There is a lot of hand wringing about Terry McAuliffe losing the governorship of Virginia to Glenn Youngkin. Prophecies of doom echo across the airwaves and the internet, an approaching red storm is going to engulf the government from local school boards to the hallowed halls of congress.
And, it’s possible; some nationalist, xenophobic, race baiting groundswell of Trump supporters is waiting to overwhelm democracy in the coming election cycles with demands for walls and tariffs and bans. It’s just as possible, even more probable, that democrats, particularly young democrats couldn’t be bothered to vote for Terry McAuliffe.
He was co-chairman of Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, and, chairman of Hilary Clintons failed 2008 presidential campaign. He has a long, well documented history with the democratic establishment and the Clinton dynasty. Love them or hate them you have to admit the Clintons are part of the past. And it’s not a particularly exciting or liberal chapter of the DNC history.
I’m not sure young, Bernie Sanders, AOC, leaning party members would take time to cross the street to vote for somebody so entrenched in the centrist leanings of the party. Myself, I would take the time to vote against Youngkin, or anybody endorsed by the Donald, but I’m old and vindictive.
More than an ominous foreshadowing of a rapid, irreversible shift to the right this is the opportunity, even the screaming demand for change. It’s time for new faces, new ideas, new candidates without the baggage created by years of party ties, and the jaded indifference to the electorate that eventually swallows them all.
In Ohio we have Morgan Harper, and Nan Whaley, candidates for office, the Senate and the Governorship respectively, who aren’t chained to expired principles and tired dogma. Every state has new faces, exciting ideas, and, fresh perspectives. The Democratic Party has to endorse them, help promote them, or at least get the hell out of the way and let them shine. Or we can watch the polls, hoping for the best, even though we only offer the mediocre. As the song said, “We can all sink or we can all float, cause we’re all in the same big boat.”
—
This post is republished on Medium.
—
