I was reading that the new Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg plans to back progressive primary challengers against House Democrats that he views as ineffective and insufficiently liberal.
For those of you that have no idea who David is, David Miles Hogg is a 25-year-old European American who rose to prominence during the 2018 U.S. gun violence protests. His claim to fame is that he was a student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which claimed the lives of 17 people. He helped to lead several high-profile protests, marches, and boycotts including the boycott of “The Ingraham Angle show” on Fox.
While I glory in his spunk, I would say just maybe, David, you should try and complete your first mission. Have you done anything to move the needle on gun control in this country? And the last time I checked that lunatic Ingraham was still delivering her “Angle!”
Don’t get me wrong, I admire David’s hustle and the drive that this young energetic 25-year-old European American has by co-founding a political action committee called Leaders We Deserve. I guess many of you, like me, ask yourselves, “David, when are you going to ask me who and what I deserve? What I don’t deserve is a 25-year-old European Harvard graduate telling me what I need, versus asking me.”
Leaders We Deserve (they say), are young progressive candidates that face systemic barriers at every level of government. They argue that the average politician is older than the average American. When I read this, I said to myself, what the hell is he talking about and is he trying to say in a nice way that our current representatives are too damn old?
Granted, the average age of a member of Congress is 59, compared to the median age of the U.S. public; which is 38, making Congress much older than the general population according to the 2019 U.S. Census. The last time I checked the oldest person in the House of Representatives was Chuck Grassley at 91 years old. Grassley, a Republican, I’m totally in favor of getting rid of his old ass!
What’s deep to me is that this 25-year-old European American graduate from Harvard had the audacity to say, and I quote, “Our political system is stacked against young people in favor of those who are older, wealthier and white.” I hate to be the one to tell you this Davey Boy, but European Americans, wealthy and poor, have been using this political system against me and my people since the time we got here, regardless of our age.
These devils are currently doing all they can to roll back all the gains that we’ve made since 1965. Since 1965, we, Black people have had to deal with so called “leaders” we don’t deserve!
David said that in 2020, millennials and Gen-Zers were only 21% of state legislative seats, despite representing 45% of the electorate. I would have to ask, did they not run, or did they just lose? In all fairness I’ll be the first to admit that there are several elderly politicians who need to go home and sit down.
I would also go so far as to say, had Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg thought more about this country and the people in it, she would have stepped down and not left the American people in the hands of a psychopathic narcissist having the ability to stack the Supreme Court and putting us in the bind that we now see ourselves in!
So, I will agree with David to a point, yes, age and mental acuity have a lot to do with when one should step down. However, let’s be clear, it takes testicular fortitude to stand up and speak truth to power. There’s no magic in youth. It takes strength and courage no matter what your age or how much money you may or may not have.
And in the words of my 86-year-old champion, I’m just glad that I can come here every week and reclaim my time!
