Time for a new wave of leaders to step up

Many of the organizers who took us through the last eight years are worn out. That creates an opportunity for others that we should embrace.

An unmistakable malaise has set in over the political left. Rather than the “resistance” rally that marked the transition from 2016 into 2017, today’s sentiments are gloom mixed with exhaustion and a side of bitter intra-family blame. Many people on the left may be stuck in this unpleasant place for a while, but that doesn’t mean those of us ready to roll up our sleeves shouldn’t get back to work. There has never been a better time in recent memory to be a newly fledged activist or to step into leadership.

It bears brief mentioning why both Democrats and left-leaning advocates appear to be in a coma. Like the 2004 election (and unlike the 2016 election), November 5th delivered a full-throated American rebuke to a cosmopolitan, liberal worldview that city-based educated professionals had taken for granted.. The Republican electoral victory last fall was a total sweep. Layer on top of that conservatives’ iron grip over the court system, the collapse of liberal media, the capitulation of the tech industry, Democrats’ refusal to move on from octogenarian political leadership, and so on. Things look pretty bad!

In a best case scenario for Democrats, the next two years will be so replete with the MAGA-branded incompetence and chaos we’ve come to expect that few damaging federal policies will be enacted. Perhaps some common ground issues like criminal justice reform may gain steam, similar to how the historic First Step Act was passed during the first Trump administration. In contrast, the worst case scenario is a slide into the quasi-authoritarianism we’ve seen from places like Hungary, from which Steve Bannon draws his inspiration. The most likely outcome is somewhere in between these extremes, and the effectiveness of the opposition is one of the key variables. The biggest problem facing the opposition–whether we’re talking about Congressional Hill staff or grassroots organizers–is that everyone is exhausted from eight very long years, and doesn’t have the stomach to reactivate the same tactical arsenal that failed so dramatically in 2024.

Having acknowledged all the reasons that one generation of leaders is stepping back, this is the exact moment for a new wave of leaders to step up. We need a gameplan to pass the torch and welcome in a new generation of leaders.

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First, new energy and fresh perspectives are essential to both the broader advocacy movement (outsiders) and Democratic politics (insiders).¹ I’ve been involved in both activism and politics for more than 20 years, and the reality is that we’ve been using the same playbook for far too long in both instances. The way to reach people, truly connect with them, and shift hearts and minds is simply very different than it used to be. The people who are newer to movement and political spaces will bring fresh ideas with them. This might sound simply like a clarion call for more young people (who usually have more energy and idealism) to get involved, but in these transitional moments, people of all ages have historically stepped up, including middle-aged people making career changes or becoming activated for the first time, or seniors who suddenly have more time on their hands.

Second, crossroads moments like this one call for a new generation of leaders. There has been no period of criminal justice reform more successful than 2016-2020. Yet if you look at the leaders who got the most done during this period, most of them were virtually unknown in 2015. I can speak from experience on this, as one of many Millennials stepping into leadership at that time. Now many of my colleagues from that era are burned out and would welcome the generation that will meet this moment. People who are ready to handle more responsibility need to ask for it, and people who hoard responsibility now (to their own detriment and to that of the cause they believe in) need to surrender it.

Third, as beleaguered, underfunded, and defeated as progressives feel, the movement infrastructure is stronger now than it's ever been in my lifetime. When I was a young law student, I had trouble finding organizations that would accept my free volunteer labor on issues I cared about. Today there are hundreds of great organizations across the country, people doing great work in every state and every major city, covering both direct services and advocacy on all the issues that matter. If you want to plug in, you’ve got somewhere to go.

Fourth, and relatedly, newer activists can avoid their predecessors’ common pitfalls. Trump’s second presidency will present a lot of problems - focus on the one within your passion, lived experience, or expertise, you do not have to solve everything. Do your research to make sure your campaign isn’t reinventing the wheel, but also recognize that maybe there really is a vacuum just waiting for you to step into it. Avoid wasting energy on infighting. And ask people who have been in the trenches for advice! I get questions all the time from people at the beginning of their careers, far more rarely from people a few years in.

Fifth, every issue that mattered on November 4th still matters today. We still have to reckon with devastating climate change, gun violence, a lack of affordable housing, a broken criminal justice system, runaway income inequality, a twisted health insurance system, and dozens of other problems. There is no shortage of organizing work to do around these issues, lifting them up to politicians at all levels and working with government to solve them. There can be no surrender on any of these issues without immense harm to millions of people.

Last but not least, there are millions of people starving for leadership. More than 60 million people voted for Harris-Walz, and large swaths of the country still reject MAGA nihilism. It’s hard to see through the fog, but I believe that there are a lot of people ready to respond to inspired advocacy or electoral campaigns. The most cathartic moment of a Green Day concert I saw in Queens last summer featured 50,000 strong shouting along, “Maybe I’m the faggot America / I’m not a part of a redneck agenda!”, a lyric written in response to a similarly dispiriting election loss. The people are out there.

I wrote after the election that there was no “wrong” emotional response to the moment. Now that we’re two months removed and buckled up for another turbulent Trump presidency, that remains true. If people who have been in the trenches for years are out of juice, that’s ok–but pass that baton! To get through the next few years we will need hope, we will need energy, we will need ideas, and we will need to empower the people who are ready, willing and able to charge ahead.

We need to win important races in 2025 from New York City to Virginia.

We need to beat back the worst anti-democratic ideas that the Trump administration advances, while recognizing that unseen opportunities for bipartisanship will emerge, like on food policy.

We need to prove that progressive ideas actually make people’s lives better, as part of a longstanding overhaul of Democratic governance at the city and state level.

We need to build momentum heading into 2026 so that Democrats can win key governor races and take back the US House.

We need people with money to fund all of this work, whether philanthropic foundations who are scaling back and doling out the minimum at the worst possible time, or the enormous number of uber-wealthy liberals who could save a valuable nonprofit with the checks they were happy to cut for Harris-Walz.

In closing, I’ll turn it over to the unsung hero of the trilogy my partner and I watch every Christmas, Sam Gamgee from Lord of the Rings:

Sam: It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

There is still plenty in this country worth fighting for. If you need more time, take it. The world’s problems will still be here. But if you’re ready to roll, let’s get to it. A year of enormous need, opportunity, and promise is ahead.

1. Throughout this piece I refer to these two groups of people collectively, even though they have very different roles to play. As I’ve written about previously, both insiders and outsiders need to share culpability for what went wrong in 2024. Both need serious revamping and both need to come out on the other side of that process stronger to rebuild America. Infighting can wait for another day.