Harry Reid: white & old (age 74); Nancy Pelosi: white & old (age 74). Is it really a mystery that

[BP2]

we're losing the youth vote??

[bravenak]

1. No.

Some people want to play pretend right now.

[geek tragedy]

2. We didn't lose the youth vote. And we do not throw people away

because they are not shiny and new. This isn't the MTV movie Awards.

[JoePhilly]

8. This is why McCain picked Palin and not Kay Bailey Hutcheson for his VP.

Palin was a shinny object.

Its also the reason Fox news hosts all look pretty much alike.

[former9thward]

25. Nothing like ignoring reality.

Six years ago, voters aged 18 to 29 favored Barack Obama over his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, by a ratio of two to one and justified Time’s announcement that 2008 was “The Year of the Youth Vote.” Two years previously, in midterm races for the House, the same demographic went for Democrats 60 percent to 38 percent.

In 2012, President Obama’s advantage slipped, but under-30 voters still gave him a 23-point edge, 60 percent to 37 percent. No wonder this year the president appeared two days before the election at Temple University, where he exhorted the crowd, “So I need all of you to go grab your friends, grab your classmates... I need you to vote.”

But it turned out that 2012 was no anomaly. Turnout for young voters this year was around 21 percent, typical for midterms, but the breakdown was disappointing for the left: Exit poll data show that young voters backed House Democrats 54 percent to 43 percent, half the advantage of 2006 and two percentage points lower than in 2010.

The Senate contests were last fought in 2008, a presidential year, and here the plummet was startling. In North Carolina the rate at which young people voted Democratic fell to 54 percent this year from 71 percent in 2008. Virginia saw it slide to 50 percent from 71 percent. In Arkansas and Alaska, a majority of young voters went Republican.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/opinion/are-democrats-losing-the-youth-vote.html?_r=0

[Schmice2]

3. They are just not relevant.

[Cosmocat]

21. YEP

Good enough people and have done a service for the party/country, but LONG time to get someone with a LOT more fire in the belly in both chambers ...

[CBHagman]

22. There's got to be more than fire in the belly.

Politics requires skill and strategy, and experience is useful in honing both of those. In the end you have to have the votes to pass your agenda.

[Cosmocat]

23. No shit

Not sure how these would be assumed to not be part of the equation.

They have done a service, but this party is on life support right now, and with republican's in charge they aren't getting jack all in terms of any "agenda" done.

I don't think people are getting just what kind of trouble this party, and the country, is in right now.

[Nye Bevan]

4. I like Reid and Pelosi.

But yes, it's time for new blood.

[Rincewind]

5. Yes, because

Mitch the turtle, and the orange one are such hip, young studs.

[DFW]

6. McTurtle and Bonehead represent their base

Pelosi and Reid do not represent theirs.

[Reter]

10. They don't represent their base

Conservatives hate them both, even more so then we dislike our Reid and Pelosi.

[DFW]

12. Conservatives aren't their base

Last edited Sat Nov 8, 2014, 12:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Their base is older white people who are sold on fear and hate as well as the money that finances the media that convinces them to fear and hate. Plus big industry that wants to pollute, free of taxes and liability for the misery they cause. Nothing conservative about any of that. They only hijacked the term.

[JoePhilly]

7. Transparent.

[MillennialDem]

9. This follows the same logic as conservatives thinking women would vote for palin because she is a

woman.

I dont care about a politicians age, race, sex, orientation, or gender. I care about their policies.

[brooklynite]

11. Bernie Sanders: white and old

isn't he the current future of the Party since Warren won't run for President?

[Beacool]

13. Mitch McConnell is just as white and old.

So are many others within the Republican party and they still managed to give Democrats a drubbing. It's not about age, but policies.

[Recursion]

14. Sanders is 73 and Warren is 65

And, anyways, you get those jobs by knowing which closets have which skeletons, as well as which pages on your rolodex make money rain down, and those things take time.

[davishenderson265]

15. Its time for them to go.

NT

[CBHagman]

16. Being ageist is not a winning campaign strategy, no matter who you're trying to reach.

Nancy Pelosi was quite an effective House speaker, thank you very much, and youth were fine voting for Joe Biden (at present nearing his 72nd birthday) as part of the winning Democratic ticket in 2008 and 2014.

[Samantha]

19. I agree with you -- this discriminatory practice of ageism in our society

Last edited Thu Nov 13, 2014, 02:36 AM - Edit history (1)

and even on our Democratic political website is beyond appalling. This is a technique Karl Rove has hyped the last 14 years in order to pit the younger people against middle-aged and senior citizens. Just looking at the number of references of old, white folks on this one thread alone is unbelievable.

Definition:

Ageism is a type of discrimination that involves prejudice against people based upon their age. Similar to racism and sexism, ageism involves holding negative stereotypes about people of different ages. The term ageism was first used by gerontologist Robert N. Butler to describe the discrimination of older adults. Today, the tern is often applied to any type of age-based discrimination, whether it involves prejudice against children, teenagers, adults or senior-citizens.

http://psychology.about.com/od/aindex/g/ageism.htm

This is a very dangerous road for people to start down, claiming ageism is not discrimination. If society as a whole buys into that claim, this practice can accelerate to adversely impact other groups of Americans, such as children and teenagers (see the above quote.)

People on this site which are cool with using this term I hope will take a time-out to rethink this practice.

Sam

[Old Nick]

18. Mitch McConnell has an autographed copy of the Bible

[Divernan]

29. Thanks for the laugh! I needed that!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

20. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are young and black? Who knew?

[img][/img]

[blackcrowflies]

24. Ageism lives on DU

Let's hope younger voters are not all age bigots either.

I'll put Nancy up against any twenty-five year old Republican in the land.

[earthside]

31. It is not 'age' per se ...

... it is age as emblematic of an insider leadership that has been in power too long, has old fashioned ideas, and has failed to win.

Indeed, Bernie Sanders is 73, but has bold, progressive and inspiring ideas.

Sadly, the re-selection of Reid and Pelosi as the Democrat's Congressional leaders says more about the tiredness and emptiness of the people that chose them than it does about them specifically.

[RebelOne]

33. Agreed. Many believe that being in your 70s

is that you should be in a nursing home. I am 75 and no way will I be going to a nursing home.

[Peacetrain]

26. Oh for the love of Mike..

[arcane1]

27. Pelosi just won reelection n/t

[MADem]

28. What's this "we" stuff you're shopping there? You do know that discrimination is frowned upon by

Democrats, don't you?

Ageism is an ugly attitude, and you really shouldn't be putting it out there.

And not for nothing I notice that this is a HIT AND RUN post. Like some of your other gems of late...

[on point]

30. Ageism is not part of the Dem platform for me. Their problem is about policy, not age.

and perhaps strategy. When Pelosi said she would not impeach Bush, it was time for her to go because she was both bad strategically and bad from a principle point of view. When a president lies the country into war - killing thousands and squandering trillions of dollars, tortures people, rewards his cronies with corrupt money, that is EXACTLY the time impeachment should be on the table.

[upaloopa]

32. Why didn't I have a youth to vote for?

They are not on the ballot and complain they aren't on the ballot.
I want the youth vote but it is just like a bunch of kids to deal with.
Make a list of what you want please.

[PeteSelman]

34. It's the POLICY not the leadership.

The "Democratic" policies suck. They are inimical to the interests of the youth. When your choices are far right corporate fascist bullshit and center right corporate fascist bullshit, there doesn't seem to be any real point in voting.

It wouldn't matter if fucking Methuselah was the party leader if the policies were right.

But the policies are NEVER going to be right because this party is just as bought off and sold out as the fucking Republicans.