The Democratic Establishment Mistook Longevity for Leadership
By Jackson Rubin, The Working Model
If the Mamdani victory on Tuesday was not enough good news, then Thursday brought another long-overdue sign of movement: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (85 years old, born during World War II) announced she will not seek reelection after twenty terms. Born during World War II. That phrase is not meant as a dig, but as a symbol of distance. The distance between the world she was born into and the one the rest of us are trying to build.
A couple weeks ago, Washington DC’s non-voting House delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (age 88, born before WWII) made headlines for falling victim to a financial scam. The police report mentioned “early stages of dementia.” This is not meant as personal cruelty; it’s a national embarrassment. These are the people who lead us. And they are holding America back.
We live in an age defined by artificial intelligence and economic precarity and yet, our leaders still think like it’s 1983.
The average American today is 39 years old. The average member of the House of Representatives is 58. The average senator is 65.
The center of American life has shifted—demographically, culturally, technologically—but the center of power has not. Congress has become a retirement home in denial, where political longevity is mistaken for wisdom and self-preservation for service.
In just the last three years, eight congressional Democrats have died in office: Donald McEachin (61), Dianne Feinstein (90), Donald Payne Jr. (65), Sheila Jackson Lee (74), Bill Pascrell (87), Sylvester Turner (70), Raúl Grijalva (77), and Gerry Connolly (75). This is as tragic as it is irresponsible. In an era of razor-thin majorities, when every vote can determine the future of reproductive rights or climate action, these preventable vacancies are a form of political malpractice.
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