We won. After four long, traumatic, scary years, Donald Trump is out of the White House. Democrats are in charge of the U.S. House and the Senate too. This victory was hard fought, and it was delivered by a multiracial, multigenerational coalition. Young people, in particular, took a stand across the country, including making calls, registering voters, and turning out in record numbers. We all deserve a moment to celebrate.
The next step, of course, is to turn this hard-won power into real, lasting change. We cant let this opportunity go to waste. For those of us who were around during the last Democratic trifecta, some painful lessons have been learned.
In 2009, as in 2021, the country was in crisis. Wall Streets abuses had set off the Great Recession. Millions of Americans were losing their jobs, homes, and life savings. The damage was greatest for communities of color, according to a 2011 report from the Center for American Progress. The Democratic trifecta led at the time by President Obama was swept into office with a mandate to lead in a very different direction. At that moment, it seemed like tremendous changes were possible in the economy, health care, immigration, and the climate.
I went to Washington after graduating from college in 2008. I worked for Congressman Tom Perriello of VA-05, a freshman Democrat who had defeated a virulently anti-immigrant incumbent in a very red district. I was determined to do my part in bringing about change.
But the window of opportunity closed fast. Democrats passed an underwhelming economic recovery stimulus that wasnt remotely enough to pull us out of the crisis. They spent nearly a year haggling over the Affordable Care Act; the final product, passed in March 2010, was weakened by what appeared to be increasingly desperate compromises. Priorities like climate legislation and immigration reform died in Congress. Democrats were wiped out in the 2010 midterms, losing the House (including VA-05), and with it Obama's chance to pass his full legislative agenda. His final six years would be consumed by gridlock.
Democrats began Obamas administration with control of the House and Senate, and the White House. There should have been nothing standing in our way. How did they let that gridlock happen? How did we let that happen?
Our generation spent that time as the youngest cohort of staffers and organizers in the room but not always at the table and we had a unique front-row seat to this period of history. Weve had a long time to think about what wed want people to know when we next had that opportunity.
Here are the lessons we took away:
Former senate majority leader Mitch McConnells goal was to deny Obama any wins, and then blame Democrats for inaction. He ran that playbook perfectly. For two years Republicans held out the prospect that maybe, just maybe, they would be open to bipartisan legislation if it was smaller, if it was phased in years later, if Democrats took out all the popular stuff. Meanwhile, within months of Obama taking office, the Tea Party was protesting at our offices and swarming town halls. They successfully antagonized and undermined Democrats, further weakening their resolve.
Democrats have a narrow window to pass major legislation. The 2022 election season starts in earnest by the end of this year, and worried Democrats will be calling to weaken the partys agenda. This wont guarantee that Democrats keep their majority, but it will guarantee that we fail to adequately address the devastation people are facing. And that will have electoral consequences. We need to act fast and deliver meaningful legislation that actually makes a difference in peoples lives right now, including the COVID-19 relief package and voting rights legislation.
In 2009, Democrats did not prioritize the kind of structural reforms needed to unrig the rules, and we suffered terribly for it after 2010, when a wave of new Republican legislatures gerrymandered districts. Now a new wave of voter suppression and gerrymandering is on its way in the states. Republicans are attacking our democracy, and if we dont go big to protect it, right now, we wont get another shot. Thats why we need to pass the H.R. 1 For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and make DC a state and we need to do it ASAP.
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Lessons From the Obama Years, From a Cofounder of Indivisible - Teen Vogue