by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
When the Democratic National Committee elected its new leadership at the beginning of this past February, one commonly held assumption was that the party was finally preparing to pull itself into the 21st century, to step out of the long, cold shadows of the old party giants, people like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer, and the Clintons, and to avail themselves and the American public in general of younger people and with fresher ideas. That's what they were saying, but real change comes hard.
In an effort to reinvent itself, the party chose 51-year-old Ken Martin, the head of Minnesota's Democratic Party to be the chair of the national party. He defeated 43-year-old Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, for the position. Notably, the out-going national Democratic Party Chair, Jaime Harrison, was even young than the new chair.
Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic Speaker of the House and Steny Hoyer, the former House Majority Leader had both resigned their leadership positions within the party a couple of years earlier during the Biden administration, but like the wizened old barnacles that they are, both Pelosi and Hoyer clung to their seats in Congress where they both, now in their mid-80's - remain today.
So while they talk a good game about putting a younger face on the party, that sort of thing does not come easy to Democrats.
One of the few bright spots in the party "shake-up" of 2025 was the emergence and election of 24-year-old David Hogg of Florida to one of the Party's three vice-chair positions. Mr. Hogg, a survivor of one of the most horrific high school shootings in America and a recent graduate of Harvard University, had already earned a name for himself as both a gun control activist and as a Democratic Party organizer and fundraiser. One of his projects before being elected to a leadership position in the DNC was to form a national group called "Leaders We Deserve" whose aim was to raise money for - and promote - young Democratic candidates for office. It was that activity which almost immediately got him crossways with Ken Martin, the new party chair.
Hogg's group, "Leaders We Deserve," was endorsing and helping to fund younger Democratic candidates in primaries against older and more established incumbent Democratic officeholders. Some within the party saw that as not only an attack on the seniority system, the lifeblood of advancement for Democrats in Congress, but also a betrayal by the party political apparatus because one of the party's national leaders was heading the movement to oust (especially elderly) incumbents. After four months of increasingly bitter feuding which was becoming more and more public, Hogg resigned his position in June.
But many believe he had made his point, regardless.
In late May, just a few weeks before David Hogg was forced out of his position in the Democratic Party, a story was released in the national press which pointed out that the last eight members of Congress to have died in office were all Democrats, a clear, physical manifestation of what Hogg and his group had been raging about. America, and especially young Americans, should not be saddled with political leaders who were using Congress as little more than a retirement home - and a supplement to their Social Security. They deserved better.
David Hogg did not enter the political realm just to make a comfortable living while not rocking the boat. He had his sleeves rolled up and was focused on making a difference. One of his strongest allies in Congress is Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida who became the first Generation Z member of Congress when he was elected to his first term in the House at age 25 in 2022. Rep. Frost and David Hogg had both worked together on issues regarding the politics of guns in Florida.
A few weeks ago another ally of David Hogg shook things up on the national political scene when he was elected in a primary to be the Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City in the November election. Zohran Mandami, age 33, an Indian American who was born in Uganda, was elected as a "Democratic Socialist" to be the Democratic candidate for mayor, and he is currently leading in the November general election race. David Hogg's group, "Leaders We Deserve," helped to fund Mandami's primary campaign, and the two men have become close political allies and friends.
Donald Trump has declared Mandami to be a "communist" and is threatening to have his citizenship revoked, and shamefully several Democratic politicians and office holders in and from New York have failed to yet endorse Mandami's candidacy. Some of those include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Former President Bill Clinton, now a New York resident, congratulated Mandami on his primary win, but still has not endorsed him in the November election - and neither has New York resident Hillary Clinton.
Once again, when a door to the future opens, Democratic leadership balks at stepping through. They fear change and they danged sure don't want to be seen as supporting someone who might be called a "radical."
Should they ever pull their heads out of the sand (or their butts) and look around, they would see that the Republican Party reached out beyond the status quo ten years ago and came up with their own radical - and now they control all three branches of government.
Americans are desperate for change - new blood and new ideas - and the Democrats are either going to have to start embracing and celebrating change, or they can drag their lawn chairs off into the sunset and regale each other with stories about the good old days of the New Deal.
It's time to deal again!
