“In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party,” said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a recent interview with New York Magazine. As the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary has progressed, these comments from the Congresswoman have become more and more frequent, and they represent more than just passing criticisms; these remarks reflect the conflict between the fledgling far-left wing and the Democratic party establishment.

The past year has seen the growing divide between the old establishment and the vocal new progressive faction within the party. More and more Americans support policies such as a Green New Deal and an increased wealth tax, and this has manifested itself in widespread support for progressive ideas, especially amongst millennials and zoomers (a moniker for Generation Z, or those born in the 1990s to early 2000s). On the other hand, many candidates have shied away from progressive ideas, such as Amy Klobuchar taking a stance against a special tax on the wealthy but suggested raising taxes on capital gains and dividends instead. In May 2019, Joe Biden stated that he would take a “middle of the road approach to climate change, but after being widely criticized by progressive youth movements – most notably, The Sunrise Movement – he eventually revealed a much broader plan to combat climate change.

Many young people see removing money out of politics as their main voting priority, and this shift has been reflected on the debate state and throughout the campaign trail as well. Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was criticized by candidate Elizabeth Warren, who famously referenced “Billionaires in wine-caves” when pointing out his private fundraisers. The youth are rising to take power and for the Democratic party to unite against Trump, all the candidates should continue to include and engage the Rising American Electorate, or risk disillusioning them from politics altogether.

The Rising American Electorate is a term for the growing group of unmarried women, millennials and non-white voters. The demographic of voters mostly favors issues such as the Green New Deal, raising the minimum wage to a living standard, and support Medicare for all. This bloc makes up a majority of citizens, with 59.2% eligible to vote, and has long been considered a game-changer for the future of politics, as well as a key group of the Democratic Party. As the Republican party embraced religion and business, the Democratic party positioned itself as the party of diversity and youth. The Clinton campaign had pinned their hopes on winning the 2016 presidential election on this young majority, but this fell through; the group turned away from Hilary Clinton and failed to turn out to the polls to vote in the numbers required to win.

Hillary Clinton speaking at a crown in Toledo, Ohio in 2016

Source: Steve Welsh

In 2016, Clinton failed to show to the RAE that she would listen to their concerns, ignoring their economic insecurities. Women, especially women of color, overwhelmingly bear the brunt of the student debt crisis that has hit a high of over $1.7 trillion. While it may seem that the voices of the youth are drowning out the rest of the country and making the Democrats go farther left than comfortable, upon observing the 2018 midterms, it is seen that the party has not really gone farther left overall. Despite the highs of left-wing candidates such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and other members of the squad, more moderate candidates in purple districts such as Lucy McBath, Lauren Underwood and Kendra Horn were signs that the Democratic party that the general population is not ready for a sweeping left-wing transformation. What is being ignored is how the party is quickly becoming the representation it aims to be; 37% of Democrats in Congress are people of color and there are three times more elected Democratic women in Congress than Republican elected women. The 2018 midterms dropped the average age of Congress by ten years, thanks to the many freshman millennial lawmakers. The RAE is coming for the party establishment – not to demolish it, but to become part of it.

The emerging faces of the Democratic party represent their communities better than ever before, and how they have garnered support is what the Democratic party should be taking notes of instead of criticizing.

At the grassroots level, there are continued efforts to push large parts of the RAE out to vote to continue to display their strength in numbers. The Democratic party must support the RAE and listen to their ideas as they rise up the ranks instead of dismissing the growing core of its electorate, as Diana Feinstein, Senator from California, has done before. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blacklisted political vendors that supported primary challengers to incumbents. When Democrats do not allow for new ideas to come and oppose the creation of meaningful change, it creates friction and makes it harder to come together in key moments, moments that could make significant impacts on the lives of millions of Americans.

Winning in 2020 will require the complete unity of all parts of the Democratic party, but the party still has a lot to prove. In an opinion piece written by Harvard students, they write that “Many assume we are left-wing Twitter warriors, bleeding-heart socialists…but all these generalizations are either misconstrued or misguided.” Young people want candidates who will engage with them and offer new solutions to the problem they face. To win in 2020, the Democratic Party must prove to this bloc that they truly are the party of the RAE and are not just saying that in the hopes of gaining votes.

Hundreds of anti-Trump protesters march in Chicago on October 18, 2019

Source: Charles Edward Miller

The RAE is concerned about the direction of the country and has little trust in older elected officials, but they are willing to embrace candidates that understand them and motivate them – a key explanation for the support of Bernie Sanders amongst young people of color. The DNC suffers from infighting, but this clash between the new ideas and the old is necessary, so as to continue to fight for a broad majority that will create fundamental change for those that need it. The Democratic party is transforming, with names such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Representative Lucy McBath, Representative Lauren Underwood, Representative Rashida Tlaib and many more winning in the 2018 midterms because of increased turnout and a reaction to Trump. Yet to win in 2020, the party must show signs that they are engaging with the populace, listening and creating real change to alleviate the situations of millions in the RAE. A candidate must earn the vote of the RAE and cannot assume that just because this bloc is demographically Democratic, that they will automatically earn their vote. The RAE must trust that the candidate means the change they say they will create, and it is the job of the Democratic party to support any such candidate that succeeds at doing this.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez struck a nerve with her comments on what separates her and Biden, but this is just a common sentiment amongst the RAE that she is a part of. There is a separation between us and them, the new and the old, the revolutionaries and the establishment. If the Democratic party does not embrace and show that they will push for a direction that embraces these new faces and own up to their failures in engaging the ideas of the RAE, it will be a very gloomy decade for the party.

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