The general election is coming up fast and people around campus and the local community are getting ready to vote, the question is, for who? Both parties had their national conventions over the last week demonstrating their strategy and state of their party. The Republican National Convention was troubling for various reasons. However, there is a certain issue in the otherwise mundane and predictable Democratic National Convention regarding party focus. 

The DNC was full of familiar faces from the blue side of Congress, speakers like Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schuemer, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The DNC’s major figures backed Vice President Joe Biden and spoke about Biden’s decency and how voters need to reset the country. They spoke on the damage that President Donald Trump caused and why he needs to be removed from office. It’s the kind of rhetoric that might have been expected at an event like this. Admittedly, a safe dialogue, because while it may certainly be true, it’s the same message they’ve had since the beginning of Biden’s campaign.

However, there was a shift in the narrative when a certain newer generation took the stage: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a strong speech during the convention. She stated “In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care.” In a symbolic move, she endorsed Bernie Sanders as the presidential nominee. She wouldn’t be the only one during the convention to do that, in fact it began to show a crack in the event.

There is a noticeable rift in the DNC. It’s undeniable that the DNC is going through an identity crisis. There’s a goal that’s clear for everyone in the party: they need to win this election and beat Donald Trump. But there needs to be another goal and it needs to happen quickly. The DNC must discuss who they are, whatever that is.

Because the split message of moderates versus progressives hurts their overall movement and creates doubts, what is the future of their party? Do they fully adopt the objectives of the more progressive members or do they continue to move with the safer moderate aims they have now? The answer is undoubtedly somewhere in the middle, but it can’t be reached without serious conversation and consolidation of the entire party’s platform.