Take it from someone who hgas been following Democrats for a LONG time….
The Democratic ‘Big Tent’ housing some Deep Divison’s….
They ARE already showing themselves…..
What WILL actually keep voters voting for a Democratic President in TWO years?
The hard party is NOT to lose the ‘Wave’….
To keep it going while Trump probably digs deeper inton trouble and could keepn helping rally the vote against any Republican effort to succed him….
Democrats are euphoric after states across the country voted to paint Congress blue. But the message from the election should be sobering for them: People are angry about the cost of living, and they want their representatives to actually do something about it.
Deep divisions within the party will make it harder to deliver…
Donald Trump is still president, but the opposition party has now been handed important levers of power, and Democrats need to navigate internal differences to show they can respond to voter anxieties. Excuses will only go so far in 2028 if the electorate is still mad.
And there isn’t time to let the presidential primary season play out to determine the future direction of the party. Democrats need to settle on their play here, quickly. That is especially true now that they have unexpectedly captured both the House and Senate, raising people’s expectations.
Which will voters reward more: if Democrats send single-party legislation to the president’s desk, only to see it vetoed? Or if they appeal to Trump’s populist instincts to try to pass bipartisan laws with effects that people can feel in the near term?
Pushing for broadly popular but partisan legislation — like anything that aims to bring down health care costs — could tee up 2028 candidates to make the case that the White House is not doing its part to address affordability concerns if Trump doesn’t go along.
Yet real policymaking that might draw the president’s support could make an easier sell, even though Trump is unpopular and bipartisanship is often scorned in today’s hyperpolarized politics.
But can Democrats even agree enough on substance to advance legislation across both chambers?….
…
Lael Brainard, who served as Biden’s top economic adviser in the second half of his term, now leads a “policy pop up” known as the Kitchen Table Project that says it’s pushing practical ideas to offer near-term price relief and appeal to voters.
“Let’s start with what people actually tell us they want,” she said. “And then let’s try to bring the policy analysis to bear because it doesn’t help if you say you want to address affordability and the proposal has a massive new fiscal spending price tag on it. That’s not feasible in today’s budgetary and inflationary environment.”
But she, too, suggested Democrats shouldn’t overthink it.
“The kinds of solutions that we heard about in our listening sessions and then we polled in the surveys are not like, ‘Fix the overall price level.’ Nobody’s asking for deflation,” she told me. “They’re asking for very targeted relief.”
Trump has suggested since election night that he’s willing to reach deals with Democrats, though it’s unclear how much that sentiment will ultimately hold.
What is clear is that voters are angry.
And to the extent that Democrats have been given a mandate, it’s this:
Put up or shut up….
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