Rep. Gerry Connolly, top Democrat on House Oversight Committee, dies at 75

They refuse to retire and hand power to younger generations, literally dying in office. Fuck boomers.
- I don't think it's simply a matter of holding power.
  “I’ve never had my chance to be a ranking member or a chairman of a full committee. This is it.”
  Gerry Connolly (Source)
  It's this idea of "my turn".
  Connolly put in the time, he played by the rules, it's his turn. Conceptually I get it. It's what's fair.
  The problem is, we don't live in that reality anymore, maybe we never did. We want to move forward. We don't want to wait for "our turn". We can't afford to wait as things fall apart around us. Problems get worse the longer we wait.
  Joe Biden had the view of riding out the storm. Trump, MAGA, etc are just a blip, everything will go back to normal. He was absolutely wrong. We have a generation of Democrats who are horribly out of touch with reality.
  
  We have a generation of Democrats who are horribly out of touch with reality.
  That Schumer planned a book tour proves that. Someone had to make him aware that people like my buddy and me planned to show up and hassle the shit out of him before canceling.
  
  HEY. Hey. hey. Gerry Connelly probably had some great ideas for government... -40 years ago. They're probably completely irrelevant according to the needs of today.
  
  In the case of many GenX folks: “our turn” will never arrive. The Boomers refused to fucking retire and make room for us, and younger generations conflate us with Boomers because “old is old”.
  Meanwhile we are working our asses off helping our elderly parents navigate an increasingly hostile health system (yay, capitalism) while giving our adult children a place to live or money to survive an increasingly impossibly expensive society. Can’t afford to save for retirement either.
  “Hooray”
  (fyi - I also think that term limits are the way to go here - finish your terms, then gtfo. None of this waiting around for 20 years for “my turn” and certainly none of that “just wheel the old corpse in and tell her how to vote” bullshit either)
- They came into this world, and damn if they aren't taking it out with them.
- Well, corporations expect a return on investment. So, they're literally driving politicians into the ground because they're a known qantity rather than risking a leftist wave because profit margins.
  
  they know the gop already all on board, and guaranteed a ROI, but dems probably provide a bigger ROI than the gop.

Democrats in Congress picked Connolly to serve as the ranking member of the Oversight Committee in December, rejecting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s bid to serve as the party’s leader on the powerful panel. Ocasio-Cortez, 35, was one of multiple younger Democrats seeking generational change among the party’s top ranks.
- I expect they will find another old white dude to fill the spot before they ever consider Ocasio-Cortez.
  
  A lot has changed since December...
  I think if AOC still wants it, she's got it now.
  Pelosi and the rest of the senior elected politicians don't have the DNC behind them anymore. She was never good at convincing people to see her side, she wielded the DNC like a cudgel and had zero qualms turning it on incumbents who went against her.

Boy, I really don't want to be disrespectful, but did I nail it or what?
So, I'm not a doctor, but it sounds like he's showing early symptoms, he only has a 15% or living more than 5 years, and he's more likely than not to die within the next year...I'm not trying to be cruel to the guy; cancer sucks and it's awful he's going through this. But given how narrow the Republican lead is in the House, it's irresponsible to have him just stay in Congress at all, since he might miss crucial votes.
- it's irresponsible to have him just stay in Congress at all, since he might miss crucial votes.
  That's the name of the game with boomers. Gotta keep yourself going until you die in office so conservatives can have another win and erase anything you may have accomplished.
  Why yes, I am still mad about RBG, why do you ask?
  
  Agreed, bur let's forget about her, and Dianne Feinstein, and Biden. Let's ignore everything that happened before the inauguration and pretend we're starting with a fresh slate. He's the third House Democrat to drop dead since January. In five months, three Democrats have been assassinated by time.
- Once again, we're proven right. We've been banned, downvoted, censored, but proven right. I think Cassandra syndrome is a good term for our kind.
  We were right. Called morons for seeing the truth. It happens. Now if we go "Hey I was right" we're somehow rude or broken clocks.
  
  Yeah, but if Vegas ever starts taking odds on when these ghouls are gonna drop dead, or which ones are going to sell us out to the crypto industry, I'm gonna make a killing.

Sad news for his family.
I do wonder though about these people that hang on to power all the way up until death. Is that fulfilling?
What was the point of all that amassing of influence and power, just to spend the last few months of your precious finite time on earth sitting in a little office arguing with people.
I wonder if there is an afterlife how many of those that held onto power with an iron grip up until death look back and go “I wish I had spent more time with my family. I wish I had used some of that wealth and power to enjoy the fruits of life. I can’t believe the last heathy months of my life were wasted doing these things that in retrospect seem so unimportant.”
There is this group of old billionaires and politicians that are bound and determined to run up the high score as high as possible and for what? Billions of dollars and still heading into the office day in and day out stressing about the next product launch? Why live your life like that?
Isn’t the point that you can get out of the rat race at some point, not just become the fastest rat?
- Not only that, but politicians are very concerned about their legacies, how they will be remembered. And politicians who hold on until the end do not get to manage an important part of their legacies: how they are replaced.
  RBG is the prime example of this. If she had retired while Obama could have appointed her successor, she could have seen someone sane carry her seat forward in her last years. Instead, she died knowing that her replacement would probably seek to undo much of what she did.
  If this congressman had not run again in 2024, he could have directly endorsed his successor and made sure his constituents were adequately represented throughout. Now Democrats are down a seat until the election to replace him, and his constituents will have to go through someone else if they need help out of Congress.
  
  Not only that, but politicians are very concerned about their legacies, how they will be remembered
  Which is why we need to start being honest even if it's not polite
  Fuck Gerry Connelly. He spent his last years working against his own party and causing harm to the American people.
  If he'd have spent the last decade in retirement, sure, we can limit it formalities. But up until the day he died he obstructed justice by taking an important political seat so that he could block someone else from doing the job.
  Mike Donnelly would have gotten more done than Gerry did.
  
  she was banking on hillary to win, and then when mitch became SENATE majority, he blocked all of obamas appointments.
- i'm convinced that the reason why we're forced to run this rat race is because too many believe that we have to when we see the faster rats getting the things that we want.
  connolly litterally gave his life supporting the status quo and was "rewarded" for it while the person who tried to buck the status quo was left out in the cold for it.
  
  Back in December...
  That happened because Pelosi had the backing of the DNC and elected Dems knew the neoliberals wouldn't hesitate to torpedo an incumbent that went against them even if it meant a Republican got the seat.
  She doesn't have that anymore, and all her threats are toothless. For her whole career she's never been effective at convincing people to see a different viewpoint to change a vote, she's just threatened her own party members.
  With the "victory fund" they had financial control over a lot of states too, they could shut the tap off to your whole state, or making funds dependent on your state hanging you specifically out to dry.
  Like, I think people dont appreciate how much got fixed in the last couple months, because they don't understand how bad shit really was
- feinstein was wheelbound, probably out of her mind when she died, she already had a epsiode of varicella zoster encephalitis, shingles which presented as a severe form progressed to encephalitis/meningitis, i think she died from those complications.
  mitch mcconnel was originally going to stay in the senate til he died, im guessing trump accelerated his departure.

dont worry, he will be replaced by some other geriatric conservative

Nobody over 65 should be in a position of power.
Retire and let us fix this shit world already fucking useless boomers.
Rest in piss

Oh shit, maybe he’ll run for prez.

Fuckos need to leave office before 70 go fishing or read a book or something
I'm sorry he's passed and probably left family mourning but this staying in office until the end is not good for anyone

But Beyer said Connolly was a young 74, cancer notwithstanding

Another example of everything wrong with the Democrat party

This is the guy the Democrats chose to be on the Oversight Committee over AOC at Pelosi's urging.

Reminder, this guy was dying with cancer, and as his last wish decided to screw the new generations of democrats one last time.

At least he got “his turn,” and did some good before he died. /s

75!? That's no legal in most highways. Like usual

At least the dead have proper representation

I don't like AOC. But she got cooked by Dem leadership to lose the spot for this position for someone clearly too old to be there and who passed away. Once again, fuck cancer. But the elder leadership needs to step aside.
Unserious party.
- I don’t like AOC.
  Oh, I hope you don't mind the question, but why's that? I like her quite a bit and now I'm curious.
  
  The tirelessly working on a ceasefire thing, and she is an opportunist at times. She is still better than most of her peers. I don't personal like her, but if it came down to it. I'll still vote for her over any corpo Dem.
- The eternal battle of fairness and ability, i suppose... But I wanna know what your issues with Ocasio-Cortez are. It's a rare sort that cops to that in these parts.