{"id":426,"date":"2025-09-02T13:39:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T17:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/?p=426"},"modified":"2025-09-02T13:39:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T17:39:44","slug":"democrats-are-slowly-waking-up-to-their-generational-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/democrats-are-slowly-waking-up-to-their-generational-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats are slowly waking up to their generational issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) isn’t planning to run for reelection. Among the reasons he offered the New York Times<\/a> was that “[w]atching the Biden thing” \u2014\u00a0presumably meaning the focus placed on the former president’s age and capacity \u2014 “really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, sure. But, meaning no disrespect to Nadler, come on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadler has been in the House for more than three decades. He was of traditional retirement age before “Frozen” was released. It’s a bit hard to believe that his retirement now is centrally about meeting the needs of the Democratic base when the visible demand for generational change within the party is itself years old. I mean, Biden in 2020 called himself a “bridge”<\/a> to a new generation of Democratic politicians!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My book about the generational divide in the U.S.<\/a> came out more than two years ago, but I started writing it more than two years before that. While the Biden presidency issue served as the most acute example of generational tension, the tension both preceded and followed that period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from VoteView<\/a> suggests that, at the end of the current, 119th Congress, the average age of those who served in the House in 2025 and 2026 will be 59.1 years. That’s slightly higher than a decade ago and nearly two years higher than the average 20 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n