"You need a vision bigger than you've been told is possible!" - Kat Abughazaleh
That's her phrase, not mine! She's 26-year-old Kat bAbughazaleh, and she's running for Congress. In the middle of her announcement video, she stated: "You need a vision bigger than you've been told is possible!"
I'm always a sucker for a good inspirational phrase - and I can also spot the nascent signs of what might be a major trend early on. This might be one of those moments.
Look, I swear to god I'm not working to turn my daily post into a political journal, but the timing of this video yesterday was just too perfect in light of my post earlier that day about the need for the system to get 'youthanized.' Go back and read it for context - it's here.
So what's this post about? It's about what might happen when the social media/influencer generation gets aggressively involved in politics. Later in the video, she said this: “I say it’s time to drop the excuses and grow a fucking spine," And then, "We're focused on meeting constituent needs with one simple rule: What if we didn't suck?"
Talk about message clarity!
Watch the video for yourself, and try and tell me that this might not be the early sign of something happening in US politics right now.
And since US politics has a huge impact on whether the future unfolds or not, well, it's in the territory of this daily post. Yesterday, I was listening to The Daily podcast from the New York Times, and one political expert said that the Democrats might be having their own Tea Party moment, what with the anger at aging politicians and all. Maybe this was the moment stuff was thrown in the harbor.
The video is blowing up on social media right now - and no wonder. What we might be seeing right now is the first of a sudden groundswell of today's 20 and 30-year-olds launching themselves into a system that has become geriatric by design. Here's an excerpt from Gizmodo on her story.
Journalist and influencer Kat Abughazaleh announced she’s running for Congress in a YouTube video. In a video that looked more like a livestream than an announcement of a bid for office, Abughazaleh promised to run a transparent campaign, fight for affordable groceries, and stand up to authoritarians.
Abughazaleh is running in Illinois’ 9th district, which covers the north side of Chicago and some of its suburbs. She’ll attempt to unseat Democratic incumbent and party stalwart Jan Schakowsky, who is 81 and has held her seat since 1999.
“I say it’s time to drop the excuses and grow a fucking spine,” Abughazaleh said in her announcement video. “We need a vision that’s bigger than what we’ve been told is possible. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be able to afford housing, groceries, and healthcare with some money leftover. Families should have free childcare. Social security should be expanded, and our inalienable rights shouldn’t be dependent on who’s in power. That means standing up to authoritarians, not shrinking away when the fight gets tough.”
It’s obvious the video was made for a young audience by a person who grew up using social media. It’s got the aesthetic of a streamer: complete with floating mic arm, clear and focused high quality camera, baked in subtitles, and competent editing that helped Abughazaleh emphasize her points.
Now consider who she is up against in the primary for the position. This is Representative Jan Schakowsky. She's 80 years old, has been in the elected position since 1999 (longer than Kat has been on the planet by a few months), and has never really faced a challenger. Tell me that this grainy, poorly little, low-energy video is going to draw attention and enthusiasm.
It doesn't. 11 days after this update video, it's had a total of 684 views. Count that - 684. It's barely drawn any notice.
Contrast that to the announcement video by Kat - here is her video, hours after release. By this morning, this number had doubled to 45,000 views - and that's just on TikTok. The video is also blowing up on Bluesky, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And that doesn't include the number of times it has been shared on each of these. networks - my BlueSky account is flooded with links to the video.
Remember that phrase I often use - "the future happens slowly, and then, all at once!"
Right now, I'm willing to bet that we are in that "all at once" phase right now.
Futurist Jim Carroll has been sharing from the stage, for years, the story of how the next generation changes the future faster than the previous generation. This is now one of those stories.