
Battenfeld: Old and new guard in Democratic Party on collision course
The old and new guard in the Democratic party is on a painfully uncomfortable collision course as a young party official with bold new ideas is being forced out for trying to primary out of touch incumbents.
Could our own fossilized septuagenarian Ed Markey and Bill Keating be hearing footsteps?
Markey, 78, has announced he intends to seek another six year term next year while Keating, 72, is likely to run again in 2026 for his eighth term.
They could be next in the party’s move to oust longtime incumbents who are now on the outside looking in as the Trump administration and Republicans have the reins of government, while disgraced Democrats try to rebound from their devastating loss last year.
Is the old guard going to be kicking and screaming until the bitter end? Looks that way.
The current Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, is trying to block party vice chair and activist David Hogg from a plan to defeat “ineffective” and “asleep at the wheel” incumbents by booting him from party leadership. Hogg is trying to shake up a party that doesn’t want to be shaken up. The old boy network is closing ranks.
“If you want to challenge incumbents you’re more than free to do that, but just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be neutral arbiters,” Martin said in a press call on Thursday.
The ultimatum came after Hogg, the 25-year-old survivor of the Parkland school shooting, announced plans to spend $20 million to remove dead wood incumbents through his organization, Leaders We Deserve.
But Hogg – one of the few bold, bright lights in the party – will now have to leave the DNC if he moves forward with his plan.
This is what the party has to fall back on? It doesn’t have any credible new leaders and is still in shock over Donald Trump’s victory.
Irate Democratic leaders are seemingly trying to protect their old incumbents by preventing challenges from younger candidates. Why is there an unwritten rule that you can’t primary a Democratic incumbent?
Markey survived a challenge by former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy 3rd but how much longer can he go on?
Keating has been around Massachusetts politics seemingly forever, serving as state senator and Norfolk County DA before getting elected to Congress in 2011.
And what about our other septuagenarian senator, Elizabeth Warren?
Will she run for president again after her embarrassing loss in 2020, or try to hang on in the U.S. Senate for several more years?
Warren’s latest embarrassing episode came in a podcast this month where she was pressed repeatedly to explain why she kept insisting Joe Biden was mentally fine even after his devastating debate performance in 2024.
“Do you regret saying that President Biden had a mental acuity, he had a sharpness to him?” asked Sam Fragoso, host of “Talk Easy.”
“I said what I believe to be true,” Warren insisted, then almost laughed when the podcast host asked if Biden “was as sharp as you.”
“You know, the, the thing is, he is, look, he was sharp,” Warren went on. “He was on his feet. I saw him at live events.”
“On his feet is not praise,” Fragoso interjected.
Then there’s octogenarian Nancy Pelosi, who believe it or not is still in Congress after forcing out former President Joe Biden last year. Having Pelosi boot Biden from the race is like a brawl in a nursing home.
Pelosi adamantly refuses to budge even now after she was one of the architects of 2024.
“As long as Nancy takes a breath, she is going to do what she wants to do,” former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is getting a lot of attention as a potential presidential candidate, but it only shows how desperate the party is to change. AOC has no chance to win, she doesn’t have broad enough appeal.
Also she’s tied to the hip with Bernie Sanders, the walking dead.
David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting, is trying to shake-up the Democratic party. (Chris Christo/Boston Herald, file)