disastrous metamorphosis took place.
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza outlines this issue very well in his latest commentary. He points out that several of the people who should, by now, have succeeded entrenched Democrat power brokers have been stopped in their tracks for so long that, for a variety of reasons, they have moved on.
Here is a key segment (but read the entire piece to get its full impact):
It’s remarkable. An entire generation of Democratic leaders in Washington has been washed away — and the generation younger than the Van Hollens and Israels of the country looks too young right now to step up and fill the leadership vacuum. (Names on that list include the likes of Reps. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico.)
There are lots of reasons for this lost generation — some of them unique to the individuals. For Wasserman Schultz, for example, her tone-deaf handling of the Bernie Sanders movement within the party led to her untimely demise as DNC chair on the eve of the Democratic National Convention over the summer.
But the common thread is that Pelosi, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) and Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C) have had a death grip on the party’s top slots for a very long time. Pelosi was just reelected to her eighth term — 16 years! — as the party’s leader in the House. Ditto Hoyer, who has been the second-ranking Democrat for just as long. Clyburn has been third-ranking Democrat in the House for a decade. (The trio are 76, 77 and 76, respectively.)
While that’s great if you are — or work for — Pelosi, Hoyer or Clyburn, it’s bad if you are young, ambitious and looking to move up the political chain in Washington. More than a decade of total stasis among your party leaders even as Democrats lost 1 in every 5 House seats they controlled at the start of 2009 is a tough pill to swallow.
There is a lot of truth in Mr. Cillizza’s words. And a lot of material for Democrats to soul-searchingly consider.
Too bad for them that, at least so far, they are not – as evidenced by last week’s 134-63 vote to retain 76 year old Nancy Pelosi as house minority leader over young (43 years old), dynamic Tim Ryan, whose warning that Democrats were losing the middle class was, therefore, soundly rejected.
Better to keep someone who has been around since the Hoover administration (or so it seems), and, under whose stewardship you have lost everything. That is the fossilization factor at work.
Henny Youngman used to tell a funny two-liner about a guy who goes to the doctor and tells him “It hurts when I do this”. The doctor’s answer? “Well, don’t do it”.
Henny gave Democrats a lesson then, about not doing the same thing over and over again when it is hurting you…that they would do well to learn now.
