Youth And Inexperience Defines The New Senate

(Before It's News)

According to POLITICO, half of the current Senate is made up of people who are still in their first term. Gone are the journeymen of yesteryear whose experience in building consensus has given way to a more politically rancorous environment and a push to end the traditions which some say result in gridlock.

But isn't that the way it always is when inexperience takes over?  How many of our mistakes can we attribute to youthful exuberance, inexperience and the far riskier youthful behavior we eventually abandoned as we matured?

And to top it all off, with the death and retirement of older members of the Senate, there could soon increase a lack of respect for the wisdom of our senior citizens.  Younger members who think they know everything may eventually see no value in our traditions, and eventually, our institutions.

There are a number of these young and arrogant folks on both sides of the aisle seeking to take control of a senate they have only seen for less than six years.  But why not?

We have a commander in chief who was a state senator, then a part time US Senator and has never held a job that wasn't given to him, who was a cocaine user, raised in an openly communist family and has a soft spot in his heart for Islam, the religion out of which comes those with the deepest bloodlust to kill all of us.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said there’s a “knowledge gap” with the
influx of newer members replacing long-serving veterans. He argued that
many newcomers are quick to call for sweeping changes to the body but
fail to understand how the Senate can work if the two sides respect the
rights of the other to be heard.

Alexander said the senators have little regard for minority rights because they haven’t lived them.

“It’s hard enough for those of us who have been here a while to
understand the procedures and rules but if we’re going to have an
institution that works, we gotta make sure we all know what the rules
are and don’t just have our own version of the rules,” he said.

As a lawyer I am daily engaged in debate, representing a viewpoint, but all the while fully aware that the other side has a viewpoint too.  Our institution requires respect, fairness and acceptance of the outcome.  We are trained to sit quietly and listen to the other arguments, then respond on the merits alone without attacking the speaker.  The world in which I live is a world of fair debate, the arena of ideas.

This piece in POLITICO suggests that the decorum and traditions of the Senate are being ignored by the inexperienced who demand things be done their way.  It describes the degradation of one of the world's most respected deliberative bodies into a room of unruly children.

We get what we deserve.

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