Patterico's Pontifications

12/19/2024

Maybe Young Progressives Aren’t Ascendant After All

Filed under: General — JVW @ 7:57 pm



[guest post by JVW]

I’m hearkening back to a post of mine from eight years ago, in which I wrote:

Thanks Democrats. The party of the young and the multicultural is now led by a 76-year-old white woman and a 66-year-old white man. You can’t make this stuff up.

UPDATE:
The number two House Democrat? Seventy-seven-year-old white male.

The number two Senate Democrat? Seventy-two-year-old white male.

Then four years ago, upon the Democrats’ ascension back into power, I commented upon the same dynamic:

The House Democrat Caucus today nominated Nancy Pelosi (D – eSalon) [then 80 years old] to serve another term as Speaker of the House. She faced no opposition for the post and her top two lieutenants, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer [then 81] and Majority Whip James Clyburn [then 82], were also returned to their leadership positions.

Well, guys, the party of youth and vibes is at it again! Jim Geraghty has an interesting piece on internal competition within the Dems’ caucus:

Now, 2028 is a long way off, and on Tuesday, AOC lost an election — House Democrats had to decide whether she or northern Virginia representative Gerry Connolly should be the next ranking member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee. At 35, AOC is less than half the age of 74-year-old Connolly, but House Democrats preferred him over her, 131 to 84. (That’s a 60.9 percent to 39.1 percent split.) Connolly is undergoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy for esophagus cancer.

So there you have it: our Adorably Ornery Clueless niece remains the future — not the present — of the Democrat Party. And Mr. Geraghty then quotes a similar observation made at The Hill by Mike Lillis:

On Wednesday, the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee confirmed the ranking member positions for the senior lawmakers of four top committees — Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, and Appropriations.

That puts Reps. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), 75; Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), 73; Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), 86; and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), 81, in some of the most prominent seats to confront the incoming Trump administration next year.

None of them faced competition from younger members.

And the trend will continue on Monday, when the Steering and Policy panel is scheduled to fill out its committee roster, which will keep a number of veteran lawmakers in the ranking member spots they currently hold.

That list includes Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), 76, at the top of the Homeland Security Committee; Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), 71, as ranking member of the Small Business Committee; Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), 76, on the Science, Space and Technology Committee; and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), 71, on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

It comes as no surprise that Democrats, a party comprised largely of career politicians who worm their way up through the lowest level of the political sewers until they finally find a lifetime sinecure in a Congressional seat where they are guaranteed 60% of the vote even if they are incarcerated or dead, would have an awful lot of elderly legislators using the halls of Congress as Heaven’s waiting room. But given the fact that it was only voters 44 and younger who provided majority support to Kamala Harris (though by lower margins than they did for Joe Biden four years ago), you would think the Democrats might give them a bit more authority. Then again, when choosing among AOC, Ilhan Omar, Greg Casar, Eric Swalwell, and the like, perhaps the Democrats are indeed taking the wiser path.

– JVW

France: Dozens of Men Found Guilty in Rape/Drugging Case

Filed under: General — Dana @ 1:50 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Although it appears that the sentencing for Dominique Pelicot follows French guidelines, I agree with Gisèle Pelicot‘a kids: that the guilty men involved weren’t given nearly enough jail time for their heinous crimes:

A judge in France on Thursday found the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly over the course of almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, guilty of aggravated rape. Forty-nine men whom Dominique Pelicot brought into his home to assault his wife were also convicted Thursday as part of the same landmark trial.

The man convicted of orchestrating the sustained assaults over the years was given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while his co-accused were handed sentences ranging from three to 15 years.

As the NYT previously reported:

Gisèle had no idea about the rapes until police told her after discovering thousands of photos and videos taken by her then-husband, who had documented the abuse after recruiting strangers on the internet.

About the sentencing of the defendants other than Pelicot, there is this:

Of the 50 accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was instead convicted of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty of the sexual assault charge he was tried for — producing 51 guilty verdicts in all.

. . . the court was more lenient, with many defendants getting less than a decade in prison. The five judges voted by secret ballot, by majority for the convictions and sentences.

For the defendants other than Dominique Pelicot, sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment, with some of the time suspended for some of them. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in pretrial detention.

Gisèle Pelicot proved herself a courageous individual, who, although the victim of a cruel nightmare, went public with her name and the crimes against her:

The trial began on Sept. 2 and, almost every day, Pelicot came face to face with her former husband, Dominique, or one of the 50 other men charged with assaulting her. She insisted that videos submitted as evidence, made by her ex-husband and showing men assaulting her while she appeared unconscious, be shown in the court.

After thanking her supporters for giving her strength during the arduous trial, she made a larger point:

“I wanted to open the doors of this trial last September so that society could see what was happening. I’ll never regret this decision. I have confidence in our capacity, collectively, to find a better future, in which men and women alike can live harmlessly together with mutual respect,” she said.

One can only hope that other rape victims take courage from Pelicot. How refreshing it would be to see rapists humiliated and shamed rather than victims. As Pelicot said about the guilty men: “It’s not for us to feel shame — it’s for them.”

May she find some peace in her life after this dark, dark season.

—Dana


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