Written by Devon Mitchell
As the country is drawing near to another primary season, the Democrats are still trying to pick up the pieces from the last election. Part of that is being able to put up a strong enough nomination for the 2020 election. With 12 candidates still in the running, the top three front runners are interesting picks for the Democratic party. Coming in at number one is 76 year old, former Vice President, Joe Biden. Second, 70 year old Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and third is 78 year old Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Notice anything in common with those three candidates? All three of them were born during or just after WWII. Running the risk of sounding ageist, but is this really the face the Democrats want for the future of their party. It seems a little surprising that in a party that is comparably younger than their opponent, they would put up three candidates that are about 30-40 years older than the average party member.
If we look at the lifelines of each candidate compared to the average Democratic voters, Biden, Warren, and Sanders have not had the same life experiences. For example, while Biden and Sanders were probably worried about being drafted during their early twenties, millennials and Gen-X are stressing over the mass amount of student debt they have. While the draft was a huge issue many young men faced, it is not relevant to current issues facing our young people. The issue I find with the front runners is that they are not relatable to the current demographic. It’s frightening to me that the person who could become the new face of the Democratic party may not even be alive in the next ten years. I feel a party whose leaders do not reflect their demographic is set for ruin. How can we be assured Biden, Sanders, or Warren will truly fight for the younger generations best interest if they won’t even be around to see the effects of their decisions.
If the future of the Democratic party is the same generation that is regularly retiring at this age then is it really a future? In my opinion, it is going to take a fresh face for the Democrats to really come back stronger. But for the time being it looks like the Democrats’ future is in the grave.
