There’s a quote often misattributed to Charles Darwin, the famed evolutionary biologist, that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”
Somebody should inform the Democratic Party establishment.
Last week, David Hogg, Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), made national news when he announced plans for his organization, Leaders We Deserve, to endorse and fund primary challengers against Democratic House members who fail to adequately represent the needs of their constituents.
What followed was a condescending remark from the Democratic establishment toward the 25-year-old Hogg. Rep. Hillary Scholten was quoted as saying, “I can think of a million better things to do with $20 million right now. Fighting Democrats might get likes online, but it’s not what restores majorities.”
It is inevitable that millennials and Generation Z will become the country’s majority voting bloc. Yet nobody in the Democratic establishment seems to acknowledge, or even grasp, this reality. Young voters made themselves abundantly clear in the 2016 and 2020 primaries, rallying behind Bernie Sanders. They watched as MSNBC reporters audibly sighed on air when Sanders was on track to win the Democratic nomination.
They watched in disgust when Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out the night before Super Tuesday to shift momentum to Joe Biden, a candidate whose campaign had been considered dead just weeks prior.
It was a clear middle finger to young Democratic voters: The party didn’t respect them—or even think it needed them—to win an election.
A recent survey conducted by the Harvard Institute of Politics found that more than 50 percent of Generation Z reports being financially stressed and barely making ends meet, while another 51 percent of Gen Z members with an associate degree or higher said they believe college was a waste of money.
According to the Pew Research Center, young voters are more likely to be “partisan leaners” than older voters. In other words, they feel little brand loyalty or strong attachment to the Democratic Party. This is evident on our campus, where our Young Democrats chapter barely has any members, while groups like the Young Democratic Socialists of America are much more active.
The Democratic Party needs to think long term about the future of American politics. While the 2028 election is important, so is the 2044 election. To think long term, a significant portion of House Democrats need to be primaried and replaced by more progressive, economically populist members.
Democrats should run on the principles outlined in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. The Green New Deal continues the spirit of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Economic Bill of Rights, which declared the right to a job with a living wage, a good education, competition free from corporate monopolies, health care, housing and economic security in retirement and disability.
The Green New Deal extends these rights by adding an environmental component to address the era of climate change. Ocasio-Cortez is currently traveling with Sanders, drawing large crowds for their “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.”
Meanwhile, disgraced journalists like Chris Cuomo condescendingly say, “She’s her own version of MAGA... she’s not about solutions... she’s a socialist in a capitalist society.”
Any party that spits in the face of its young voters is doomed to fail in the long term. The future of American politics is economic populism. It’s time for Democrats to understand this—or allow the country to further fall under the brink of authoritarianism.
The opinions desk can be reached at opinions@ubsprectum.com
