The Democratic Reinvention

It is paradoxical that at the worst moment of the Republican Party – with the added embarrassment of Donald Trump as the spokesperson for its ideals – the other end of the political power spectrum, the liberal one, still cannot consolidate a convincing opposition. The Democrats appear lost, and they are struggling to start their reconstruction, while still nostalgic for an unlikely triumph with Hillary Clinton.

The unexpectedness of the Democrats’ defeat in the 2016 elections made evident the disconnect with many U.S. citizens that forced a change of leadership. Although today some are still asking former Vice President Joe Biden to take the reins of the party or even talk about another attempt by Hillary, the true winds of renewal seem to come from the chairs of Congress.

Right now, the Democrats’ recovery of the House seems to be the first step for the liberal transformation with their sights on the 2020 presidential elections. What’s interesting about the success in the legislative elections is that the main figures are women, and openly progressive women at that. Without ambiguities, they settle at the antipodes of Trump’s conservative and racist male chauvinism and speak to a new audience that can snatch the re-election away from the millionaire candidate at the polls.

Perhaps the most notable figure of this new wave is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old young woman of Puerto Rican descent. In recent months, and even more since she was sworn in, she has established herself as a fresh face for the Democratic renewal. It won’t be she that leads the opposition, of course, but it does mark a trend in a country that’s exhausted by the discourse of those that currently hold the reins of the Oval Office and therefore may be attracted by new approaches more aligned with the center or the moderate left.

The course of the current presidency affords a huge possibility for progressivism to take over the Democratic Party. A complete overthrow. Something like what Obama attempted when he was a candidate but could not do as president: a social vindication. What is clear is that young people won’t be able to enact the change alone, and they will need to join with the old leadership. The question is, who today will stand out as the figure of the transition? Whoever this is, he or she has yet to appear.