National Democrats love to talk about change. But when the cameras are off and the consultants have cashed their checks, too many of our leaders default to comfort over courage. They talk strategy without building infrastructure. They say “organize everywhere” without showing up anywhere new.
David Hogg, newly elected DNC Vice Chair, is ruffling feathers as Leaders We Deserve, the PAC he co-founded, announces a $20 million plan to primary safe-seat Democrats. His goal? To inject fresh energy and new leadership into a party stuck in neutral.
“People say they want change in the Democratic Party, but really they want change so long as it doesn’t potentially endanger their position of power… That’s not actually wanting change. That’s selfishness.”
– David Hogg, via The New York Times
David Hogg hit the nail on the head. And frankly, he’s doing more to challenge the Democratic status quo than most folks with titles in front of their names. This isn’t about ego; it’s about survival. It’s about meeting the moment with the urgency and creativity it demands.
We are losing ground, literally and figuratively. People are struggling. Chaos is the norm. Republicans are calling the shots, and too many Democrats are holding up pithy signs while waiting on the next shipment of kente cloth.
The political left is losing. Without a real 50-state strategy that speaks to kitchen-table issues and shows up with substance, we’ll keep losing.
For too long, Democrats have over-relied on a handful of swing states and national races. We’ve treated rural areas like lost causes and small towns like afterthoughts. Meanwhile, Republicans have been running the long game, organizing school boards, flipping county commissions, and electing far-right judges. They’ve built a movement from the bottom up. And it’s working.
Democrats can’t copy-paste a big city message onto every community and expect it to land. Values like dignity, justice, freedom can be shared across cultures and geographies, but they need to be translated, not transplanted. You don’t win hearts with policy decks. You win them with relevance, emotion, and connection.
At The Catto Collective, we strategize around this exact principle: adapt the message, keep the mission. Show up differently depending on where you are, but never abandon who you are. Organizing is not one-size-fits-all. It’s a mosaic. And if we want to win, we need to embrace that complexity, not retreat from it.
We’re not saying give up on national seats. We’re saying: earn them. Build momentum through school board wins. Make noise in statehouse races. Get scrappy in local fights. That’s how we build durable power- community by community, precinct by precinct.
Let’s stop waiting on saviors from D.C. Let’s stop running scared from authenticity. Building a movement isn’t about messaging. It’s about showing up.
That’s what we’re doing at Catto- meeting this moment with strategy, soul, and the audacity to believe that local wins lead to national change.
