Dinosaur Democrats Meet Asteroid

Populist challengers win big in primary elections

Melat Kiros

The old guard extinction event is here.

We are witnessing a generational shift in the Democratic Party — gerontocrats dying electorally or literally, public approval at an all-time low, party-approved candidates getting mowed down like a brontosaurus napping in the Yucatán circa 66 million years ago

Last night, 29-year-old democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 68-year-old congresswoman Diana DeGette in Colorado, a Denver seat DeGette occupied for 30 years. Last night was the first time I’d ever heard of Kiros. When I jokingly asked who she was on X/Twitter, DeGette promptly blocked me.

lol

Kiros in her victory speech captured the vibe of an electorate that’s done with the suffocating mainstream politics of the “possible” — a scam pushed by Washington types who want to disempower you and manage your expectations down. Kiros said:

“They said you can’t win without corporate PAC money. They said you can’t beat a 30-year incumbent. That the establishment and the oligarchy is just too big and too powerful to overcome.”

Turns out that money in politics can be overcome by electing someone who actually believes in something. And whatever your politics are, it’s impossible to deny that Kiros believes in something.

Her entry into politics came after Sidley Austin, the white-shoe firm where she worked, fired her in 2023 for refusing to take down a letter she'd posted defending students protesting the war in Gaza. Kiros moved back to Denver — where her family had settled after immigrating from Ethiopia. She became a barista.

Corporate lawyer to coffee bean roaster. That is not the type of person you usually find in Congress, a haven for A-student types and rules humpers whose greatest fear is upsetting the teacher (i.e. party leadership) or embarrassment of any kind.

Kiros recounted her story in her victory speech:

“When I wrote a letter defending students’ rights to protest the genocide in Gaza ... my law firm told me, ‘Take it down or you’re fired.’

I didn’t flinch. I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word, and I always will. But I know, I know that will not be the only moment where those in power will tell me to change my tune, to not rock the boat. That seems to happen a lot in Congress.”

Someone willing to lose their job in a posh law firm. That type of person has been in precious short supply in Congress under the tyranny of party rule. Even some previous insurgents like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are cautious about not criticizing party leadership — in hopes of being “relevant” or advancing to the Senate or whatever.

But the age of play-it-safe is coming to an end.

DeGette’s campaign pitch was that she was “Running to expand,” according to her X bio, “opportunity in our community.”

???

This is the exact type of unfalsifiably vague, timid politics that is going extinct. Voters don’t want promises of opportunity when there are none. They don’t want to return to the “good old days” once Trump is gone. People want politicians who think big and respond to this political ice age — where nothing changes, everything is frozen in place, and life for the normal citizen never gets better.

If politics was the art of the possible, it isn’t anymore. We’ve seen experts for years say who can or can’t win, what policies can or can’t happen. Meanwhile, Mamdani just got his rent freeze — the campaign promise that seemingly every corporate media op-ed and pundit said was impossible. The Washington experts are full of shit and people can smell it from across the country.

As I’ve reported, a vibe I’ve noticed at virtually all of the major protests this past couple of years is that people are done waiting for change.

The political asteroid — from Mamdani to Melat Kiros — has not yet wiped out all of the dinosaur do-nothings in Congress. But the clouds it kicked up will. We’re just playing out the endgame now.

The only question is: what new species of warm blooded politicians will replace them?

— Edited by William M. Arkin