• Tinidril@midwest.social
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    1 day ago

    Yes, but there is also Bernie. He is far more attached to reality than any young Republican in the Senate (or Democrat).

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        7 hours ago

        Then demonstrate the trend to me. I’ve given you an undeniable counter example. I agree that Congress is out of touch. Are the older Congress members more out of touch than MTG or the psycho tradwife Katie Britt? I don’t think so.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      No one can argue with that, but the reason his name comes up every time is that he’s the exception, not the rule. His net worth is also a fraction of that of Pelosi’s or most of his political peers.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        21 hours ago

        A ceiling on net worth for representatives is certainly an interesting concept, but not really relevant to the conversation.

        It gets hard to show a correlation with time in service to detachment from reality when one of the longest serving members is the most grounded, and many of the youngest and most recent members are absolutely insane.

        Even Pelosi is pretty progressive relative to the rest of the Democratic representation, and certainly of Congress as a whole. (Very feint praise given the field). She is certainly out of touch, but she was that way when she was far younger as well.

        • SabinStargem@lemmings.world
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          13 hours ago

          Part of the thing about being young, is having drive to do stuff. Be it good or ill. The Geronocrats have no drive, so they can’t fight the pull of the Right Wing.

          The problem isn’t with youthful Democrats, it is with the fact that the elders kept them out.

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          21 hours ago

          The issue with lifelong politicians isn’t just their mental capacity but their lifelong detachment from reality as they live in a privileged bubble.

          The point of my net worth comment is that it’s part of her privileged bubble, and is one factor encouraging Bernie to be less out of touch.

          I also think Bernie still gives a shit about the common person, and I don’t think Pelosi can remember any details of how the common person lives, based on many of her recent actions, including but not limited to this.

          Ultimately my point is that citing Bernie is not (IMO) a reasonable rebuttal to the quoted bit at the top of this comment, and is very specifically not an apples to apples rebuttal of the Pelosi situation, even if he weren’t also a singular example.

    • SabinStargem@lemmings.world
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      13 hours ago

      Undoubtedly. However, a Bernie who retired due to age or term limits, would still be able to mentor upcoming politicians. Handing the helm to a competent person and training their successors would be a much wiser strategy than what we currently got.

      Why the hell should we keep creatures like Pelosi, who exist exclusively to suckle from the fetid teat of the stock market?

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        7 hours ago

        Oh, we should definitely get rid of Pelosi, but not because she aged out. The Pelosi of 30 years ago was just as worthy of dismissal.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        7 hours ago

        No doubt he’s an exception, but where is evidence for the rule that would justify punishing the exception? When I think of out of touch Congress members, all the first names that come to mind are almost all among the youngest in Congress. Even Pelosi would never be on my short list if she wasn’t in leadership. (She is definitely out of touch, but she has some fierce competition). Also, all the older ones that I think of were just as bad or worse when they were younger.