Old elephants can't dance by Edoardo Moretti

The Democratic Party, for all its lofty talk about progress and inclusion, is still ruled by a near-feudal clan of geriocrats who confuse tenure with talent and longevity with legitimacy. For the last three decades, these elders have clung to power like barnacles on a sinking ship, and the results are plain: a stagnant party losing touch with its base, out of step with the urgency of the times, and worse, losing elections it should easily win. But then came Zohran Mamdani.

His victory wasn’t merely a local triumph for a mild-mannered housing advocate with a sharp sense of justice and a love for Tamil poetry. No. Mamdani’s rise was a political tremor, a rebellion whispered in the language of tenants and transit users, artists and immigrants, the disillusioned and the young. It was not simply a win for social democrats; it was an unmistakable defeat of the Democratic old guard. A generational clapback. A polite-but-firm eviction notice delivered from the future to the past.

Let’s be clear: the Democratic Party hasn’t been leading with vision. It’s been shuffling forward with risk-averse half-measures, clinging to the dusty playbook of triangulation and corporate donor appeasement. The political strategy, if you can call it that, has relied on fear of the other side “Vote for us or face fascism” rather than enthusiasm for a bold agenda. That’s not leadership. That’s hostage politics.

Mamdani and his contemporaries are doing something revolutionary: offering voters something to vote for. And in doing so, they’re unmasking the party’s internal decay.

The gerontocracy, yes let’s name it, is not just a matter of age. It’s a question of vision. Or rather, the lack of it. It’s the same tired names giving the same tired speeches at the same tired fundraisers, while America burns, literally and figuratively. Climate crisis? Incrementalism. Housing crisis? Lip service and real estate checks. Healthcare? A shrug and a prescription for “the market.”

The contrast couldn’t be starker. Mamdani’s platform was built on tangible realities: housing as a human right, public transit for the people, taxing the rich to fund the public good. It wasn’t radical. It was reasonable. It just happened to be everything the Democratic establishment refuses to say out loud without wincing, lest their corporate patrons raise an eyebrow or a donation dries up.

And it’s not just Mamdani. From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Summer Lee, Jamaal Bowman to India Walton (remember her?), there is a cohort of insurgents who are less interested in pleasing MSNBC panels and more in pleasing the actual people they represent. You know, constituents. A concept the old guard seems to have relegated to talking points between fundraisers.

The writing is on the wall. The Democrats are at risk of becoming the party that always arrives five minutes late with the wrong answer. The GOP, for all its monstrosity, knows how to wield power. The Democrats know how to hold hearings, send tweets, and lose midterms.

If they want to return to the White House and let’s not pretend 2024 wasn’t a near-miss, they must loosen the grip of their aging political aristocracy and hand the reins, finally, to the next generation. Not symbolically. Not through advisory councils or Instagram reels with interns. But by giving real power, committee seats, leadership roles, prime-time convention speeches, to those like Mamdani who have proven they can energize voters without selling out.

Otherwise, the party risks becoming the political equivalent of a Boomer dad trying to do the floss dance on TikTok. Embarrassing, off-beat, and very much beside the point.

Zohran Mamdani’s victory was not a footnote. It was a headline. It was a warning shot across the bow of institutional inertia. It was a polite but firm, “Step aside, you’ve had your turn.”

Old elephants may have memories, but they can’t dance. Not when the music has changed.

The beat now belongs to Mamdani and his generation. The Democratic Party would do well to learn the steps or risk being left behind in the political fossil record.