Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) secured a victory on Tuesday at the cost of the Democratic Party, according to a writer at The New Republic.
Pelosi, 84, reportedly helped nix Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (R-NY) bid to become ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), 74, who revealed a throat cancer diagnosis last month, defeated Ocasio-Cortez in a closed-door vote.
New Republic writer Kate Aronoff noted that Connolly joins other Democrats in their 70s and 80s set to take up committee leadership positions next year: Richard Neal (D-MA), 75; Frank Pallone (D-NJ), 73; Maxine Waters (D-CA), 86; and Rose DeLauro (D-CT), 81.
"The elderly are not too old to govern. But they may, in this case, be too attached to a failed way of doing things," wrote Aronoff.
ALSO READ: New Trump foreign affairs pick has history of forging ties with right-wing authoritarians
She noted that the Oversight Committee's purpose is to ensure the government and its agencies run efficiently and effectively. Connolly is set to take up the leading Democratic position despite accepting more than $118,000 from political action committees, or PACs, tied to the bloated defense industry.
Similarly, Neal received hundreds of thousands of dollars from insurance industry PACs, HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, this cycle, and will take a leadership position on the House's top tax-writing committee that oversees revenue-related aspects of Social Security and Medicare.
"In other democracies, the leadership of parties that have endured humiliating defeats like the one Democrats saw in November—or even just regular defeats—resign," she argued. "That kicks off a process by which members determine a new, ideally more successful direction, represented by different people."
But America's Democratic Party isn't like other countries' parties where members and constituencies have some control over how it operates.
"Members mostly make decisions based on their own interests rather than to drive some shared, democratically-decided agenda forward," said Aronoff.
She said that facet partly contributes to "what’s so depressing about the Oversight Committee ordeal."
"Pelosi and the old guard’s continued opposition to younger talent seems breathtakingly counter-productive in the face of the Democratic party’s numerous challenges right now," said Aronoff.
