The Left Gerontocracy

If we are going to talk about the gerontocracy sucking away the life of the Democratic Party, we can’t just use it as a metaphor for “moderates we don’t like.” The fact of the matter is that the left wing of the party is just as susceptible to electing people who quite possibly might not survive their terms as moderates and centrists. Bernie Sanders is the most obvious example of this. But yesterday, Oakland voters elected Barbara Lee mayor, a mere 78 years old. Now look, given the final choices, which was Lee versus an awful Piedmont centrist, yes obviously any decent person is going to vote for Lee. And being mayor of Oakland is probably not as important as reelecting an 82 year old who can’t put together three sentences on the fly anymore in public or electing ancient people to Congress where they die and Greg Abbott delays the special election for months to save the Republican majority or making sure progressive congressmen dying of cancer step down to allow a successor to run instead. or things like that. At least our Democratic governors are….all planning on being in politics til the day they die. But the point remains–if the left is as reliant on ancient Boomers to survive as centrists are, we lose in the end. There needs to be good solid progressive options who are under 70. If we don’t have that, we can perhaps stave off the inevitable for awhile, but the inevitable is coming and coming fast. And yes, this includes the fact that this should be the last term for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.