You don't need to be "connected directly to the immediate struggles" to understand polling, such as that a resounding number of Democrats and Independents condemned Israel's genocide in Palestine or that a resounding number of Democrats (idk about Independents) support abolishing ICE.
They are owned by Zionists, and they are owned by private prison oligarchs. It's not because they were too old to understand. It's because they're compromised by foreign agents and moneyed interests.