(ThyBlackMan.com) Seven years after he survived the Parkland school shooting, David Hogg may be on the verge of becoming a rising star within the Democratic Party. While the 24-year-old Harvard graduate is not widely known, that may no longer be the case given the trajectory of his young career. Hogg is president of Leaders We Deserve, a grassroot organization dedicated to electing young progressive candidates to Congress and state legislatures.
Typically, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has a vice chair for civic engagement and voter participation, along with three general vice chair positions. Whenever a Democratic president is in office, it is customary for DNC members to approve the president’s appointments. But this year, with the Democratic Party out of power, the selections of the vice chair positions were not appointed, but rather selected through competition. Hogg announced his bid for one of the vice-chair positions by making the argument that the party needs to move in a bolder and more anti-establishment direction.
The gun safety and youth leadership advocate believe the Democratic Party is in need of fresh voices at the decision-making table in order to win back voters who moved sharply to the political right during the 2024 presidential election. In 2018, young voters preferred Democrats by a 35-point margin, according to an analysis from Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In 2024, that margin fell to just four points.
Hogg chose to run because he thinks it is important for Democrats to take age diversity seriously. “If we’re a party that claims to champion diversity, we need to have diversity of age as well at the table, and not just in a symbolic way, but in a real way that give us the authority to speak out and be in these meetings,” Hogg said. Hogg faults Democrats for failing to express more empathy for people experiencing economic hardship. He is critical of Democratic leaders for creating an echo chamber within the party, leaving them disconnected from voter’s top concerns and priorities like inflation. Calling Hogg “one of the most compelling voices” of his generation, the DNC recently elected him to become the first member of Gen Z to serve as vice chair.
In many ways, David Hogg is correct in wanting to connect with younger voters. He is also correct on the issue of age diversity within the party leadership and being sensitive to the concerns of young voters. During the 2018 midterm election, Republican pollster Whit Ayers said for most voters, as a motivating issue, democratic erosion isn’t as tangible as things like the price of gas. “Most voters are moved by things that affect them personally and directly,” Ayers said. That proved to be true during the 2024 presidential election. As we know, the 2024 election was not a typical election and Donald Trump was not a typical candidate.
Trump’s threat is not only political, but inhumane. Trump is emboldened and his second stint as president has proven that our worst fears are realized by the degree of cruelty he has unleashed. The target of his aggression is toward those who both willingly and blindly returned him to office. My prayer is that type of young voters who David Hogg and the DNC are targeting persuadable and will no longer be blind to the real threat to their futures.
Long before the election, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement showed their true colors, and young people en masse still gave them their trust and support. Should it be any surprise that the trust was betrayed? Regardless of what people may think of Joe Biden, he was speaking as an elder statesman when he said we are in the “battle for the soul of the nation”. He told a divided nation what it needed to hear rather than what it wanted to hear. Many voters have fallen into the comfortable conclusion that the MAGA movement may be bad for the country, but they have not reached the uncomfortable reality of how serious the true threat has become.
Young people who understand that the war is on multiple fronts can become a formidable force in future elections. While the economy is one battle that hits the most vulnerable individuals and households the hardest, so too will the unleashed cruelty. The “battle for the soul of the nation” pushes back the acts of cruelty. We are witnessing Republican senators responding to the cruelty with complicity and fear.
Republican senators are terrified over the prospect of facing primary challengers funded by Elon Musk if they oppose President Trump’s agenda. The White House has signaled that Republicans who thwart Trump’s agenda by voting against controversial nominees or opposing efforts to freeze government funding and purge federal agencies will pay a political price.
This is still Black History Month and it will never go away. Therefore, weak and unpatriotic Republicans should still pay a political price at the hands of voters. Voters of all ages and races have the timeless examples in following the resilient spirit of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman by resisting the cruelty with courage and tenacity.
Written by David W. Marshall
Official website; https://davidwmarshallauthor.com/
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