Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez With Her Former Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti, Now Challenger To Nancy Pelosi.

Neo-liberalism is the idea that social reform should be achieved through market-oriented policies that favor privatization, lower tax burdens on corporations matched with spending cuts to social programs, and massive deregulation.

In fact, the economic portion of this ideology could be described as Reagan-era economic policy. It’s referred to as “neo-liberalism” because of Democrats like Bill Clinton adopting this strategy with more liberal social policies to help appeal to the middle.

The problem with these policies is they leave workers behind. They are a far stretch from the worker-first FDR oriented Democratic messaging that brought them most their success. Yet it seems Democrats always default back to trying to take the middle rather than leaning into what resonates the most with voters.

Neo-liberalism also doesn’t work electorally. The argument could be made Clinton won because Ross Perot took more votes from Republicans, and Obama won by virtue of being the first African-American nominee.

What neo-liberalism did give us electorally is George Bush in 2000, Donald Trump in 2016, and now Trump a second time as its shown Kamala’s campaign lost steam as she too resorted to trying to appeal to the middle.

Jacobin Chart Showing Kamala’s Decline In Economically Populist Rhetoric.

Its time for Democrats to leave this strategy behind, and to lean back into being the party of the worker. Not the party of the “corporation that helps the worker.”

This starts with who we put in Congress, who we put in leadership, and ultimately who we nominate in 2028. But Democrats need to stop making the same mistake.

Ken Martin for DNC Chair who wants “good billionaires” is not a good pick. Gerry Connolly, while having good politics, is not near the communicator AOC is and should not have beat her out in a vote among their peers.

We do have another shot however, as Nancy Pelosi now faces a challenger for her seat in the house. It goes without saying as one of the longest reigning and highest ranking members of the party, anyone running against her will face an uphill battle.

Saikat Chakrabarti knows this, but still thinks it’s time for change. I agree that it is. When Nancy Pelosi shocked everyone by announcing she would indeed run again, she said it wasn’t Democrats fault they lost and that they don’t need to change.

You have Democrats like Chuck Schumer claiming they don’t need to fight Trump, or Hakeem Jeffries saying they’ll let Trump do whatever because it’ll have negative electoral effects.

In the face of what all but feels like a fascist takeover of democracy, I would like my opposition party to actually feel like an opposition party.

Instead, they’ve voted in multiple of Trump’s nominee’s. While Democrats alone did not have the votes to block them, voting them in signals you are supportive of what they might do. Whereas Scott Bessent has now handed the Treasury payment system over to Elon Musk and his aides.

We need Democrats who are defiant in the face of fascism, unabashedly progressive without fear of consequence, and willing to fight for the working people of America. Supporting genuine interests of the working class, not the military-industrial complex or the corporate donor base.

This is the way forward for Democrats if they hope to remain the party in power for the left-wing movement in America, and now might be their last chance.

It's Time For New Leadership.