It’s no surprise that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is using a walker in the Capitol. Really, it makes her style all the clearer. She is the stalwart of the congressional “gerontocracy.”

“Stalwart” might contain too positive a connotation, but it conveys the point. Pelosi has served as a House member since 1987, and since then, has been in powerful positions, close to important situations, shrewd, and cunning. Her successful ousting of President Joe Biden from the 2024 presidential race is perhaps the best example. Even in an effort against senility, her actions proved the subtext: Biden’s decline was painfully obvious by the time of his debate against President-elect Donald Trump. Pelosi was one of the many Democratic politicians who refused to be honest with voters until the lies about his cognitive state were out in the open. 

It was her seniority and fixed way of operating that made her best fit for the Biden hack job, and it is that which she wants to protect in Congress. When, last month, Pelosi feuded with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in working to counteract AOC’s bid for ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, she communicated the same motivation. Pelosi is opposed to Ocasio-Cortez becoming a face of the Democratic Party.

Part of that is a prudent mistrust of younger members’ restraint and tact. However, most of it has to do with Pelosi’s strategic preferences. She, along with the Democratic lawmakers who followed her backing of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), knows Democrats always yield to the progressive cause when push comes to shove. 

Still, Pelosi will say her work is about making small gains and fighting the right battles. Her opposition to AOC certainly says otherwise: The game is about being able to push along a progressive agenda covertly, and AOC does not hide that fact.

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Ocasio-Cortez would have made a great pick for Democratic leadership, even if it was only because she is one of the most well-known, articulate members of Congress. Little gets done there, anyway — what is the harm of a fresh face, one whom people seem to like?

Ironically, the answer is the same reason Pelosi and others have been pushing for Supreme Court term limits: Democrats need security. The method most likely to prove effective on that front for Congress is to keep on with the old guard, and the member most in control of it is a quickly aging Pelosi.