Taiwan's DPP marks 40 years since its founding with its longtime legislative caucus whip framing reform as the party's whole reason to exist — a confident look back, but a sober one about the party's current weakness in parliament.

• Ker Chien-ming, who ran the DPP's legislative caucus for 25 years, casts the party's arc as moving from fighting the system to reforming it from inside.
• He points to same-sex marriage, pension reform and transitional justice as the party's record, things he says the KMT could not have done.
• The 2019 marriage law was the hardest fight: lawmakers from the south faced heavy pressure at home, and the bill was renamed after a constitutional court ruling to dodge the politically charged wording.
• Since the 2024 election no party holds a majority, so the DPP loses nearly every vote — his answer is to win the argument and the public instead.
• His message to younger Taiwanese: online commentary is not enough, real participation is, and democracy was never handed down for free.

Outlook: The DPP's near-term ceiling is set by the numbers in parliament, and the party is now openly playing for a majority in 2028.