Watching the first primary debate of the 2020 presidential election season, I was excited about the future of the Democratic Party’s leadership. The stage featured 10 candidates sparring for the party’s nomination. At the time this dizzying number felt like a sign of vitality rather than disarray. As a teenager, I was drawn to the younger, newer faces on the stage — former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — all of whom were youthful, spoke with clarity and passion, bringing confidence-boosting energy for the Democrats’ future.
I even attended Buttigieg’s October 2019 town hall in Rock Hill, S.C. Carolinians turned out in droves, eager to see one of the new standard-bearers of the party. But now, only five years later, our democracy is under siege by U.S. President Donald Trump’s ultra-conservative agenda, and that energy has dissipated. Despite having a deep bench full of potential candidates, the Democratic Party lacks a clear leader to rally dissatisfied Americans. In a time when bold and spirited opposition is required, young liberals like myself are politically homeless.
In his first two months in office, Trump launched a nonstop barrage of attacks on civil liberties and liberal values. These include eliminating 200,000 federal jobs, effectively gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development and numerous other federal agencies and implementing isolationist economic policies that are triggering a mass stock sell-off. Amid this historic assault on liberal American values, the Democrats have been caught flustered.
During Trump’s State of the Union speech, Democrats made headlines for wearing coordinated pink protest outfits. That same night, the House sergeant at arms removed Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) from the chamber after disrupting the president’s speech. But, these attempts at protecting Americans from Trump’s harmful agenda were only symbolic. These are empty gestures and fall far short of what this moment demands — a relentless policy-driven offense without performative politics.
As Trump continues to reshape the country with little resistance, I worry that our children's history books will not record a bold Democratic response to authoritarian overreach. I worry that these textbooks will elicit bewildered laughter from students when they learn that as Americans’ fundamental rights were eroded, the opposition wore pink and heckled from the sidelines. Concerningly, only 27% of Americans have positive views of the party, according to a recent NBC poll. Additionally, a majority of Democratic voters want party leaders to fight back rather than compromise. In this vacuum of serious resistance, many young Democrats are deeply frustrated with the lack of urgency and clarity from their Democratic representatives.
Since the 2020 primary and Buttigieg’s town hall, the progressive rhetoric and future-oriented Democratic leadership has disappeared. Right now, Democrats are constantly playing defense as party leadership has facilitated one compromise after another. On March 14, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) shockingly voted with Senate Republicans to pass a conservative funding bill and avoid a government shutdown — a last-resort measure to mitigate Trump’s power to deconstruct federal agencies.
Even though Trump allies openly laid the Project 2025 playbook during the 2024 campaign season, Democrats lack a unified strategy to counter it and protect the public. It is hard to mobilize voters around outrage when Trump’s agenda was never hidden — and Democrats, even with the playbook in hand, are spending too much of the Trump era compromising or yielding ground.
To inspire Americans and bog down the current administration, Democrats need to move beyond reactionary opposition — they need to lead. We must proactively rally around young progressive candidates who embody the energy and spirit of the 2020 primary. Leaders like Buttigieg and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) have already demonstrated their political acumen in galvanizing young voters. These leaders represent exactly what the party needs: a shift away from defensive opposition toward a young, inspiring vision for the future.
While Trump dismantles U.S. institutions and breeds public cynicism, Democrats must go on the offensive to regain public confidence, and that starts with reclaiming the mantle of governance for working Americans. Progressive voices need to speak up in the Democratic conversation — ones that champion universal healthcare, robust entitlement programs and bold investments in education as the new administration undermines these programs. The party should actively engage with federal workers and young communities hurt by Trump’s policies, offering an attractive economic rescue plan that does not shy away from government spending programs.
Thin margins will likely determine the battle to retake Congress in 2026, and now is the time to shift resources to uplift newer, more energized voices. This means showing up in town halls with real policy solutions, deploying relational organizing rather than just TV ads and building a narrative rooted in renewal rather than nostalgia. The old playbook of donor-class messaging and avoiding moving too far left will not cut it — this moment demands a new vision.
If the Democratic Party will not elevate new voices, then we — as students, organizers and voters — must demand it. In 2020 and 2021, students at Emory University helped flip Georgia blue. We volunteered, phone banked and turned out to vote, ultimately paving the way for progressive policies by electing Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Ossoff to the Senate which determined Democratic control of the Senate. We must show up again in future elections and invest even more in protecting and expanding Democratic seats in Congress. Emory students should start volunteering for midterm campaigns such as Ossoff’s, push for local voter engagement and encourage leaders in Washington to prioritize bold, generational leadership over political survival.
During this moment of political disarray, I think back to that Buttigieg town hall in Rock Hill: the packed crowd and the sense that we were on the ground floor of something new taking shape. That moment was full of promise that progressive leadership was ready to take the reins. Five years later, however, voters are still waiting for Democrats to deliver. We cannot idly stand by while the old Democratic guard fails us. The future of the party and our country depends on whether we are willing to fight for leadership that will bring the United States into a progressive future.
Contact Ethan Jacobs at ethan.jacobs@emory.edu.
