When I was a kid, politics and civics never really registered for me. I thought those things were only for old people. Or losers. Or both. I grew up an NPR backseat baby, and my very Egyptian immigrant dad would quiz me and my younger brother on current events as he drove us to and from school. I wouldn’t care; I just wanted him to put on Jay-Z. Jay didn’t give a shit about Bush v. Gore. That shit’s for boring old losers.
It wasn’t until 2007 and 2008, when I was in college, that a guy by the name of Barack Obama started running for President. It was something about him — his calm demeanor combined with his deep intellect — that drew me in. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann became must-watch TV. I subscribed to the Obama campaign’s YouTube videos at a time when using the internet was “edgy” for politicians, and I even contributed posts to Daily Kos. My personal political awakening had begun.
Fast forward a decade: I’m making stupid money as a software engineer, blowing it on privileged shit like floor seats at musicals and visiting 10 national parks in a year. (Brownie points if you can identify the musical and the park in the photo above.) I still voted, but my involvement was strictly passive. I was a “user” of democracy, not a contributor to the codebase.
Then, a friend invited me to a local Democratic club. That was the first “compile error” in my comfortable life.
I realized how vital activism was, and one thing led to another. I started volunteering on campaigns, then became a precinct chair, an election judge, and eventually a field director — all while maintaining my software job. But I was becoming bored with software and less fulfilled. I realized that the same logic I used to debug enterprise systems could be used to debug the unorganized organizing of the Dallas establishment. In 2024, I said “fuck it” and made the full transition to local politics and community organizing.
In 2025, I launched a consulting company aimed at connecting the seemingly disparate progressive organizations in Dallas County. We don’t just “manage campaigns”; we perform systemic audits of the local power structure. We help communities form their own political action committees (PACs) and build resident empowerment councils (RECs) to gain real equity. I’m finally using my “specialist” brain to solve a problem that actually matters to people like Ruthie — the neighbor who is being ignored by the system because her data isn’t being captured.
This publication is a record of that journey. You might agree with my takes or you might disagree, but I’m always going to give you my side — backed by the same rigor I’d use to push code to production. Feel free to bash me in the comments. But more importantly, join me in answering this: What can progressives actually do at the local level to build a robust, functional Democratic Party? Are you ready to help me debug Dallas? Then let’s fucking go.
