5 Things Young Democrats Should Know In 2021

If you were a regular customer at South Slope's Stoop Juice, you'd know me and my antics. I'm Jose Franco (owner) and self anointed "Public Intellectual" who blamed Donald Trump of hacking my business's website (2017) - I collected signatures to run for US President (2018-19) and wrote two free e-book (How To Get Better At Things You Don't Think You're Bad At By 2020 & The Stories I Tell Myself). Two weeks after Donald Trump's 2016 victory, instead of complaining, I forced myself to self reflect on my own actions. Despite America's underwhelming politics, I found myself wanting to help spread a message of universal love, realistic hope and awareness. I'm writing this article despite still not knowing what all people (Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian) need. I’d like to help them all and yet I have no real idea of what I can plausibly offer; I hope that most have not given up and that their minds are not impenetrable and opaque. I think we all have a super power, an ability to give each other something that we can be sure about that we need, based on a fundamental and basic vision of human nature: that we all have a deep need for tranquility. That said, I find personal attacks against Donald Trump accompanied by a sense of insecurity and, under excellent camouflage, to a greater or lesser extent, sadness. Trump is not the disease, at worst, he’s a symptom.

Getting Young Democrats to read my free e-book "How To Get Better At Things You Don't Think You're Bad At By 2020" is well intended, but by itself won't fix America; Young Democrats should seek that human constitution which is attended with the least, or the most pardonable inconveniences. Life is too short for an infinite sequence of questionings, and questionings of questionings, and questionings of questionings of questionings…We must start somewhere. If Democrats want to make a lasting impact in US politics starting in 2021, we should focus on changing what we have 100% control of, ourselves.

5 things Young Democrats should know:

1- Be Proactive: Anticipate future problems, needs, or changes. Once Democrats have the big data about the state of the country, the thinking goes, we can be proactive about fiscal sustainability, cut costs and foster realistic relationships based on economic truths with the business community.

2- Avoid using the ugly, underwhelming parts of American history to enable a culture of false sense of entitlement. Transparent conversations on race relations should be more rational and less emotional. We can't let anything that happened in American history be important enough that we're willing to close our hearts and minds over it.

3- Understand the "Iron Men Argument": Building an "iron man" argument (rather than a "straw man") for beliefs and viewpoints we don't necessarily agree with helps to sharpen our critical thinking and build a more well-rounded and intelligent perspective. The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

4- Understand Economic Paradoxes: The current dominant approach to capitalism suggests that we should create a largely unregulated system. But there are alternatives. It is possible to move away from the free market and build a better, fairer, and safer capitalist system. Should we give government a little more power in the economic system? What processes could be put in place to minimize corruption if we limit the ability of bankers to make risky investment choices? Would picking Democratic bureaucrats over bankers allow society to make more informed and safer economic choices? Let us by all means seek to increase opportunities for all. We have to do a better job of acknowledging/recognizing we have to proceed knowing to increase opportunities for all is likely to favor those better able to take advantage of them and may often first increase inequalities. Democrats no longer have Donald Trump to blame.

5- Listen To Your Opponents: learn from ideas you dislike. We should listen carefully to our intellectual enemies since bits of the truth are always getting scattered to unappealing and peculiar places and we must put in the work to make sense of them. For example, nationalism had a terrible manifestation on January 6, 2021 (Capitol Riot) why do you think this occurred? Could it be the need for people to feel proud from where they come from and anchor their identity beyond the ego?
Jose Franco is a self anointed "Public Intellectual"