Episode 6: The Future of the Democrat Party

In this episode, host Reagan Faulkner examines the generational divide within the Democratic Party and the emergence of young progressive leaders challenging the establishment. While the Republican Party has successfully energized young conservatives through figures like Charlie Kirk, Brian Holohan, Brett Cooper, and Candace Owens, the Democratic Party has remained dominated by aging politicians—Joe Biden served nearly 50 years, Bernie Sanders approaching 20 years, Chuck Schumer 44 years, and Nancy Pelosi 38 years before her recent retirement announcement. Reagan explores the candidacy of Saikat Chakrabarti, AOC's former chief of staff, who is now running for Pelosi's San Francisco congressional seat with a radical vision to "rebrand" the Democratic Party by recruiting 400 "insurgents" to run for Congress under a unified progressive agenda designed to disrupt the legislative process.

Chakrabarti's campaign, along with figures like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, represents a far-left movement that Reagan argues goes beyond traditional Democratic values into socialist territory. Their platforms include nationalizing Amazon Web Services, establishing free government-run grocery stores, rent freezing, and targeting wealthy individuals for taxation—policies that Reagan contends will disincentivize hard work and burden taxpayers. She highlights Chakrabarti's own statements about wanting to "stop playing by the rules" and "move fast and break things" in Congress, treating the legislative process like a Silicon Valley experiment rather than the stable governance America needs during times of economic uncertainty and international conflict.

Reagan issues a call to action for young conservatives, warning that the 2026 and 2028 elections will determine whether America maintains its constitutional republic or slides toward socialism. She challenges Gen Z conservatives to move beyond being the "silent majority" and actively engage in campaigns, volunteer work, and door-knocking to counter what she describes as "left-wing authoritarians" who promote policies that would undermine capitalism, family values, and the American way of life. The future of the Democratic Party—whether it remains a traditional party focused on climate, labor, and civil rights, or transforms into a radical progressive movement—will be decided by upcoming primaries like the one in San Francisco, with consequences that will shape American politics for generations to come.

Transcript

Reagan Faulkner: 0:04

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. This week I want to pose you a question. And that is what is the future of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party? We see many young political influencers and elected officials, ranging in a variety of different careers and aspects in our party. We have Wyatt Gable here in North Carolina, the youngest person ever elected to our General Assembly. And then we've got Brian, Brian Holohan, 19 year old political influencer. And he's working with Turning Point now, and he has a podcast. He's done a lot of things. He's written a book that I've talked about many different episodes. We have Charlie Kirk, who was, um, you know, this the leader, honestly, of the young conservative movement. He was the reason that the youth came out and voted, that Gen Z came out and voted for Donald Trump and for the Republicans in 2024. And even today, he still stands Dance as this really icon of the youth being politically involved, Gen Z being politically involved, potentially seeing Gen Alpha being politically involved as they come of age. And then another example is Brett Cooper, only 24, but a political commentator and influencer on YouTube and former Daily Wire contributor. So the list goes on and on for Republicans of young people that are getting involved speaking out, you've got CJ Pearson and even Candace Owens, who still reasonably young, um, maybe older for my generation, but younger for a lot of other generations, Gen X and boomers. So where do we see this type of activity on the left? Because personally, I haven't seen a lot of people outside of AOC. There's really not this young movement. I mean, Joe Biden served in public office for nearly 50 years. Bernie Sanders is coming up on 20 years, and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere anytime soon. Chuck Schumer is still going strong after 44 years. And Nancy Pelosi has been in her spot for about 38 years and just announced her retirement as of today, when I'm recording this episode. So where is their party going and what is their plan to make their party competitive with the Republican Party? In the wake of MAGA and in the wake of the waves that we've seen Trump making, and these other influencers and political commentators I've talked about in the wake of their coming to the party and being involved and becoming popular and famous across the nation. Enter Saikat Chakrabarti, and I apologize if I mispronounced that. I am trying to figure out how to pronounce it completely correct, but Saikat is actually he was trying to primary Nancy Pelosi for her seat in the 2026 midterms, and then as of today, he is obviously the only other person that has filed for election in her San Francisco district. Now, that's not to say that other people won't primary him, but he has launched his campaign. He has a mission, a vision. He is going at it, and he is ready to be one of the new leaders of what he claims is a rebranding of the Democratic Party. So a little bit of context about Sykap. He helped in the Sanders campaign in 2016, and then went on to help AOC in her successful bid for Congress. And then after that, he served as her chief of staff and ended up going head to head with many of the Democratic Party's established um leaders. So actually, one of the people he went head to head with was Pelosi herself. And if you look at her, his website's campaign website, he has quite a lot to say about Nancy Pelosi, and very little of it is good or positive. He and Pelosi did not really see eye to eye on what the future of the Democratic Party should be. And then he also went and just had extreme controversy during his time in Washington as AOC's chief of staff. He made waves, not necessarily in a positive way, and kind of went head to head with many of the established members of Democratic Party. Like I said, many of the people that when we think about the Democratic Party, we think of and we think of the party as, you know, supporting the climate, the working class, um, things like that, supporting democracy, all the things civil rights, all the things that the Democratic Party has naturally stood for, the people that made those waves and did those things historically. He head to head with them, making waves. Not one of the people that went into Washington and was kind of quiet and just doing their job. He had quite a lot to say and quite a lot to do during his time there. And then he went back to San Francisco and is now launching His bid for Congress in Nancy Pelosi's district. So kind of what's his vision? Let's talk about what he stands for, what he wants to see. You know, is he moderate? Left radical? Really? Where does he stand? Well, one of the first things that he wants to do is find 400, quote, insurgents. Those are his words to run for the 400 and I believe 37, 436 spots in Congress at a national level. So he wants to find these 400 radical, idealistic, um, non-establishment individuals to run for every single seat between 2026 and 2028 and just taken an entire new wave of however many they can get into the establishment and shake everything up. And he wants them to have a unified plan. So this is not just 400 people that are randomly selected, randomly elected, and like they're hoping that they'll do something. This is 400 people under a unified plan, a unified agenda, a unified set of modules. And they are going to go in there with one task and one task only. And in a Politico article, um Saikat is actually quoted saying, when we go in, we will have to be able to know what our plan is. The article goes on to say the first term on Capitol Hill, he added, is going to be, quote, completely crazy. So Sy Katz mission is to take however, many of these 400, 436, whatever the final number will be, he's still working on this process, but take as many of those people as can get elected under this unified plan and completely just disrupt Congress, disrupt the legislative process, disrupt everything establishment that we have come to understand under the Democratic Party's brand. So he has been cited saying that he wants to rebrand the party, that the party is old, that it is no longer helping the youth, helping the working class healthy, helping, um, Americans as we stand today. So it'll be really interesting to see what this shakeup looks like and what his goal is. I mean, obviously, as we stand today, we are still in the middle of the government shutdown. And I would say that Congress has been pretty disrupted. I mean, we haven't really felt anything from the shutdown. Personally, I've been blessed enough not to feel anything from the shutdown. But Congress has been pretty disrupted recently. And, um, you know, I mean, it's it's the fault of the Democrats for not passing the, um, budget that the Republicans are vying for. But it's it's definitely been disrupted. But aside from that, another one of Sickert's, um, main visions and kind of his rhetoric is it's really just dripping with Trump Derangement Syndrome, I don't I don't like to say that, and I don't like to go there very often, but please go look at his campaign website because he, quite frankly, does not have very many ideas in and of himself that are his own. When he goes to discuss why he's running, what his mission, his vision, his values are what the American people need, he quotes authoritarian MAGA and wanting to hold them responsible for, I guess, whatever he deems has been the great injustice from authoritarian MAGA. I, I kind of going back to no kings. I don't see where we live in an authoritarian state. Um, we have the right to protest, right to free speech, right to everything that we've had right to do before. But according to him, authoritarian MAGA needs to be held responsible as well as up and coming oligarchs, which they're I'm assuming he's talking about Elon and Tim Cook and probably the 37 individuals that have been donating to the East Wing renovation of the white House. Those people also need to be held accountable, according to Saikat. And then and his campaign website, which again, I really do encourage you. Please go look at his website. It is, if nothing else, it's worth a good laugh. And it's really interesting to kind of see where the the youth sprain on the other side is at and where they're coming from. I feel like here on the conservative side, we're having a lot of original ideas. I know conservative means to kind of stand for the norms and the foundation of America. So people have called me out before saying that conservatives are coming up with original ideas. But in the realm of politics, we really are. I mean, look at conservative influencers and people like Brian Holihan and Brett Cooper. Like I said, people like Candace Owens and KJ Pearson, they are really taking the nation by storm with their ability to utilize social media and utilize technology and really engage with these up and coming generations that haven't known the world outside of a digital age, where we see the Democratic Party not really being successful in that they were the party of young people historically. But we're really seeing this shift. So again, if you want to see what what the young side of the Democratic Party is looking like and what their rhetoric is, please go look at Kat's website. It is really fascinating just to see where the head space is and what the goals are. But it is dripping with Trump Derangement Syndrome. It really is. He is not vying for any meaningful change aside from undoing what Trump has done. No original ideas. Just undo what Trump has done. Rebrand the Democratic Party as new and anti old fashioned anti-Trump. And then I guess once they accomplish that, I'm not sure where they'll go from there. But another thing that he's been recorded saying is that they need to stop playing by the rules. And this is a direct quote. It comes from a prospect article where it says, quote, well, where Sickert quote says petty rules don't make sense in an authoritarian takeover. And this just goes right back to those 400, quote, insurgents that he's talking about and wanting to just go and create chaos on Capitol Hill. I mean, he really isn't about going through the legislative process and the electoral process like we've historically seen in our country. He wants to see it chaotic. He wants to see it upended, rebranded, just make a mess of it and then rebuild it. From that point forward. It is quite an interesting M.O. to see from a political candidate. Honestly, something that we haven't really seen before, maybe centuries ago. But modern history. I don't believe that we've seen anything like this. At least Ronald Reagan Post. Even Obama. I mean, charismatic and exciting and new and different. Yeah, but upending the system. I, I don't think that anybody can argue that he upended the system or really created chaos or anything. So another thing that Saikat has done is he has his own think tank and Substack called New Consensus. And basically this is where he and a bunch of different young leaders across the Democratic Party and with democratic ideals, have come together to think about what they want the future of the party to look like, what they need to do to have this unified plan, what that plan should entail, um, really just come together on what their agenda needs to be. And then in this Substack, you can read a lot of different articles about what Saikat believes, things that he's written, his vision for the party, his colleague's vision for the party, their political goals, political objectives, things like that. So again, kind of like his website, if you want insight into what these young new leaders in the Democratic Party are vying for and hoping for and creating goals towards that is really worth a look. You don't have to put your email in or anything. I would just go take a look. Even just read the headlines. It's really, really interesting. But through all of this, he comes to kind of a final specification of rebranding the Democratic Party. That is what he wants to do. That's what his M.O. is. Even if he isn't elected, he believes that the Democratic Party needs a complete rebranding. Just redo it, rebuild it, renovate it brand new. Nothing like what the establishment has had. And he's hoping to ride on the waves of Zoran Mamdani and what he's been doing in New York now, at the time of recording, this is a day before our municipal elections. So when you watch this, we will know how Mamdani did and whether or not he is the new mayor of New York and whether or not there are even waves to ride on to be honest, but really came out after mom Dami and said, I like what this guy is doing. I like the waves that he's making in New York. I like the attention that he's getting. This is what the Democratic Party needs, and he's hoping to take that and run with it on the other coast, on the West Coast in San Francisco, where he was expecting to have to primary Nancy Pelosi. Now, we've gone through all of this. And ultimately the question is, what does this mean for conservatives? Why am I telling you all this? Why is this important? Why does this have anything to do with anybody outside of New York or San Francisco or any of these liberal strongholds? Well, first of all, in the wake of Trump's 2024 election, there has been such a rise in vehement hatred against conservatives and Republicans. And we can jump back to last week's episode where we talked about assassination culture. We can look at, um, some of the Halloween costumes from this past weekend. I mean, look at the Veil County mathematics department, where they dressed up like Charlie Kirk being assassinated, and their shirts said, problem solved. I mean, there is a vehement hatred against Republicans and against conservatives. And when people come out with these campaign platforms that are openly anti MAGA, anti-Republican, conservatives have to be concerned about that, because this isn't just a difference in parties or a difference in ideologies or anything like that. This is an absolute disdain for the people within a party, not the policy or the party itself, but the people within it. So conservatives need to be prepared for campaigns and platforms like this, because it is directly attacking other Republicans as people and not as those with different policies or ideologies, which in my opinion is a huge, huge, huge issue. Now again, look at the Democratic Party and we can all agree they are old. They are out of touch. There's absolutely no debating that. And the Republican Party has been like that. It's only recently that we're seeing this revitalization and this involvement from young Americans. So we can't say much as Republicans, but we're doing a little bit better than our Democratic counterparts. But these new voices on the Democratic Party are absolutely far from traditional. It's not like some of the Republican voices that we see that are still conservatives. They're still pro-life. Pro-second amendment, small government pro-capitalism everything that the Republicans have always stood for. No, the Democratic Party and these young candidates and young leaders are absolutely different. I mean, look at AOC's radical Green New Deal. That was very, very different and even opposed by Nancy Pelosi. And then look at Mamdani. I mean, he is hoping for city run grocery stores that are free for people to use rent freezing, taxing of the 1% and specifically the 1% that are predominantly white. And then we've got Sicat saying that he wants to nationalize Amazon Web Services and just wants to completely upend and rebrand the Democratic Party as we know it to something that aligns more with AOC and Mamdani. Is that really what we want as Americans? I mean, we can all agree that the Democratic Party needs revitalization and new blood, but upending it into almost a socialist stronghold, I don't think, is what most Americans want, and I definitely don't think that's what the majority of Democrats want. I think that that's a very niche group of people that align with those values and with those policies. And even for those of you that are local to Wilmington, I mean, do any of y'all really align with some of the people that are running for City Council? And by the time you see this may have won city council? Some of the people that have very liberal, far left leaning, almost socialist policies for our downtown, because that's not what most Democrats align with, and it's definitely not what Republicans align with. And overall, it's not something that Americans really want to see. And also consider how Seacat wants these 400 insurgents. I mean, is that really what Congress stands for? Is that what we want to see our political system become is chaos? Because when there's chaos, things don't get done. And Americans have needs. We as taxpayers, we pay for these programs, for these salaries, for these departments. Do we want to see that be completely upended and thrown into chaos because of 400 brand new, politically unsavvy individuals going in and just wreaking havoc on American democracy as we know it. Because I don't think any of us want to pay for that. And I don't think any of us really want to pay for another government shutdown. I mean, it's absolutely useless. And the purpose of Congress is to function and to get things done. If we have however many, because obviously 400 won't get elected. I mean, that would be that's not going to happen. But however many we have, if we have a halting of congressional function, what does that mean during a time of war? What does that mean during an economic recession or depression? What does that mean for times of crisis when Congress needs to know what they do, know what their form is, know what their function is, and get stuff done. Because this will not be successful for our country. It just won't. Even if it rebrands a political party as a country, we will be hurt by this in the long run. So basically, America stands at a crossroads. We are looking at radical left wing authoritarians. These are not Democrats anymore. People like Mamdani and Saikat and AOC and Ilhan Omar. They are not just regular Democrats. They are promoting the dismantling of the system that we have seen. They claim to promote democracy. But people like this are really promoting the the loss of American ideals and the foundations of our Constitution, to be quite frank. And then we have Republicans who are vying to save America, to protect America, to bring back the Ronald Reagan era of values, of small government, of pro-capitalism, of feeling that you can let your kids out and tell them not to come back until the lights come on outside and knowing that they're safe. That is what Americans want today. That's what Republicans want today. But that's not what this new rebranding of the Democratic Party is. It is something different, something that we probably haven't seen since the 60s and the civil rights movement. And that was a positive thing. We needed the civil rights movement. We needed African Americans and minorities to have rights for women to have rights. That was important. Well, women was the 1920s, but this is something different. This is socialism coming to America. And this is the small and incremental dismantling of the American system of politics as we know it. Rebranding the Democratic Party is code for casually pushing socialist ideals that destroy the inherent benefits of capitalism and hard work, just like these free grocery stores that Mamdani wants it disincentivizes hard work, and it burdens taxpayers even more than we are already burdened. Republicans have a huge opponent rising in the wake of Kamala and Joe Biden's loss. We really do. And it's just this idea that after they lost and because of how many people just viscerally hate Trump these new ideals, they want something different. They want a change. And the people that are willing to provide that change are democratic socialists. They really are. It's not young people like CJ Pearson and Brian Holohan wanting to promote this change. It is very radical, left wing authoritarians that are wanting to provide this change, and people are going to not understand that, and they're going to be pulled into what they're offering, pulled into the idea of rebranding and upending the establishment and all these really trendy words and ideas. And it's not going to go well. It's really not. It's not what the American people are going to end up wanting to see, and it's going to harm America in the end. This new group of Democrats that is challenging the establishment is, quite frankly, they don't want to play by the rules, and they have a loathing of our Constitution and the ideals of our Founding fathers as we know it. Things like the nuclear family, the Second Amendment, your freedom of speech, all of it is potentially going to be lost by this new group of radical Democrats that wish to rebrand the party and back, going all the way to San Francisco. There are a couple of people that might end up Primarying Scott now that Nancy Pelosi has dropped out. One of them is state Senator Scott Weiner. He's been rumored to, um, just be waiting for Nancy Pelosi to retire, for him to throw his hat in the ring and go out for her position, her spot in the House of reps. And then also Pelosi's own daughter, Christine has also mentioned that she may want to run for her mom's spot and go into the family business of politics, so Sidcot could be facing some opposition. And what this really means is that the winner of that primary next year in 2026, is going to dictate the future of the party, of the Democratic Party in San Francisco, very blue liberal stronghold. We all know it, but there are a lot of young people there, and the winner of that primary is going to set the stage for the rest of 2026 and then 2028 as a whole. It's going to set the stage for who their presidential nominee is going to be, who other candidates in 28 are going to be. It's really going to analyze what the party as a whole and what the young Democratic voters as a whole are looking for from their party or looking for from their candidates, and are looking for from the policies that these candidates are going to be displaying and trying to get out in order to get elected. So the really the question is, is it going to be a traditional Democratic party promoting, you know, stopping climate change, promoting the working class, promoting welfare programs, and just still wanting to have a constitutional republic like we do. Um, is that going to be what the Democratic Party is, or is it going to be this new, radical, progressive, just pushing for socialist welfare programs that can easily be taken advantage of and that cost taxpayers way, way, way, way more than they're used to, just these astronomically high percentages of their monthly income. What will the Democratic Party choose to be? And we will have to wait until 2026 to see that. And we will have to wait to see the outcome of Mamdani's election when this gets published on Wednesday and wait to see the outcome of Sci Cat's primary bid in 2026. But in the Politico article, the interviewer said psycho at the end with his tech guy. Excuse me? With his tech background. Saikat, I cannot say his last name. So we're going to go with Saikat. That's not the direct quote, but Saikat wants to quote, move fast and break things. And this is what the interviewer said to Saikat and in response he laughed but did not protest. So is that what we want to see as Americans and as Republicans? Excuse me, as Republicans in our national political stage, do we want to see people going in and testing things and breaking things like what's normal in Silicon Valley to see what works and what doesn't? Because that's not stable. And in a national stage where globalization has flattened the Earth at an economic degree and a business degree, every single country is looking at us. Every single country has been looking at us for decades now. And we do not. People play. We do not need elected officials playing in Congress to see what they can get away with and what works and what doesn't. It will be a national embarrassment, and it will reap insane economic consequences on the United States, as well as potentially dangerous foreign conflicts. It is not the time, nor the place to be playing around in the walls of Congress to see what works and what doesn't, and whether or not this Democratic Party rebrand will work or not. Conservatives across the nation need to remember this. We need to remember these policies, these goals and these visions from these up and coming Democratic leaders. When we think about how we're going to vote in 2026, how we're going to vote in 2028, what candidates we want to support and how we're going to be politically active. Because for a long time, conservatives have been the silent majority. We've stood by and we've said, this is what I believe, and I will prove what I believe at the ballot box, but I'm not going to come out and say anything. I'm not going to post it on Facebook or Instagram. I don't want my friends to know. But with these huge consequences that are potentials, if these are the type of people that get elected to Congress, do you want to be the silent majority majority, or do you want to come out and really say like, no, I stand for our constitutional republic, I stand for our country. I stand for our morals. I want to save America. That is the decision that conservatives are going to face in 2026 and 2028 during campaign season. Are you going to be the person going out knocking doors, or are you going to be the person sitting inside hoping and praying that the election turns out the way you want? And for my generation, we have a lot at stake. How do you want to work? How do you want your future to be? How do you want to raise your kids? Who do you want to marry and how do you want to get married? These are all very important questions that you're going to have to ask when you go to the ballot box, and when you decide if you're going to get involved in your local college Republicans chapter or another conservative group on campus, or if you want to be involved with the GOP and go out for a leadership position or door, knock or volunteer or do any of those things, because your ability to pay for a nice, fancy wedding, to go on a fancy honeymoon, to raise a child, to have a good job, to own a house. One day all of that will be on the line. If these are the types of people that the Democratic Party wants to rebrand with. And it's going to be up to you. It's going to be up to Gen Z, and eventually it's going to be up to Gen Alpha to stand up and say, I'm going to be the ones to save America. I'm going to be the one to bring back 1980s small government, conservative capitalism, family values, nuclear family. That's going to be us, guys. And do are we ready for that responsibility? Are we ready to stand up and say, no, we're not doing this socialist stuff anymore? We are conservatives. We are small government. We're going to work hard for what we earn, will pay our taxes to support some of the smaller government programs. But we're not going to have anarchy in the streets. We're not going to have free government funded grocery stores or universal child care. That's going to end up indoctrinating the next generation of youth. That's not are we going to stand up and say, that's not what we believe in. The fate of America rests on us guys, on us conservative youth, and it's up to us to protect our country from the rise of these left wing authoritarians, these people that have celebrated Charlie Kirk's death and these people that loathe Trump and loathe anyone who voted for him. It's up to us, and we are going to be the ones who either save America or let her fall. Thank you so much for joining me on this week's episode of The Reagan Show. If you enjoyed this week's content, be sure to like, subscribe, and share wherever you're able. Come back next week for more hot takes and cultural discussions about the United States and where we're going in the future, where we've been in the past. Remember to follow us on socials at the Reagan Faulkner Show and at the Wilmington Standard. We're on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. Anywhere you can think of will be there. See you all next week.