We're Not Going Back: can Democrats and the Left get it right this time?
Politics has always been a huge part of my life. I was that kid who’d spend hours watching Jon Stewart and bring up the latest news at the dinner table. I’ve been hesitant to write about that part of my life because of how polarized things have become. Any discussion now is so fraught with tribalism and ideological warfare, that most people avoid it. Yet, as we’ve all seen with the repeal of Roe V. Wade and the tax burden shift to the middle class, our political system is something that none of us can avoid. At its core, politics represents our values and personal philosophy about how we should live together or build community. I think both parties have lost sight of that as we’ve moved further and further away from a functioning government to whatever we have now. Recently though, I’ve found a shred of hope that we can have representatives that care about us again.
Before we start, let’s make it clear I’m under no illusion that the system has changed. The way we govern in the United States is still very much broken. We’ve ceded control over to dark money and private interests. It makes sense why so many have lost faith in the government when you need millions of dollars to get attention from elected officials. Half of the Supreme Court and most of Congress are on the payroll of multinational corporations and the top 1%. Any bill resembling progress or a win for the average person is killed long before it can be signed into law, just look what happened with student loan relief. Instead, we keep passing tax cuts that only favor a small portion of the country, leaving the rest of us to cover the tab. So when I talk about hope, it’s not that we’re going to fix all of these problems in the short term. It’s that we might have a shot of finding a path to right the ship. That’s not a ringing endorsement, but the past few decades have left us with little to work with, so I’ll take anything at this point. My sliver of optimism comes from a new generation of politicians on the left gaining more power and talking about their goals in a different way. There’s a level of empathy and understanding of the middle and lower classes that’s largely been absent from our political discourse. It’s not always perfect and many of these promises could be lip service, but I believe the shift in rhetoric might be enough to open the door for tangible changes.
Having any hope is a stark contrast to how I’ve felt for the past decade, where there’s been a pit at the bottom of my stomach about our collective future. Every election was a new reason to lose hope. 2016 kicked that off by shining a light on America’s worst impulses. Impulses which have always been there but the media used the Obama years to cover up. It was the first election I could vote in and it was a brutal lesson in how incompetent the Democratic party had become. Hillary’s loss had a lot to do with ingrained misogyny but that doesn’t change the fact that she was a bad candidate. There was nothing relatable about her campaign and no visible empathy for us to latch on to. Bernie and other down-ballot progressives like “The Squad” were the ones who had messages that resonated with Americans who were struggling more and more every day. Yet, party leadership refused to budge on their chosen candidate and let Trump co-opt populist progressive-sounding arguments into his platform to win. After that, I dropped the Democrat label I had proudly held since high school (which wasn’t always popular where I’m from) and just went with Progressive. Winning in 2020 didn’t do much to restore my faith.
Biden’s win was a mirage for the Democratic old guard who thought that 2016 was an outlier. They didn’t grasp that we weren’t voting for Biden or them. We were all voting against Trump. No one was excited to vote in that election, it was just about staving off fascism. The thing about democracy is that it’s supposed to be about us, not one crying narcissist. We’ve forgotten that with the cult the GOP has morphed into. Our elections are no longer about policies but personalities. In a way, Hillary represented that too because her whole campaign was about being with Her and how it was her time to be president, not what she would do for us. That might be unfair because Hillary’s campaign had tinges of arrogance but she never claimed or acted like a messiah. Whereas, a sizable group in this country has chosen to side with a deranged reality TV star and terrible business person because supposedly he’s the one person who can save them from all their problems and deliver them to glory. Due to that, the GOP has taken on religious zeal where it can’t be separated from Trump no matter how far he drags them down. I was terrified that we were going to fall into that same hole of being held hostage by geriatric hubris. Biden has his flaws but by dropping out he showed that he’s nothing like Trump and the left hadn’t descended into cult status, at least not totally.
The Democratic party is still largely a corporate party, and it’d be an understatement to say that I’ve been disappointed in the rightward shift on immigration and other foreign policy issues of late. We need to be doing more for Gaza, way more, and for all of the other people who are affected by the US’s 200-year-long game of King of the Hill. Still though, in the vacuum left behind by Biden, it feels like progressives finally have a chance to build a new movement. One that represents greater possibilities in what we can do and who we can help. I hate the performative nature of the DNC as much as anyone else but it’s hard to deny how much the speakers resembled America. People from all walks of life showed up to talk about policies and issues that actually matter in our day-to-day lives. We should have heard from a Palestinian American and there were a lot of corporate theatrics, but it was nothing like the culture war bullshit peddled by the right at the RNC. Afterward, the Harris campaign released pieces of their platform which included the type of policies that progressives have been pushing for decades. Housing subsidies for first-time home buyers, tax benefits for new families, prescription drug price caps, and restrictions on corporate price gouging on food and other essential items are all the types of actions that could improve regular people's lives. Some of these policies may never end up coming to light, while others may not be fully baked yet, but the intention behind them matters. For once, a mainstream campaign is listening to what was once considered the “extreme” side of the left and focusing on helping people like you and me.
These recent developments have created new energy among the party at large, especially a group, that has often been an afterthought, young people. We didn’t have any candidates who represented us in 2016, so many chose not to vote. Not only did the candidates fail to resonate, but they didn’t know how to talk to us. For as long as we’ve been politically aware, the Democrats have had no real strategy for reaching young people. Even though the left’s policies are overwhelmingly popular with young people, they have no idea how to market them. Many times, they’ve expected us to vote despite actively dismissing us. The Biden campaign tried their hand at TikTok, but everyone knew that wouldn’t work. This is where the progressive wing of the party and the Harris campaign feel different. They how to use the internet to build organic momentum. Whether it’s a viral camo hat, memes, or just providing more access, they’re finding ways to connect with people who’ve largely felt ignored. Policies matter, and the Harris campaign has fallen back to the dismissive thing themselves, but you have to find ways to reach new audiences. There’s a risk to being too online but so far it’s working. New voter registrations are rushing in with the majority being young democrats.
Who’s on the ticket also matters. I know I said democracy is all about us, but it does take people to run it and spearhead change. AOC and the rest of The Squad proved that everyday citizens who cared about helping others could still win elections. Since then we’ve seen a whole new generation of people find success by championing people and the policies that could help them. We even saw the first member of Gen Z get elected in Florida. Despite some recent losses, I think this shift in what a politician looks like is just getting started. Even the top of the ticket represents this. Kamala isn’t afraid to smile or be goofy but can turn the burners on when needed. She’s a lot more relatable than Biden or Hillary ever was. The same can be said about Tim Walz was a teacher and stepped up to better his community. His personality is so different from what we expect from politicians, where he’s like the favorite Dad out of the friend group, always there to help when you need it most. Serving in the military and owning guns doesn’t define him either. His masculinity is built on lifting people up and not tearing them down. Harris and Walz are real people who are running to represent everyone, That’s evident in how their campaign still somehow feels grassroots, despite being in politics for decades. People are genuinely excited about their vision for the country. I’ve been frustrated with a few of their positions and comments, despite progressive policies they can still lean centrist. We’ll need to push them on important issues and hold them accountable to the platform they’ve promised. We can’t forget that there’s a growing cohort of young progressive politicians who will push them, the same can’t be said about the right. No candidate is perfect, and we don’t have the luxury of being one policy voters this time around. That’s not discounting the countless lives being impacted by genocide, but right now only one side offers the chance to do better. We’ve needed new energy like this for a long time, and this shift is a chance to make real progress.
As a Progressive and longtime skeptical leftist, I have a hard time publishing a piece like this, and some may call me a bootlicker. We have so many problems that need solving and we’ve been burned over and over. A little optimism is necessary though if we’re going to get anything done. This is the first time where I feel like we might be headed in the right direction. We need to be able to believe that change is possible. Something has to change, and Kamala is at least saying that. Do I think she’ll solve everything? No, but she could be the start of something. If we can get Harris Walz elected then we can get people excited and involved with how our country works. I’m hoping that this shift can bring us somewhere new. Somewhere where we can live up to the ideals of this country that we’ve never been able to reach. Somewhere where we can do everything we should have for the past century and catch up to our European counterparts (maybe not the UK and France). At the end of the day we need empathy and to take care of everyone. That’s something I think we can all get behind. The Democrats haven’t been perfect and make a lot of mistakes, some as recent as today. I still have a hard time believing in them at times, but right now we have a second chance at building a better future. So, let’s not lose that chance, register to vote and donate if you can.