Advertisement - story continues below
Any sports fan knows the heartbreak of following an aging team struggling with an old playbook. When fresh, young talent isn’t put into the lineup, losses often mount.
What’s worse is when aging stars of the entertainment universe want to hang on for another go-’round, even though it’s clear that their best days are behind them and they’re only losing their luster and, with it, their audience appeal.
The same is true of politicians, especially those in a party that dearly needs fresh faces and ideas. And now a new poll shows that the Democrat Party could well be on the way to learning that lesson.
Advertisement - story continues below
With the staggering losses of 2016 finally sinking in to the liberal psyche, some are already looking ahead four years.
A survey by USA Today and Suffolk University asked Democrat voters who they would like to see run for the presidential nomination in 2020. They picked someone entirely new. Who, you may ask? Someone entirely new. No, really, tell us, you may be saying. And I am — someone entirely new.
It may sound like I’m Bud Abbott trying to explain the intricacies of the St. Louis Wolves infield and who’s on first, but there’s a reason for that: that’s actually who they wanted to see run. “Someone entirely new.”
Advertisement - story continues below
In the poll, which listed various aging Democrat politicians and asked respondents whether they wanted to see them run, 66 percent of respondents said they wanted someone entirely new, compared to only 9 percent who didn’t.
Curiously, the next choice for topping a 2020 ticket was America’s favorite dysfunctional uncle, Joe Biden, proof that the vice presidency could be held by a housebroken ocelot and nobody would tell the difference until something happened to the president.
He only got 43 percent, though. Another 31 percent didn’t want him to run, for a positive score of 12 points — far behind the 57 point spread favoring someone entirely new (unlike Hillary Clinton who proved that old and busted won’t win the game).
Of other names in the poll, Bernie Sanders had a positive score of four points, Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a score of seven points, and Hillary Clinton had a score of -39 points, with only 23 percent saying they wanted to see her run. (Did I mention old and busted?)
Advertisement - story continues below
Trending Stories
I’ve seen no other piece of data since the election that has so succinctly shown how Democrats are desperate for change in their ranks, both when it comes to ideas and when it comes to fresh faces. So, what has the party done to facilitate this? Virtually nothing.
After all, when it comes to their leadership in the House, they returned old shoes Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland to the two top leadership positions. Pelosi, 76, has been unkindly referred to as “Crypt Keeper” by some. She’s rather spritely compared to Hoyer, however, who is 77.
In the Senate, new Minority Leader Charles Schumer is supposed to bring a breath of fresh air to the job. He’s 66, but I guess that opportunistically jumping in front of any network video camera generating a live feed somehow keeps you looking young. Minority Whip Dick Durbin is 72.
Biden is 74, Warren is 67, Sanders is 75, and Clinton is hopeless (and 69, if you must know). These are ancient Washington functionaries whose tired, recycled ideas for governing might as well be written on parchment.
All of these individuals are carrying the torch for a form of superannuated liberalism that may have been temporarily repackaged with shiny stickers saying “hope” and “change” by President Obama. Those faded stickers have worn off, and aside from Obama’s re-election, the Democrat Party has suffered innumerable setbacks. The stench of failed Johnson-era Great Society liberalism is rank, and their voters know it.
That’s why they want someone else — anyone else (did I mention “someone entirely new?”) — to come up with an innovative marketing plan. Yet Pelosi and Hoyer refuse to step down and Biden is still expressing some on-and-off interest in running.
It’s an aging, ragtag team that’s falling apart. And unlike in sports, there’s not a coach there to pull them to the sidelines and tell them that it’s over.
Advertisement