Purity Tests Continue to Poison the Democratic Party
Why Democrats can't afford to alienate young men.
David Hogg has spent the last six years fighting for his generation’s future. As a survivor of the Parkland High School shooting, he co-founded March for Our Lives and emerged as a powerful voice in a push for political engagement from the youth.
Now, Hogg finds himself on the outs as vice-chairman of the DNC — not because he’s failed at his job, but because he dared to suggest recruiting young men and primarying entrenched older members of Congress. In today’s DNC, that kind of thinking doesn’t get you a seat at the table. It gets you shamed out of the building.
This isn’t just about David Hogg, though. It’s about a party that claims to be a big progressive tent, but keeps pushing people out of it if they say something politically inconvenient that doesn’t pass the morality test. Especially if they happen to be a young male.
Yes, young people should live in a financial reality where they can be more concerned with going to class, parties, and getting laid than working two jobs outside of school. This should not be controversial.
One of two things can happen: We can continue to seize the footing of the moral high ground and continuously pat ourselves on the back for being better people than MAGA, or we can win some damn elections. There has to come a point where Democrats recognize the numbers needed to win elections and start to direct their efforts toward attracting more people to the coalition they have already built.
The status quo isn’t working and David Hogg was looking to change that. Now we are seeing more infighting under the pretense of a re-vote in order to “make things fair,” but we can all see this for what it is, a power play by the DNC status quo in order to rein in its members. Young voters want more. Hogg’s positions were extremely popular when first announced. Young people were excited about the possibility of new blood in a party on life support. Now, we’re back to the same old shit.
The Purity Problem
Somewhere along the line in the Trump-era of American politics, the Democratic Party replaced coalition-building with moral and ideological gatekeeping. Instead of welcoming large swaths of people and educating them on things such as acceptance, empathy, and the protection of vulnerable populations, the party and its base has created a checklist of approved ideas and identities.
Speak about the crisis affecting young men and their lack of standing in society like Scott Galloway? Accused of focusing on a privileged group. Suggest a nearly 80-year-old president was displaying clear cognitive problems? Branded ageist and divisive.
The purity tests of the Democratic Party and base aren’t about morality or principles— they’re about power. And they tell young men, especially white and Latino men, that their concerns don’t matter. That their pain deserves to be minimized. That their place is in exile or silent support.
The Fragility of the Coalition
The Democratic coalition is broader than any other political party in the world. It includes:
College-educated professionals
Working class Black men
Suburban women
LGBTQ+ people
Climate activists
Unions
And the strongest group of the coalition, Black women. But the coalition is fragile. If any piece of the Democrat’s voting base feels ignored or unwelcome, the entire thing is at risk of failure and election losses on the national stage. That’s why this alienation of young men matters. They may not be the leaders of the party, but they might stop showing up like they did in 2024. Or worse — they might walk further into the arms of the Republican Party that knows how to talk to them.
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The Math the Party Ignores
Who’s Already in the Tent:
Black Voters: Vote Democrat at 85-90% nationally. They are the most loyal and consistent voting bloc.
Women, especially single women: In 2020, 57% of women voted Democrat.
Millennials: Vote blue at 60-65% and are currently the largest generation of voters in the country.
Urban voters and large population centers: Consistently go to Democrats by 30-plus points.
Who’s Being Left out:
Young men, especially white and Latino, are becoming a major swing group in national elections.
Men aged 18-29 were nearly evenly split between Democratic and Republican identification (Pew Research, 2023).
Gen Z women vote Democrat by 25-plus points more than Gen Z men.
The Brookings Institute in 2022, warned that a continued rightward drift among young men could flip battle ground states.
The takeaway? The voters Democrats most need to win back are the ones they’re shaming into silence.
MAGA Isn’t Waiting
While Democrats and the voting base are giving morality tests, Republicans are chasing disaffected young men by offering them:
A sense of purpose
Someone to blame
A place in a larger movement
We discussed the importance of reaching out to more right-leaning influencers in our article on Pete Buttigieg’s appearance on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, these forms of content are relatable to young men and designed to make them feel seen. Democrats as a whole offer lectures and cold shoulders. Guess which method won the election in 2024?
Reframing, Not Replacing
Talking to young men and trying to win their vote isn’t selling out. It’s smart politics. It does not mean pushing aside marginalized communities and voices — it means expanding the table. Recognizing that being inclusive means listening even when it makes you uncomfortable, for everyone.
The goal isn’t to center on men who historically have had a leg up on the rest of the population. The goal is to stop ignoring them. To stop treating their problems as punchlines and start seeing them as part of the solution.
Wake up
Right now, the Democrats face a choice:
Keep doling out morality and purity tests while losing winnable voters. Or start practicing the inclusion they speak about.
This isn’t about inviting in hate mongers and trolls such as Charlie Kirk and his followers. It’s about messaging toward a group of young voters that is needed to win key elections in order to progress in what we can accomplish. In order to educate the people you wish to purify morally, you have to let them sit at the table first.
David Hogg isn’t the problem. He’s a warning.
If Democrats won’t allow a young and influential voice such as his to speak the truth about octogenarians clogging up progress and the alienation of an important voting bloc, then this isn’t a movement — it’s a mausoleum.
 | A guest post by
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I feel like this is why the attacks on “woke” are so effective. Reps have associated these shortcomings in the dem party with being woke. Because these flaws are definitely real, this messaging is deadly effective to the groups who have found themselves not checking every box on the list. I have a son in his early 20s. On one side the messaging is “you better support our agenda 100% and don’t question it. You’re also a large part of the problem” and the other side is acknowledging that gap and filling it with bad excuses. The right are masters at taking a kernel of truth and wrapping it in bullshit until it looks like a boulder. Meanwhile we write them off as idiots - a terrible mistake. This self righteous gatekeeping is a big part of why we are where we are. The left needs to stop blowing off these attacks and start examining them carefully. It’s time to get off the high horse and quit cancelling anyone who doesn’t walk the tightrope just right. There’s too much at stake and our problems are bigger than semantics and buzz words.
This needs to be said over and over!!