In light of the news that Colin Powell has been added to the DNC schedule, here’s an op-ed on why the DNC’s geriatric focus on centrist and right-leaning figures decades out of their careers presages long-run pain for Democrats https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/18/dnc-lineup-young-voters/

Random fact: on the DAY HE TAKES OFFICE, Biden would be the second-oldest living president, significantly older than Obama, Bush, and Bill Clinton. Even Kerry is younger than Biden. There’s a word for this: gerontocracy

The problem here isn’t just age. It’s that younger Americans have a totally different political worldview. They’re not less wrinkly versions of old Democrats. They’re much more diverse; they are very progressive. Voters under 45 went for Sanders by 31 points on Super Tuesday

The Democratic Party has two halves. Young people are keenly aware of this, because their half has been shut out of power. But older Democrats seem to think it’s still 1996, and they’re still leading a relatively cohesive party divided into moderate and more moderate halves

I’d argue older Dems are missing the party’s internal divides because they are, frankly, fixated on race. They think any candidate who unites older white progressives and older black voters unifies the party. The age split, cutting across racial lines, is invisible to them.

But whatever the cause, older Dems seem to be talking to only each other, and seem to have decided that if THEY can get excited about a Biden-Harris, so can the whole party. Unfortunately, that seems to be wrong.

Alienating young voters, or inculcating the idea that Democrats are a gerontocratic party with no interest in its youthful, progressive, reformist segments, will waste an opportunity to bring millions of young people on board for decades to come.

Finally, I’d say this should be a concern regardless of where you stand on the substance of this ideological divide. The Democratic Party only functions as a big tent, and if you don’t bring young progressives aboard at least as a junior partner, the tent gets a lot smaller.