Democratic candidate discussion -- Experienced politician vs. young upstarts

[pdsimdars]

Last edited Thu Mar 14, 2019, 10:22 AM - Edit history (2)

I am hearing this discussion on air over and over. . . mainly about how the Democrats need an experienced candidate -- Joe Biden. Awful lot of leaning on the scale these days for Biden, using the "experience" argument.

I say that we have to accept life and its rites of passage. At some point every parent has to learn to let loose little by little and trust their child to make their own decisions. Also, trust in how they raised them for the children to make the right decisions. I am sure there is a whole procedure for gracefully letting go.

Same thing with politics. The experienced politicians have created an "environment" in the country in which the next generation grew up. No senior citizen can truly feel the pressure of climate change like these young people do. It will not effect seniors for the most part, but could really effect the lives of younger people. This applies to everything.

The old guard has to learn how to let go and allow the young to start asserting themselves. They will assert themselves nonetheless, but it would be better if the experienced politicians would start moving toward being trusted advisors rather than enforcers of their orthodoxy. Make the transition smart instead of traumatic.

And PS . . . you don't have to be young in years to have be supportive of young thinking. I know old people who are very "up to date" in their thinking and understanding.

An other idea . . . . whichever Democrat wins, put the others in charge of their area. That is, if Inslee doesn't win, then whoever does, put him in charge of the EPA, and Warren in charge of the Treasury, etc. Put the champions of some area in charge of that area and clean the whole place out.

[RandySF]

1. Hey everyone

Just go with whomever you like.

[TCJ70]

2. Neither matter...

...do you have good ideas? Do the policies you propose line up with what I'd like to see? Do I believe you when you say you'll push hard for those ideas?

That's the criteria I'm using. What are you policy goals and will you push hard for them?

[pdsimdars]

16. Exactly.

[MineralMan]

3. As it has traditionally gone, those "young upstarts" become state and

federal legislators and learn the political ropes by being part of the process. Then, the talented and ambitious ones run for higher offices at the state or federal level.

In 2018, we elected a bunch of young, fresh politicians to state legislatures and to the House of Representatives. They'll earn their credibility there and the ones who prove themselves will become Senators, Governors, and maybe even a President or two.

That has been the process for quite some time. Short-cutting that process is very, very difficult. A few have managed to do it, but damned few.

Want to see some "young upstarts?" Check out the House Floor on the Democratic side. They're there.

[NacLeeFF]

21. Nice subtle bashing of House Democrats....

[MineralMan]

22. Read it again, please.

I was bashing nobody.

[TwilightZone]

26. I think you're seeing something that isn't there.

He was quite complimentary of them.

[crazycatlady]

25. Democratic presidents have historically been younger

Just looking at Wiki at the president's ages upon election, and the last Democrat to be (first) elected over the age of 60 was James Buchanan.

The two Democratic presidents that I remember in my lifetime (I was a baby when the other left office) were in their 40s when elected.

[Garrett78]

29. As I've pointed out many times, the average age of the last 5 Dem presidents was 48.

Upon taking office, that is. Our electorate has consistently expressed a preference for younger candidates, and the vast majority of presidents have been 62 or younger. That Biden would be 78 (older than Reagan when Reagan *left* office) is just one of numerous strikes against him.

[CrossingTheRubicon]

4. It isn't about young vs old

It's about which Democratic is best poised to defeat Donald Trump.

That person is Joe Biden. Not a close call.

[dsc]

5. There are options between Joe Biden

and say Beto. Senator Harris has several years of experience as DA, then AG of California, and finally Senator. She is in her 50's at most. Booker has several years experience as mayor of Newark and then as Senator. He is in his 40's. I don't expect the nominee to have governed with Moses but I do expect that he or she have been a statewide or federal office for some amount of time.

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Names should not matter

If you apply specifics then biases are inevitable...exceptions are favored above the rule.

Is it ideal or intelligent to nominate someone in his or her late 70s? That is not a 2019 question. It is something that could have been asked at any point.

The answer has to be no, if logic applies. I am approaching 60 but have already sensed decline in some areas. I saw what happened to my grandparents, parents and some Las Vegas friends when they reached the ages of Biden and Sanders.

We already own a negative against Trump in regard to challenger vs. incumbent. We can't be stupid enough to hand someone in his mid 70s a small age advantage on top of everything else he will abuse.

[underthematrix]

7. I think this can be a great discussion

of the factors we an individual voters consider in deciding on a particular presidential candidate.

When it comes to federal elections, my husband and I always use the same yardsticks.

A: Critical Thinking Capacity - Family and educational background, work experience, volunteerism, military service, evolution of thinking
on specific policy prescriptions over time
B: Leadership Capacity - offices held in HS, college and post graduate schools, military service, advocacy and activism, businesses,
inspirational
C: Ethical Capacity - open records search for ethical dilemmas and resolution
D. Governing Capacity - Experts in and outside of government providing support

Biden - A, B, C, D
Warren - A
Harris - A, B
Gillibrand - A
O'Rourke - B
Kennedy - A, B, C, D
Sanders - B
Inslee - A, B, C
Castro - A, B
Booker - A, B
Klobuchar - A
Buttigieg - A, B
Abrams - A, B, C
Hickenlooper - A, B, C, D
Gabbard -
Yang - A, B
Delaney - A

I prefer presidential candidates with a law degree. However, I gave Buttigieg credit for his exceptional educational background including being a Rhode Scholar

This is how we do it in my house.

[pdsimdars]

15. Personally, I look at issues, what issues they support and which most voters want.

All those characteristics you list can be part of the team. As long as you have someone with the right direction and the ability to listen and get consensus.

[underthematrix]

17. Yes. That's why I'm a Democrat. They all do an excellent job mapping out

the policy issues but the truth is things happen because the person has capacity in the four areas I 've outlined and probably some others I didn't include.

[dalton99a]

8. We live in a new world. The union apprenticeship model doesn't apply anymore.

I support whoever can motivate the most people to hit the polls and beat the monster

[Turin_C3PO]

10. Exactly my thinking.

[Turin_C3PO]

9. Age doesn't really factor into my thinking.

I just want someone, anyone really, who can destroy Trump.

[NacLeeFF]

11. I want whomever's the most electable in November 2020.

[pdsimdars]

14. "Electable" is a generic term. Electable is in the eye of the beholder.

Most American voters want medicare for all and yet it is talked about like it is some radical, outer space idea. Among Democratic voters I think it's something like 84% who want it. 80% want to tax the rich, etc. And yet these are seen as radical. If most Democrats want them, how is that not mainstream?
Electable is in the eye of the beholder. I say, keep your powder dry and let it all develop without prejudgement.

[ehrnst]

30. Approval for MFA is mixed, depending on what someone knows about it

The poll finds majority support for four different approaches:

77 percent of the public, including most Republican (69%), favor allowing people between the ages of 50 to 64 to buy health insurance through Medicare;

75 percent, including most Republicans (64%), favor allowing people who aren’t covered by their employer to buy insurance through their state’s Medicaid program;

74 percent, including nearly half of Republicans (47%), favor a national government plan like Medicare that is open to anyone, but also would allow people to keep the coverage they have if they want to; and

56 percent, including nearly a quarter of Republicans (23%), favor a national plan called Medicare-for-all in which all Americans would get their insurance through a single government plan.


Medicare-for-all starts with net favorability rating of +14 percentage points (56% who favor it, minus 42% who oppose it). This jumps to +45 percentage points when people hear the argument that this type of plan would guarantee health insurance as a right for all Americans. However, views turn negative and net favorability falls to -44 percentage points when people hear the argument that it would lead to delays in some people getting medical tests and treatments.

https://www.kff.org/health-reform/press-release/poll-majorities-favor-a-range-of-options-to-expand-public-coverage-including-medicare-for-all/

[Gothmog]

12. I want the most electable candidate

Electability is my key issue and some of the candidate are not electable

[LAS14]

13. I want some experience, but I'm more interested....

.... in gravitas and wisdom. I think Obama represented a relatively young person with not a huge amount of experience, but who had both those qualities. Experience isn't enough. We also need charisma, excitement (Obama). As a 74 year old, I don't want a president in their late 70's or into their 80's. Too much is breaking down. Although I would not be surprised to find that that process is slowed down in people with jobs of great responsibility.

[underthematrix]

18. I still believe the BEST candidate who can beat TRUMP is

Rep Joe Kennedy. I'm 68, AA, and female and I understand two things. This is the year of the white male and the election will be about brand.

What I find so interesting is why millennials are not clamoring for him to run. He's perfect. Puzzling

[LAS14]

24. I was disappointed with his response to a state of the union. He seemed uneasy. nt

[marylandblue]

19. I want someone who understands our moment in history

We are at a moment of major change. Some candidates see it better than others. At other moments of great change in our past, the longest resume didn't win, the clearest vision won.

Abraham Lincoln won because he saw the time had come to deal with slavery. FDR won because the Depression smashed all the old assumptions and he saw the new assumptions. Today, we are in similar bind. The old assumptions on the environment, on race, on human sexuality, on economics, on our decaying empire and on democracy itself are all invalid. But we don't know yet what the new assumptions will be.

Which candidate best represents the world you want to see 20 years from now? It isn't Biden, he represents the world as it was 20 years ago. That's what this debate about experience is about. People who like Biden seem to want to go back to "normal," a time before Trump. But there is no going back. We are already in a different world,

[pdsimdars]

20. Inslee, nice choice.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

27. Stilll undecided but beginning to lean toward Inslee.

[crazycatlady]

28. The last Democratic president over 60 when he assumed office was James Buchanan

I said this before up thread in a reply, but this should be food for thought.

As a younger American (especially on this forum), I have different concerns. I'm too old for Gen X and too young for Millennial. I've experienced Sandy and fear that events like this are only going to get worse due to climate change. A year before Sandy, Irene happened. NJ was never hurricane central the way that Florida is.

Even though I graduated just before Columbine, there were 10 school shootings in my senior year of HS. While they weren't talked about as much pre Columbine, they were real and something that was on my mind.

I'm of the generation that is going to get the credit card bill for the wars and tax cuts. I've also been raised thinking I'm more likely to see a UFO than collect social security. Guess where I'm thinking the payments for the wars are coming from. My retirement plan (since pensions were killed off) is a wooden box and a shovel.

I do not have (or want) kids. My niece was an infant when Sandy Hook happened. That shooting made me not want to bring a child into this world. And I shudder at what her generation will have to pay for things like education and even the cost of living.

[Eric J in MN]

31. Bernie Sanders has been talking about Climate Change

...since the 1980s. He’s a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal Resolution and the presidential candidate with the strongest environmental positions.

Jay Inslee wants voters to think he’s the most environmental. But Bernie Sanders has said we should ban fracking and build no new oil pipelines, unlike Inslee.

Beto O’Rourke is relatively young, but he voted for more offshore oil drilling. That isn’t a way to stop Climate Change.

[NacLeeFF]

33. Interesting points. Consistency over time can be a good thing, for sure

...if you’re on the right side of the issue, of course.

[avebury]

32. My priority in 2020:

1. Beat Trump an take back the WH
2. Keep the House
3. Take back the Senate (I would like to be optimistic)


The Democrat Party has a lot of rising stars and I would rather see some of the Presidential candidates go after Senate seats so that we can take the Senate back. There are way too many Democrats who have thrown their hat in the ring to the point that, rather then pick who I think is the best candidate I am looking at it in terms of who I wouldn't vote for in a primary. There are some good candidates but probably not for 2020. The problem that they face is the possibility of shooting themselves in the foot for future Presidential races if they flame out in the 2020 election.


I will vote for the Democrat who wins nomination. But, beating Trump must be our main priority and anybody that can't achieve that goal needs to step aside. I don't care if they are a young rising star or an experienced politician.