New Orleans        Modern generations might not be as familiar with buffaloes or old western lore, famed in books and television series, but many of us still know that if you put your ear to the ground, you can hear them coming and get a move on it.  I’m betting many of the old hands in the Democratic Party in the US have their ears to the ground now as they look at the primary results in Colorado.

The results might have been expected by some, but are startling.  After three terms, Senator Bennet was trying to become governor, but was beaten by the current attorney general in the state who basically argued he would be a better fighter for Colorado than the senator had been.   This is the first time in fifteen years that a senator has been defeated while seating the governorship of a state.

That’s the least of the news from the Rockies.  A 30-year-old political novice, who is currently a lawyer and doctoral student had moved back home after a stint in New York where she had lost her job in some controversy over writing an anti-Israel message that she refused to retract, decisively beat the incumbent Congressperson from the Denver district who was a veteran of fifteen terms.  Identified with the Democratic Socialist of America and their populist and progressive push within the party, this comes on the back of successes for Congressional and other seats in New York City and mayor’s races in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

The old lions of the party probably dismiss New York City and Los Angeles as outliers, but Denver, where this new wave is pushing out older, proven progressives, that is a sign that the buffalo herd is moving all across the country and won’t be easily satisfied.  The Democratic base is signaling that they want fighters, not lovers.  They don’t want local or national governments to tell them how to make deals with Trump and his administration.  They want blood, and they want hides nailed to the walls.  The Washington Post went so far as to report that Colorado Democrats now think that the Democratic voter base is so energized in opposition to Trump and Republicans that they may be able to pick up three Congressional seats despite the Colorado Supreme Court rejecting their attempts to redistrict the state to meet Trump’s midterm shenanigans.

One of the universal laws of politics is that when the voters want change, they will not be denied.  Trump knows that for sure.  It is how he became president not once but twice.  Obama ran on that platform, so surely Democrats remember that as well.  This herd of voters is huge and angry, and attention must be paid, or it will sweep away everything and everybody standing in their way.