We Have to Stop Trusting Electeds to Save Us — They Won’t

Eight Senate Democrats just caved to Republican shutdown demands. Again. And got nothing in return. Nothing.

While the headlines will focus on which eight, the real story isn’t about their names. It’s about the pattern.

Tuesday [November 4] was arguably the best day for Democrats since 2008. We organized. We were disciplined. We won everywhere. Not just New Jersey, New York, and Virginia, but Georgia and Mississippi. We freaking won. We were energized, hopeful — it felt like the tide had finally turned.

And then — in one night — eight Democratic Senators threw it all away.

Let’s be clear: the fury in this moment isn’t the old fight between “the left” and “the centrists,” though some will try to make it that way. They’re wrong. Trust me, the centrist small business owners on the ACA exchange just got screwed. On January 1st — fifty days from now, the tax credits expire. One friend is staring down a $3,100 monthly health insurance bill. That’s $37,200 a year for health insurance.

This isn’t a family feud. It’s a reckoning. It’s the business-as-usual crowd versus those of us who understand the jig is up.

Republican assurances mean nothing. There are no “civilized agreements” with uncivil people. Republicans aren’t playing politics anymore. They’re playing for blood. Our blood.

And here’s the truth: the problem isn’t just those eight Senators. The problem is us waiting for them to save us. Hoping that people from states we don’t even live in will suddenly find courage. They won’t. They have no skin in this fight.

We have to find the courage to fight for ourselves when our electeds won’t. It’s easy to point fingers at Washington; it’s harder to build power in our own backyards.

But that’s where real change happens — and where it’s always happened.

The Democratic Party was never meant to be top-down. It works best when it moves from the bottom up. County by county, community by community, neighbor by neighbor. The national party only reflects its members. If that reflection looks timid, uninspired, or disconnected, that’s not just a failure of “the establishment.” It’s a warning that we’ve left too much of the shaping to others.

If we don’t like where the bus is headed, it’s time to grab the wheel.

We don’t have to wait for better leadership. We can become the leadership we deserve. That starts locally- volunteering for campaigns, running for something, organizing petition drives, teaching others how to register voters. Every revolution in American democracy has been led not by elites, but by ordinary people who decided they’d had enough.

And acted like it.

The truth is, those Senators will keep disappointing us until we build a movement strong enough that they have no choice but to listen. That’s not cynicism. It’s clarity.

If we want a government that stands firm against hostage politics, we have to stop outsourcing our backbone.

It’s time to stop waiting for heroes and start creating them — right here, right now, in Missouri, in our counties, in our towns.

Bottom up, not top down. That’s how Democrats win.

So yeah, I'm mad; I'm fighting mad.

Who's with me?

Yvonne Reeves-Chong is the Vice Chair for the Missouri Democratic Party