Democrats of all stripes declared victory on Tuesday night in clearest sign yet voters have had enough of Trumpism
No single Democratic coalition can claim victory after Tuesday’s resounding midterm results – all parts of the Democratic coalition can.
Their wins were so sweeping, so resounding, that factional divisions fail to explain them. This year, the most important thing Democrats had to be to win was, simply, not Republicans.
Trump gave Democrats the political gifts of a deeply unpopular war against Iran that led to rising prices, chaotic tariffs that devastated small businesses, farmers and international alliances, healthcare cuts, a deadly deportation scheme, self-enrichment, corruption, a never-ending debacle over a reflecting pool renovation.
Let’s hope the Democrats are able to form and govern as a coalition. There are real ideological differences between the different factions within the party. For this blue wave to matter, the different factions need to unify around the things they agree on the most. That means we’re probably not getting Medicare for all or any of the more progressive policy goals, but I think we can get a very decisive reigning in of Trump.
All the Democratic factions agree that Trump is a dangerous threat to democracy and he’s gotta go. They don’t necessarily agree on exactly what the future of America should be, except that whatever Trump is doing ain’t it. I think the Dems will be strongly unified in their opposition to Trump, which is unequivocally a good thing. That’s exactly what we need to end the threat to our Democracy that is Donald J Trump.
However, while it is very good that it appears a majority of Americans have finally decided Trumpism is a dead end street and we need to go a different direction, I don’t think there is a majority consensus on what that direction should be. I, for one, will continue to try and get centrist/moderate/neoliberal/third way, whatever they want to call themselves, to see that programs like Medicare for all are not just pie in the sky progressive daydreams, they’re absolutely essential for America to have any kind of functional future. If the moderates refuse to get on board, then this country is fucked, plain and simple.
We’re not getting any legislation at all. Trump still holds the veto pen. But we now have Democratic senators in a lot of unusual places for the next 6 years, which means a Democratic president in 2028 could have real juice to get things done.
But what “things” would get done? My point is that there isn’t necessarily a majority consensus in the Democratic party on the answer to that question, and there needs to be. You’re absolutely right that essentially no major legislation is getting passed over the next couple years. I totally agree with that. I think the Democrats need to use that time building a majority consensus on what the party’s legislative goals will be should they take back the Whitehouse in 2028.