The Future

This is the future of the Democratic Party.

It is a future that represents where we are now and where we are headed. It is a future ruled not by multimillionaires in Congress but by everyday single mothers. It is a future where people of color represent districts that are majority people of color. It is a future where a person doesn't have to major in political science or attend law school to be inspired to run for office. It is a future where your last name doesn't guarantee you a spot in the political pantheon. It is a future where those invested in their community have an honest-to-goodness chance to represent their community in the halls of Congress.

And it is a future that terrifies conservatives and the far-left alike.

Because as the Horseshoe Theory tells us, these groups aren't that different after all. Those on the right are terrified of the gradual browning of our country. They're afraid that if they're in the minority then they will be treated the way that they've treated minorities for 400 years. Every single modern Republican policy goes against the empowerment of women and people of color. Voting rights. Access to affordable healthcare. Women's healthcare autonomy. Non-corporate public education. Elective courses in women's studies and African-American history. Refusal to take up immigration reform. Consistently trying to dismantle DACA. Punishing refugee and asylum seekers, specifically children, on the southern border. Clean climate legislation that directly improves communities of color. Banning transgender troops. It's all there, clear as the light of day.

But the far-left is equally afraid. They're afraid not of the browning of this country but by their waning influence in the country's well-established two-party system. Rather than hop on campaigns like those of the amazing Candace Valenzuela, who has the opportunity to become the first Afro-Latina elected to Congress, groups like Justice Democrats have instead chosen to throw what little influence they have behind primarying veteran members of Congress. Outside of a couple of victories in New York State unseating complacent Congressmen, the Justice Democrats have yet to flip a single seat from red to blue. Instead, they've backed opponents this primary season who tried to primary Cory Booker and who tried to unseat Sara Gideon, who has the inside track on taking out Susan Collins in Maine. They don't want to do the grunt work to build their own party, they simply want to tear ours down.

What both the right and far-left miss is that the train has already left the station. America will be majority people of color by 2040 or sooner. Candidates like Candace Valenzuela can outwork and outhustle their opponents without what has become a now symbolic endorsement from the Justice Democrats. What we've seen since the 2018 midterms is that local candidates win when they look like and come from the communities they want to represent. AOC might do just fine in the Bronx. But she doesn't speak for voters in Kansas who rejected her candidate, Brent Welder, and instead elected the more politically moderate Sharice Davids. Davids, a bisexual Native American, had to outwork her opponents and did so because her politics matched those of her moderate district. What the AOC's and Bernie Sanders' of the world still don't understand is that all politics is local. People in Kansas don't care who a Vermont senator or a New York congresswoman wants to elect and, in fact, are often insulted by the insinuation that they can be so easily influenced as we saw with Bernie Sanders' disastrous endorsement of Heath Mello for mayor of Omaha in 2017.

Already, we've seen record numbers of women and people of color win in 2018 and 2020 has seen even more accept their nomination from the Democratic Party. These candidates know their communities. They have their own teams in place. There is not a blue wave, but a motherfucking blue tsunami coming. This tsunami doesn't include Republicans or the far-left and that is perfectly alright. We've seen 94% of Bernie supporters come around, mainly because Joe Biden has the penis that Hillary Clinton did not. But we've also begun to pick off disgruntled Republicans, with the help of allies of convenience such as the Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump. Polls today show Joe Biden with the type of double-digit lead that Hillary Clinton never experienced in 2016. It's gotten so bad for Donald Trump that he has been forced to fire campaign manager and Jethro Tull reject Brad Parscale, whose "Death Star" campaign strategy ironically blew up in his face. At this point, not even Vladimir Putin is feeling optimistic about his chances for reelection in 2020.

At the end of the day, the Democratic Party is and continues to be the big tent party. There is room for groups like the Justice Democrats, but they will continue to be seated in the far-left corner of the tent with their dunce caps until they wake up and realize that it takes blood, sweat, and tears to influence a party that already has the American people's best interests at heart. We know Republicans are a lost cause and can only be salvaged by a tectonic loss in 2020 and the reemergence of the more moderate members of the party to recognize basic ideals of equality and justice. But for the rest of us, the 66 million of us who easily pulled the lever for Hillary Clinton because we knew better, now is the time where we get to shine. Where we get to work to elect local candidates that look like our own communities. Where we get to donate to Senate candidates who can unseat incumbent spineless Republican jellyfish. And it's where we get to learn about a new generation of Democratic leaders like Candace Valenzuela, who have been called to act, will do great things for decades to come.

The future has never been brighter.