David Hogg is Right

David Hogg ran for Vice Chair in an effort to change the DNC to be more effective and actually start winning with effective candidates. Ken Martin is too focused on raising money. That is not what is needed. As a result of a mismanaged officer election and the DNC digging in their heels against change, David Hogg has stepped down as a Vice Chair. He has a new organization planning to spend twenty million dollars to primary deadwood democrats with fighters. 

David wants to primary the ineffective members to bring in candidates who are younger and more representative of our Democratic values and population. The 75 members who voted to thank the ICE Gestapo would be an excellent place to start. These members are MAGA lite, not the fighters we need. Then there’s the list of elders dying to maintain their power without representing the people electing them. 

I count Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and James Clyburn among those who should be primaried. They have consistently cowed to the right wing and corporate interests instead of their constituents for years. There is no working with the current iteration of the Republican Party. Republicans are arsonists determined to burn down the government while stripping us of our rights and yelling “I told you the government is bad!” 

The oligarchs have gotten decades of benefit from investing in politicians in both parties to advance tax cuts, gain corporate subsidies, cut regulations, and defang enforcement of the mechanisms we do have. They have successfully blocked education funding, labor rights, universal healthcare, fair taxation, and so much more. Add in the trade agreements and financial encouragement to offshore jobs and we have the toxic stew we have now. 

Without major generational change within the Democratic Party, the nation will continue its rapid decline into corporate totalitarianism. My hope is David will recruit candidates not beholden to corporations and lobby groups and instead run grassroots campaigns. Economic progressive populist policies such as taxing the rich are winning policies when effectively communicated and explained. Even in deep red MAGA districts. Everyone is suffering and pissed. 

Part of the reason Trump and MAGA were able to win support is by pointing to the status quo and saying it’s not working. They are correct. The current structure is not working for the people. Pounding on the threats to democracy in elections comes off as protecting and defending a fundamentally broken system. James Carville and other overpaid, completely wrong, neoliberal consultants keep pulling the party to the right instead of leaning into our working class roots. The American people have been losing for more than a decade with this nonsense. The strategy that works involves listening to Senator Bernie Sanders and others on the left and leaning into working class policies. We need more Maxwell Frosts, Jasmine Crocketts, AOCs, and Bernies.