Fear the Young

There is currently a first-term member of Congress in the United States that is scaring the hell out of the old guard.

Her name is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it’s actually pretty funny.

She was elected last November, and took up her seat in the new year.

In the American system, the entire House of Representatives has roughly half the power of the legislative branch. The house therefore carries 1/6th of the government’s power. There are 435 voting members in the House of representatives, so Ms Ocasio-Cortez wields 1/435th of 1/6th of government control, or less than 0.04% of the power.

Strangely, they react with great anger to almost everything that she says or does, or has ever said or done in the past.

Of course, the old timers see a lot in her that they don’t feel comfortable with. She is both a woman, and a member of a visible minority. Somehow, I don’t think those are the issues. Over the years, they’ve had to get used to people like that.

I contend that the real problem is her age. She is only 29; a mere 4 years above the minimum age allowed for members of the House, and currently the youngest member of that body.

There have been kids like her elected before, but in general they have been good little regular politician clones, generally from pampered backgrounds, and quite willing to go along with the older politicians.

Ocasio-Cortez is none of those things. She is aggressively radical compared to other members of the House, and vocal about it.

The geezer brigade find themselves staring at their worst nightmare. If she were of Puerto Rican background, and a woman, and radical, and vocal, and 50 years of age they would mostly ignore her, with perhaps a little half-hearted ridicule.

What they instead find themselves faced with is someone who seems to represent the future, and it is a future that terrifies them. They react as if she will destroy the country, all by her self, and react like a pack of rabid dogs.

Will there be 10 more like her after the next election, and 100 after the next? How long until young hot-bloods control the House? How long until the incredibly stodgy Senate also becomes infected with youthful determination?

The math of time can’t be fought. Many politicians fear that they will lose power, and become redundant as their outdated ideologies fall apart under pressure from younger minds.

Not all feel this way, just those who are unable or unwilling to change and grow.

A funny thing is that the outrage over everything related to young new-age politicians is exactly what is giving those like Ocasio-Cortez more power than they should logically be able to wield.

Reacting to the over-reaction against the young, inspired them to band together to try and maximize their tiny legislative power. Ocasio-Cortez and three other young, minority women have started working as a team. Somehow, they became known as “The Squad.” This new formation gives them a joint voice equal to almost 1% of the power of the House, or 0.15% of the total power of government.

If seen another way, the Democratic Party controls the house with their 235 total votes. These 4 women therefore approach 2% of that total, which doubles their government power upwards towards 0.30%. Of course, in reality, they still have no real power at all.

But their power continues to grow.

Just today, a fellow member of the Democratic Party reacting to a racist attack on the 4 women by the president, has asked the 4 ladies if he could join “The Squad,” and they welcomed him in. He also just happens to be an 82-year-old man.

This is not to say that these young (and old) members of Congress will gain any real power anytime soon, but the entire House goes up for re-election every two years, along with 1/3 of the Senate. Every time, the number of non-traditional young members of Congress will grow.

The rate of change will be determined by things such as public awareness. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the one who has grabbed the greatest share of attention, and is now universally known to both sides as AOC. Her face is probably better known than that any other member of the House, or any Senator.

She and the others have become a rallying point for all of those opposed to the Trump regime, and there are plenty such voters around.

Her increasing visibility will also do much to inspire younger voters to cast ballots. They historically have the lowest voter turnout of any demographic. Many of them consider voting futile, as there are few if any politicians that reflect their values and aspirations in any way. This, in turn, causes voting results to be all out of whack.

The minimum age for US Senators is 30. The youngest currently is 42 and the oldest is 86. In fact, there are 9 in their eighties, 24 in their seventies, 37 in their sixties, 20 in their fifties, and only 10  youngsters in their forties. How can such a legislative branch fully represent the best interests of a demographic that they are not even close to matching? Why would they even want to try with such weak young voter turnout?

Think of a person who has just graduated from high school this year. How similar is their reality to that of the oldest Senator? He graduated in 1951. Truman was President then.

The youngest Senator is much closer; he graduated in 1988, but the average graduation date of all the Senators is closer to the 86-year-old than it is to the 42-year-old.

Even the young guy is pretty old at 42. He only were there no smart phones when he graduated, but there was no internet, and Reagan was President.

AOC is closer still. She graduated as recently as 2001. Google already existed, and George W. Bush was President.

AOC clearly feels much the same way about the existing political structure. 

Like many, many of young people today, she has absolutely exemplary educational credentials, and yet has had to hold a number of ordinary, real-world jobs to get by. Her last job before her election to the House of Representatives was as a waitress.

The old guard ridiculed her for this. How dare they? I wonder how many of them ever had to work with their hands, hard, for low money. They repeatedly vote against increasing the minimum wage, and always try to insert rules allowing businesses to pay below minimum wage for wait staff. Somehow, I don’t think most young people feel that way. I suspect AOC reflects their views in such matters.

The environment? Worker rights? Universal medical care? Net neutrality? These are just a few knee-jerk issues that young voters are overwhelmingly concerned with. The existing hierarchy generally wants to push back against the way that the young want these issues handled.

You could easily disagree with me, but that isn’t the point. It is a fact that the youngest voters exercise their vote the least. Even if I am wrong about how they would actually vote if they did, my view is exactly what the entrenched power structure is afraid of.

They are afraid that AOC is a glimpse of the future, and that the bigger she gets, the more the young will vote, and there will be more AOCs, and then more. The power will shift.

And the power will shift.