Just a few presidential election cycles ago, Barack Obama and the Democrats ran on the slogan “Change We Can Believe In.” But now, as veteran Democrats continue to refuse to pass the torch to the younger generation, it’s becoming clear they’ve become the party of “Change We Can Believe in as Long as It’s Led by the Same People We’ve Always Believed In.”
Despite losing the 2024 election after spending months trying to convince America that an 82-year-old was fit to lead the country, the Democrats are trotting out the same tired old playbook: experience over youth. And it’s going to kill the party.
In the words of the 74-year-old eight-term Representative Gerry Connolly, it was a “false narrative” for there to be a generational change in the Democratic party because they were “looking at capability … not looking at age.”
Connolly, who also in November said, “I am fatigued,” marks the clearest example of this trend, as he defeated Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s less than half his age, to be the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
The House Oversight Committee, the main investigative committee in the House of Representatives with the power to issue subpoenas, could likely act as a last line of defense for the Democrats against the impending Donald Trump presidency.
That seemed like the perfect opportunity to place someone young, fit and spry as the committee’s ranking member. After all, the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, called Donald Trump a “threat to democracy” and a “risk for America.” But placing someone older than color TVs and currently recovering from throat cancer doesn’t exactly send the signal that you’re taking the threat seriously.
But fear not, for Connolly is a one-off, and we can trust the youthful minds of the rest of the Democratic leadership in Congress, right?
Unfortunately, of the 16 House and Senate Democratic leaders, 12 qualify for social security, with another one turning 62 in July.
At least if they were old but elected during a similar political climate as our own, they could understand how to respond to what the current public wants. But here, too, the Democrats fall short, as 14 of the 16 were first elected at least a decade ago, and none started their first terms after Trump was elected.
It’s no wonder that since Trump first took office, 72% of Americans say the Democrats aren’t in touch with the concerns of most people, according to a Washington Post poll.
And if we look at the Republicans, we can see that this is an issue with the left. Only half of the Republican leadership is over 62, and only half have served for at least a decade. It’s not a massive difference, but it’s a big enough one to show that one party is willing to begin passing the torch, while the other will hold onto it until they burn down.
It’s nearly impossible to expect the Democratic leadership, made up mostly of politicians elected on platforms revolving around a political climate that hasn’t existed in almost a whole generation, to adapt to today and steer the party back into competition with Republicans.
If the party wants to survive, they need to adapt. A good place to start is looking at the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Ocasio-Cortez is a part of. Despite making up 44% of Democratic seats in the house, only one, Ted Lieu, serves in House Democratic leadership.
Instead of realizing that much of America is electing progressive representatives around the country, the Democrats have tried to appeal as much to the right as possible, and it’s not working.
Once upon a time, now 84-year-old Nancy Pelosi co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus in 1991, and in 2008, Obama ran on a progressive change campaign. But the progressives of yesterday are no longer the progressives of today. Pelosi left the CPC in 2002, and Obama hasn’t been in office for 8 years.
Unless they want to continue hemorrhaging voters, the party must realize this and let a new generation of progressives take over. One key progressive issue in the recent election that the Democrats paid no heed to was President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza. While many progressives supported Palestine, Biden and the rest of the Democrats continued to back and fund Israel, which almost certainly lost them key votes in swing states.
For example, the Council on American Islamic Relations reported that significantly less than half of Muslim voters backed the Democrats, compared to an estimated 70% in 2020. That’s a drop of over 20%, and in crucial swing states like Michigan, it represents around 50,000 lost Muslim votes in a state where the margin of victory was only 80,000.
These aren’t just abstract numbers; they represent a tangible disillusionment with the direction of the Democratic party. This trend extends beyond specific demographics; it speaks to the party’s catastrophic failure to resonate with a new generation of voters who demand bold action, not just lip service.
And so, the party that once promised “Change We Can Believe In” has delivered something else entirely: a change so incremental that it’s practically invisible. Elevating Connolly over Ocasio-Cortez is just another sign that the Democrats continue refusing to offer the country anything but watered-down, decaffeinated change.