There is odd dichotomy plaguing American culture these days.
On the one hand, we collectively idolize youth. Suits in boardrooms across the country are panicked about making sure they pay fealty to the hashtag mafia, that online hoard of young social media users that wield dangerous, disproportionate influence over what we all must say to avoid being canceled. Young and beautiful is far more attractive to contemporary society than old and wise.
On the other hand, the leaders we continually place in high office seemingly have one foot in the grave. The median age of U.S. citizens is 39 while the median age of Congress is 60. President Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Nancy Pelosi are all in their 80s. On the Republican side, Mitch McConnell has joined that age group, and Donald Trump is near it himself.
It seems culturally we gravitate towards youth and politically we gravitate towards age. This leads to problems in both areas. Culturally, adults of an average age are often forced to listen to the preening of Gen-Z. Politically, we are often subjected to the tired policies of our grandfathers, and the outdated analysis by commentators who seem to have little grasp of the moment.
Take what just graced the pages of the Wall Street Journal. The paper published an opinion piece by Peggy Noonan, a 72-year-old veteran of the Reagan administration. Don't get me wrong – I think highly of Noonan, her service, her intellect, and her wisdom. But someone who had their finger on the pulse of the American political scene four decades ago might be just a tad bit out of touch now.
Think of it this way: There's a reason Reagan picked Peggy Noonan to work for him when she was 34 rather than pick someone who was 72. The energy, the creativity, and the tenacity for the job is just different. Noonan undoubtedly is a fascinating resource for insights into the politics of yesteryear. But that doesn't automatically translate to being the best option to evaluate the current moment.
For instance, here's a small excerpt from her Wall Street Journal piece that sought to correct Ron DeSantis's approach to toppling Trump in the upcoming Republican primary:
At some point, I think soon, he'll have to make a serious, textured, and extended case against Donald Trump…Yes, tell those good people that you served your country in a tragedy called Iraq and the other guy claimed bone spurs and ran during a tragedy called Vietnam. You think you don't have to say it, but you do. People who love Mr. Trump need reasons they can explain to themselves to peel away.
I don't mean to be rude at all, because again, I think highly of Ms. Noonan. But in an era of tightening budgets, I can't fathom how the Wall Street Journal finds this kind of tone-deaf analysis a good investment.
Imagine in 2023 still believing that Donald Trump's supporters would care about the fact that he ran from service in Vietnam. If they don't care that he cheated on a pregnant Melania with a porn star and then paid for her silence, Vietnam is nothing. If he could, as he put, "stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody" and not lose voters, the fact that he didn't shoot somebody in Southeast Asia half a century ago isn't going to cost him support either.
Vietnam mattered in Peggy, and Donald, and Joe's generation. It just doesn't to this generation of voters.
Now, contrast that obsolete analysis with what Newsweek's opinion editor Josh Hammer (who at 34 years old is the same age Noonan was when Reagan hired her) wrote about the Trump/DeSantis race:
The 2024 Republican presidential primary is shaping up to become a grand battle royale between an eccentric, larger-than-life Baby Boomer who obsesses over re-litigating the last election and is constantly distracted by self-imposed wounds and personal grievances, and on the other hand an extremely disciplined, mission-oriented Gen X conservative who single-handedly made the nation's largest swing state ruby-red and has overseen the implementation of the most transformative right-wing agenda in modern American history. That is the basic choice.
Bullseye.
Look, I don't want Peggy Noonan to lose her job. And even though I can't say the same for many of the elderly folks in D.C., I can say it's not because I lack respect or admiration for the wisdom that comes alongside gray hairs. But maybe it's time for the current adult generation to stop acquiescing to the last and worshipping the next. Maybe it's time for the adults to just lead?
