[ [link removed] ]Leaders We Deserve



John,

I think one of the hardest parts of watching the pundits and folks on
social media discuss the election results these past few weeks is the
refusal of many to take accountability. We (including myself) made
mistakes and it’s time to learn to do better.

I’ll start by taking some personal accountability: I met with President
Biden one-on-one in the Oval Office fourteen months ago. I distinctly
remember him asking me how he could win the youth vote in the election.
Looking back, I realize now that I should have told President Biden to
drop out of the race then and there.

Instead, I told the president what he wanted to hear, not what he needed
to hear. If I had the courage to say what I should have said, I might’ve
been kicked out of the meeting. And even if I weren’t, it’s unlikely he’d
have listened to me.

What made it hard to say that is what I think many also felt, which is
that President Biden had so many significant accomplishments under his
belt. He was the most pro-labor president in history, passed the first gun
law at the federal level in 30 years and spearheaded the largest
investment in climate action ever. He was handed a pandemic-era economy
and did everything he could to turn it around.

But just because President Biden was successful didn’t mean he could win
the election, and Democrats should have reckoned with that fact far sooner
– including myself.

There were serious concerns about whether President Biden was up to the
job. We should have been honest about that long before the disastrous June
debate.

The truth of the matter is that, even during our meeting, I had some
unspoken fears about the youth vote, especially young men. I knew that
President Biden and Democrats were largely losing this group. We needed a
new message – and a new messenger throughout the campaign – if we were
going to reach them. The consultant class didn’t want to hear about that,
but I should’ve been more forceful about voicing my concerns and pushing
for change. I should have pushed even harder to make sure we focused more
on young voters when I was yelled at by 45+ year old consultants who
insisted the youth vote was fine after I raised these concerns publicly
prior to the election.

In retrospect, that meeting with President Biden that I was so excited
about will be a permanent nightmare for me. But it’s also a clear lesson
on how I can do better. This is only one piece of the puzzle about why we
lost, but it’s a piece I can own.

I’m done with telling people what they want to hear, no matter how
powerful they are. As Democrats, we should be honest and hold each other
accountable.

I’ve seen just how important the work we’re doing here at Leaders We
Deserve really is. We aren’t going to win the youth vote with the old
guard of Democratic establishment politicians from yesterday. We need to
lift up the future of our movement and support the next generation of
bold, progressive leaders.

If Democrats want to win with young people, we can no longer represent the
status quo. We need to support the leaders who understand our struggles
and are willing to stand up and fight for us. Leaders who understand that
while institutions are important we also need to do the real work to
improve them rather than sending the signal to voters that all is fine
even as our government gets hollowed out by the billionaires like Elon
Musk who want to starve the middle class by crushing unions and poison us
by cutting environmental regulations.

We need to give young people a real reason to vote for Democrats –
otherwise, we’ll continue to lose like we did in this election.

[ [link removed] ]With that in mind, will you make a $5 contribution now to
power the work we’re doing electing Gen-Z and Millennials to state
legislatures and Congress?



[ [link removed] ]Donate $5 »



Thank you for staying in the fight,
John.

David Hogg
Leaders We Deserve





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