I was cleaning out my T-shirt drawer recently and unearthed an old favorite from the 2008 presidential election. It was black with silver sequined lettering. The message was contained in one gorgeous, glittering word: “Hope.”
Hope was what we desperately needed in the depths of the Great Recession, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that dark period when more than 55 million people had no health insurance. It’s what drove us to the polls.
Eighteen years later, with Americans being shot by masked ICE agents on neighborhood streets, another madcap war under way in the Middle East, Medicaid funds slashed and even federal disaster funds being withheld from communities for highly dubious reasons, hopelessness is epidemic.
Despite vast partisan divisions, Americans remain firmly aligned on one critical position — fetal. We’re all taking cover from the relentless bad news.
I mean, even the pope is not immune from hostility and ridicule anymore.
Still, in the past six months three potential presidential candidates — Pete Buttigieg, Adam Kinzinger and Kamala Harris — have come to Denver to test their campaign messages at the Colorado Speaker Series. And all of them insisted there were reasons for hope because, apparently, running on a platform of abject despair is widely considered a losing proposition.
This month, it was Harris’ turn to radiate optimism.
Her hopefulness, she said, was inspired by the “fundamental decency” she witnessed in Altadena, one of the California cities devastated by wildfires in 2025, and the tremendous courage exhibited in Minneapolis, where neighbors, armed with whistles, took to the frozen streets to protest mass incarcerations during the ICE crackdown.
She said there is “beauty and power” in seeing people coming together to help each other.
Then she got real.
Our political system is broken, she said. Both parties have failed to hold the public trust, and our government is utterly incapable of meeting the moment.
When Democrats talk about the attacks on our democracy, she said, “it lands like a defense of our institutions and the status quo.” But the institutions are deeply flawed.
“Don’t be nostalgic about the way things were” before Trump’s authoritarian wrecking crew went to work, she said. “We need a vision … to build a system that meets the needs of the American people.”
The immigration system, for example, was so dysfunctional for so long, it was ripe for exploitation by opportunistic politicians.
So, the Trump administration blames “the powerless instead of the powerful” for the problems created by a broken system.
“We cannot be seduced into accepting a false choice,” she said. “We can enforce the laws and be humane.”
“We need more immigration judges and a pathway to citizenship,” she said. It’s especially urgent to provide that pathway for immigrants who came to this country as children.
The economy, meanwhile, is not working for far too many of us, Harris said. The American dream “is more myth than reality,” since it takes five generations to move from poverty to the middle class.
It’s not enough for Democrats to win big in the midterms this year or even retake the White House in 2028 if we don’t “re-evaluate our institutions.”
None of this will be easy and things will get worse before they get better, she said.
“But remember, the power is with the people. … This is our country, not theirs, and we have to fight for it.”
Harris called the whole U.S. Congress “feckless” and criticized Big Tech for its cynical manipulation of the political system.
“The federal government was the first and biggest investor in Silicon Valley technology,” she said, and now members of Trump’s Cabinet are heavily invested in Big Tech, intimidated by the power the sector holds over the economy, and allow the industry to operate without the regulatory guardrails necessary to protect consumers.
At the same time on the global stage, Harris said, “We’re losing our influence.”
The “biggest beneficiary” of the war in Iran is Russia, she said. “People around the world are not just worried” about what is happening in the U.S., “they’re looking elsewhere” for leadership.
In the face of all these challenges, she said her greatest source of optimism is Gen Z, the 13- to 28-year-old demographic.
This is the generation that has only known a climate in crisis. They grew up with active shooter drills, spent critical years of their childhood dealing with a historic global pandemic, and they are highly skilled and acutely aware of technology — and have been since they were toddlers.
“They are beautiful and extraordinarily impatient,” she said, “and they’re not waiting around for us” to summon the courage to solve our problems. “We have to think about how we invest in them.”
The political power of Gen Z was on full display last week when the autocrat Viktor Orban was ousted by opposition leader Peter Magyar in a landslide election victory in Hungary. Many analysts attributed his historic win to support from young voters.
The stunning election put an end to a 16-year regime of corruption, oppression, voter suppression and intimidation.
At his campaign rallies across the country, Magyar told the crowds of young and old, “Do not be afraid.” In response, they roared back, “We are not afraid.”
He understood something basic. Smart politicians know instinctively that hope is always more powerful than fear.
In her Denver appearance, Harris didn’t make any grand announcements. She’s obviously not ready to declare her candidacy. But she did make one thing perfectly clear.
“I’m not giving up,” she said.
Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.
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