The Democratic Party Offers a Glimpse of a Better Future (Photo Essay)

Bernie Sanders: “It gives me no pleasure to tell you that we have a president today who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a homophobe, who is a xenophobe, and who is a religious bigot. I wish I did not have to say that, but that is the damn truth.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “This is what organizing looks like. This is what building power looks like. This is what changing the country looks like. It’s when we choose to show up and occupy the room, and talk about the things that matter most, talking about our future.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Stacey Abrams: “The reality is, identity politics is nothing more than saying, ‘I see you, I hear you, I understand the obstacles that face you.’ … Although I haven’t decided what I’m running for next, what I can tell you is that what our experiment proved is that identity politics works.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Pete Buttigieg: “We insist that being pro-minority and being pro-racial justice not only can but must be compatible with being pro-rule of law. It should go without saying, but in these times, it must be said, clearly and again and again, that black lives matter.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Kamala Harris: “Justice means recognizing domestic terrorism, including white nationalist extremism, which should be considered a national security priority.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Beto O’Rourke: “This schoolhouse-to-jailhouse pipeline and this problem of mass incarceration is much deeper than police, than our courts. It is our country, and we absolutely must face it.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Elizabeth Warren: “Let me be as clear as I can about this: When Democrats next have power, we should be bold. We are done with two sets of rules—one for the Republicans and one for the Democrats. And that means when the Democrats have the White House again, if Mitch McConnell tries to do what he did to President Obama and put small-minded partisanship ahead of solving the massive problems in this country, then we should get rid of the filibuster.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Cory Booker: “It’s time for us to dream again, that we can be a nation where everyone has access to health care. It’s time for us to dream again, where every child will have a great public education, regardless of their ZIP code. It’s time for us to dream again, where everyone who works a full-time job will have a living wage for their families.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Julian Castro: “Our country will never truly heal until we address the original sin of slavery. If under our Constitution we compensate people if we take their property, why wouldn’t we compensate people who were considered property?” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Kirsten Gillibrand: “The truth is, Donald Trump is tearing the moral fabric of this country apart. He demonizes the vulnerable. He punches down. He puts his name in bold on every building because he wants us to believe that he is strong. He is not. Our president is a coward.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Andrew Yang: “I would put $1,000 a month in the hands of every adult, starting at age 18, and then I would say, ‘This is not reparations.’ We need to study reparations independently of the fact that we can make this economy work for you all, minimum, minimum.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

John Hickenlooper: “Slavery is the nagging, unrelenting shame of America that continues to deny the true promise of this country to too many of its citizens. We must own our past, and acknowledge the shame, the sin, the injustice and the ongoing consequences of enslaving an entire race of people. And we must apologize, and that apology should come from the Oval Office.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Amy Klobuchar: “We are not just resisting. We are insisting [on] a better way forward.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

The Rev. Jesse Jackson. (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

John Delaney: “We have a system of how we fund education in this country that is fundamentally unfair and racially unjust in many, many ways.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

Bill de Blasio: “There’s plenty of money in this world, there’s plenty of money in this nation—it’s just in the wrong hands.” (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

The Revs. Franklyn Richardson, National Action Network chairman, and Al Sharpton, National Action Network president and founder. (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)