(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Open letter to David Hogg and 'Leaders We Deserve' [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-22
By Karen Rubin,
[email protected], news-photos-features.com
It is so interesting you suggest that young voters are turned off because too many elected representatives are old and therefore, out of touch.
Yet young Black and Hispanic men voted against Harris and young voters chose to stay home rather than vote for Harris - the youthful candidate vs an aging, decrepit, degenerate, after forcing Biden out because of his age. They chose to stay home if a candidate doesn't perfectly match their ideology on every issue.
You can't say it wasn't that Harris wasn't demonstrably a better candidate, a better, more accomplished person whose values aligned with young voters, with specific plans for working people, union members, climate activists, gun sense activists, voting rights activists, WOMEN'S RIGHTS activists, with an actual plan to create affordable housing, and a rationale approach to Ukraine and Gaza (both conflicts prolonged because Putin and Netanyahu have Trump’s support).
The fact is, one reason Harris lost is because Trump managed to brand her “Comrade Kamala.” There are not enough progressives to elect national, let alone statewide candidates. Biden was your most progressive president in 50 years to actually accomplish things, and you just abandoned him in a despicable way.
You should take seriously what Brett Stevens wrote in the New York Times, “If Democrats decide to make two democratic socialists [Bernie Sanders and AOC] their standard-bearers, they’re going to destroy their chances of winning a presidential election for many years. Americans want a sane alternative to Trump, not an ideological mirror image.... somehow I don’t see Ocasio-Cortez or other members of the now-depleted Squad leading the Democrats to anything other than political disaster. Just give me a sane Democrat who still believes in the goodness of American ideals, the power of free markets and the need to chart a middle course in politics. In other words: Bill Clinton.”
Baby Boomers were the ones who achieved civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, peace in Vietnam, environmental protection and climate action, and continue to dominate the marches on these issues, including immigrant rights. And even today, look at the protesters against Trump and Musk: most are Baby Boomers. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
You will recall that young progressives (they were young then) balked at Clinton (“elite”), then didn’t turn out in sufficient numbers for a true progressive, champion of climate action, Al Gore (who actually won Florida and the presidency, were it not for Scalia and Supreme Court cancelling Florida’s constitutionally mandated hand recount), but instead, truly “showed them!” and voted for Ralph Nader.
You should have learned the lesson of naïve idealism after the massive March 4 Our Lives protests accomplished nothing in Congress or even in Florida and even now, your state’s Christo Fascist governor is rolling back every gun safety measure in existence and trying to foist that low-standard on the rest of the country. All he offered after the latest school shooting was “thoughts and prayers” as he moves to allow concealed carry on campuses and lower the age to buy a gun – without permit - back to 18. And Trump says after his non-reaction to FSU (while falsely accusing undocumented migrants as being the “worst of the worst” violent criminals) that he will continue to defend the 2nd Amendment (not the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 13th, 14th, 15th etc.)
As you wrote :
Just three weeks ago, Florida Republicans voted to repeal gun safety measures that we won after the tragedy at Parkland – even as school shootings continue.
In the Oval Office, reporters asked President Trump about what was at the time an active shooting. He called the shooting “a shame” and “a horrible thing” before adding: “Things like this take place.” In other words, don’t expect any action. It’s disgusting that we have moved on from “thoughts and prayers” to “I don’t care.”
It’s enraging that this keeps happening, in Florida and everywhere else. We can’t accept it – we have to keep fighting for the life-saving policy changes needed in Florida and across the country before more people are senselessly slaughtered.
Trump won’t be inviting the parents of the dead FSU students to the White House as he did the young woman killed by an undocumented immigrant, or name a Preserve for them, or pass a gun violence prevention law in the name of all the massacred children.
You can’t even win on your central issues - gun safety and climate change.
Bernie Sanders has actually accomplished very little in legislation – think about that – and he is one of the key reasons Trump was able to take the presidency in 2016 over Hillary Clinton. Your progressives did it again (Jill Stein!) in 2024 and now we will have generations to pay the price and likely tens of thousands of prematurely dead Americans as a result.
Biden ran as a moderate – which is why he won - but was able to govern as a progressive without hitting people over the head with ideology. “From the bottom up and the middle out,” are watchwords that should not be mocked because he actually did what he promised.
You need to be more politically strategic, especially in your role as a vice-chairman of the DNC. “Politics,” Hillary Clinton said (by way of Bismarck), “is the art of the possible.” Instead, you have a dictator wannabe sociopath who quotes Napoleon, “He who saves his country does not violate any laws,” and acts like Louis XIV, “L’etat, c’est moi.”
You are playing a dangerous game when you deride Democrats and the Democratic Party and foist the Republicans’ talking points and lies that Democrats “have no vision,” “have no clear policy,” “are ruled by disconnected elites” in order to change the “status quo” order. Instead, you should be highlighting the rotten-to-the-core corruption of the Republicans who have, since 1994, been focused on obstructing every Democratic (progressive) initiative, who now refer to Democrats and liberals as “unhumans” not worthy of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Imagine making DEI and “woke” values ILLEGAL, when that’s what has given American society this all-too-brief period of progressivism, interspersed with rightwing backlash and now radical White Christo Fascism.
Consider this: This country has only had very brief bursts of progressivism interspersed with long waves of White Christo Fascist nationalism, and since FDR, all those periods were when Democrats controlled Congress and the Supreme Court majority was appointed by Democratic presidents.
Make it clear: Democrats are the party of Working for the People. Democrats have been effective in governing; Republicans are only effective campaigning in order to win elections.
Republicans have demonstrated they have no interest in representing their constituents – not even the people who voted for them. Their sole interest has been keeping power and enriching themselves while in office.
Stop saying Democrats need to frame everything in a neat, slick slogan, or have been too policy oriented or not policy oriented enough, not offered a “vision” or a “framework”, or the “vision” wasn’t clear enough, or this message or that message isn’t clever or catchy enough.
In fact, Republicans have been far more successful – and clever – at messaging, even if lies. So when Democrats call for sensible gun regulation, they accuse ‘Their coming for your guns.” When Democrats call for climate action, they charge “They’re coming for your stoves, your showers, your hamburgers.” When Democrats call for the ultra-rich to pay their fair share of taxes, they scream “Socialists!”
Call out the disinformation, propaganda, lies of Trump, MAGA, Musk, DOGE and the Republicans writ large – even now as he continues to bash Biden as “the worst president,” “Sleepy Joe.” Biden accomplished more in two years than every president going back to LBJ, another president who was drummed out of office by young progressives, paving the way for Nixon.
Push back when Trump and Republicans attack Biden and the Democrats, instead of running away from what Biden-Harris accomplished (because people have no idea). Because the key theme to hammer home is Democrats ARE effective at governance. Democrats believe the function/purpose of government is to make lives better.
Susan Sarandon tells climate activists in at NYC Climate March, if Biden doesn’t end fossil fuels, don’t vote for him. How did that work out? © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
But Susan Sarandon, leading the Youth Climate Change rally in NYC in 2023 said that if Biden didn’t end fossil fuels completely, they should not vote for him (or Harris). How did that go?
And the pro-Palestinians – who proved critical in the key swing state of Michigan - said that if Biden didn’t withhold all aid to Israel, they wouldn’t vote for Biden or Harris. How did that go?
Bashing Baby Boomers as the reason for the atrophy in Congress is so unfair. Baby Boomers were the ones who achieved civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, peace in Vietnam, environmental protection and climate action, and continue to dominate the marches on these issues, including immigrant rights. And even today, look at the protesters against Trump and Musk: most are Baby Boomers.
You say
I’m proud that Democrats:
✅ Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years.
✅ Invested billions in mental health, housing, and clean energy.
✅ Cut child poverty, capped insulin costs, and forgave student loan debt.
But let’s be honest: our party is in TROUBLE.
Right now, Democrats are deeply unpopular – especially with young people. Many of our leaders have lost touch with the urgency this moment demands.
But you neglected to mention that Republicans sued to prevent Biden from forgiving student loan debt, are trying to repeal the cap on insulin costs, have actually shut down funding for mental health, housing and clean energy and Trump has already repealed Biden’s gun safety orders.
You write:
the housing crisis is one of the biggest challenges young people face right now, and we still have cities and states that are dragging their feet on doing something about it...We need more leaders on city councils, in state legislatures, and in Congress who see how successful Austin has been on this issue and will look to replicate their success in other cities. More than anything, we need younger leaders at all levels of government who have actually experienced the challenges young people are facing today, and who feel a sense of urgency to do something about it. Biden took action to prevent exploitation by landlords and owners – why didn’t you promote that? Harris had very specific plan for affordable housing – it was a centerpiece of her campaign, basically putting on a federal scale what you praise Austin, Texas for doing (btw, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has pushed to take away localities to make their own laws), while Trump has just eliminated housing vouchers and any effort to improve housing affordability – he prefers to extort Vietnam with high tariffs in order to build a $1.5 billion Trump resort. We have Trump, Abbott and DeSantis mostly because young progressives failed to support, bolster, tout, applaud, appreciate what Democrats did – despite ONLY having control of Congress for Biden’s first two years. What was achieved against outrageous, traitorous opposition (refusing to pass Bipartisan Immigration Reform, Voting Rights) was outstanding – instead, Democrats RAN from Biden the moment he was unpopular – and the only reason he was unpopular was because of the relentless misinformation, propaganda campaigns by the way-more-effective MAGA messaging machine.
And frankly, I understand why Senator Schumer voted to allow the vote on the budget resolution (but voted against the actual budget), because he correctly realized that Trump would be far more dangerous if he could shut down government, possibly for the rest of the year, when he would be able to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers and deport migrants to gulags. (He was responsible for shutting down government for 80 days in 2019). I might agree that the Senate Democrats need a new leader, but not because of that principled budget vote.
You are way too black/white without seeing the complexities, or the political realities. It’s the difference between idealism and realism.
But if you look at the Democrats deserving of being shoved aside, you certainly could name West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who single-handedly defeated so much when Democrats controlled Congress, pissing away what more could have been accomplished in the first two years. But what happened when he stepped aside? Republicans took the seat. And with Democrats pushed aside in Montana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, lost the Senate.
Congressman Tom Suozzi, one of 13 Democrats elected in a district that voted for Trump by 19,000 votes, speaks of how, being in the minority, it is hard enough to fend off MAGA, let alone advance Democratic initiatives, especially since Republicans have abandoned any notion of “consensus” or “compromise” since 1994 © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
On the other hand, Congressman Tom Suozzi, who reclaimed his seat after George Santos was expelled in a district that had turned red, electing Trump by 19,000 votes while Suozzi won by 11,000 votes (“That means I had to get 20,000 more votes than Trump”) and is one of 13 Democrats who won in districts that Trump won, has to fend off attacks by the district’s progressives that he isn’t effective enough (he was one of 10 Democrats to vote to censure Green). He calls himself a “commonsense Democrat” (he co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus and has always been a moderate) and in a recent well-attended Social Security Town Hall, says constituents are just not aware of all that he and the Democrats are doing to stop MAGA destruction of government services and institutions.
When you complain about Democrats not showing enough energy, spine, courage, what about the energy young voters showed to elect/re-elect Democrats?
You say you want to run primary challenges against the old Democrats you don’t believe are effective. But consider this: the nature of primaries is that the challenger beats up on the other candidates (as Suozzi did against Hochul in her election for Governor, which gave Lee Zeldin a real chance to take over the state), giving ammunition to GOP and splitting the vote. Then, if the progressive candidate does not come through (like Bernie Sanders in 2016), the progressives/youth voters, say “screw it” and don’t vote, which is how Trump took the White House in 2016. And the MAGA candidate, who has a unified base and probably unlimited funds, wins.
(But I still don’t understand how progressives didn’t support Harris, who had the most rationale progressive agenda of any candidate, was the “new generation of leader” they had been demanding after pushing Biden out and wasn’t Biden.) The likelihood is that your progressive candidates will bash the Democratic party, which is how you get to the 27% approval. (BTW, why didn’t they publish the approval number for the MAGA Republicans?)
Instead of damaging Democrats and smearing the Democratic Party, you should apply your considerable leadership talent and resources to turning purple districts blue. Because even if you are successful – as unlikely as it is – that you will replace all the old fogey Democrats you don’t like, Democrats, progressive or not, would still be virtually powerless to do anything against the House rigged for Republicans by gerrymandering and voter suppression, and the Senate, rigged in favor of small, rural Red States, and requiring 60 votes to get any legislation to a vote. Republicans have used that filibuster to destroy every progressive initiative, from universal health care and child care, to voting rights, to climate change, to gun safety, to women’s reproductive rights.
And now you are at real risk of the dictator wannabe Trump, with a complicit Congress, destroying every public institution and progressive policy of the last 250 years.
You might expect that 2026 will be a easy Blue Wave, but the MAGAs are in charge of the election apparatus and have rolled out the red carpet to Putin to do his mischief (again). They will suppress votes (SAVE Act!), purge voter roll, subvert elections and if Democrats still win, will challenge (like North Carolina), recall, remove.
Be careful what you wish for. Tread carefully.
______________________________
© 2025 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles,Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.com,email
[email protected] at www.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/22/2318112/-Open-letter-to-David-Hogg-and-Leaders-We-Deserve?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
