We are seeing a frenzy of campaigning in advance of the 2026 midterm elections, and from my own memory, I can't remember a previous one in which the frequency and intensity of the rhetoric has been quite the way it is right now. I counted from the time my phone pinged the first message I received this morning at 6:00 a.m. until just a few minutes ago, and I have received 21 emails, texts, and notifications asking me to give money to someone running for office. The primary in my state is over, so 18 of those messages came from candidates in other states.
I think my previous record was in 2024, when, after I made a small contribution to the Harris campaign through Act Blue, I got 10 notifications the next day.
It's really pretty obvious that the momentum which I believe will carry Democrats to majorities in both houses of Congress in November is built on the unbelievable incompetence and corruption of the Trump administration. We can talk about our issues, things we would like to see done, our politics, and a lot of those running for office are doing this. But the fact of the matter is that the real agenda that has taken over, and in some cases has forced Democratic politicians to get out of their old school politics and regular old way of doing things is that Donald Trump is actually the existential threat to American Constitutional Democracy that has become the cliche phrase of current politics, and Democrats must acknowledge this if they are going to win.
As much as we would like to think otherwise, we are not going to win the midterms with our own agenda. The Republicans are going to lose the midterms because they are complicit with the crimes and unconstitutional corruption of the man they nominated to serve as President. Democrats and our agenda are not nearly so popular as Republicans and Trump are unpopular. And that reality is going to dictate what Democrats must do when we get control of Congress if we want the momentum to continue and if we want to win the Presidential election in 2028.
The Playbook For This Has Already Been Written
It's called, "How Republican Majorities In Congress Rendered the Clinton and Obama Administrations Totally Ineffective."
Remember Contract with America? And if you do, it should sound familiar, because aside from the nastiness of the politics that surrounded it, guess who had a big hand in putting it all together for Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey to introduce into the House? It was the Heritage Foundation. That's right, the same group underwritten by billionaires, promoting the fascist pseudo-Christian nationalism that has embedded itself in Republican party politics of the Trump administration. These people have been enemies of the American republic for a lot longer than most people realize.
Gone was the compromising, the deal making, the give and take that was required for Congress to effectively do its job. In its place, a political wall of resistance, determination through being stubbornly oppositional and uncompromising to cause the other side to be seen as the failure. The commitment to make sure that government did not work while a Democrat was in the White House was the reality of a good part of both the Clinton and Obama administrations, which had to put up with oppositional Republicans for the better part of their terms.
It was so bad, that the Republicans, under Mitch McConnell's leadership, stole--and I use this term correctly here--the opportunity for President Obama to appoint a Supreme Court justice by simply using their majority to delay until he was out of office. The inept and failed court that we have now is the direct result of that theft. The GOP became the "party of NO!" a reputation they deserved as a result of using the power they had when in the majority.
Democratic Political Success in the Future Depends on How Aggressively They Attack the Trump Administration After Gaining Control of Congress
It's turned out to be a good thing that David Hogg didn't last long at the DNC after his appointment to serve as its assistant director. His organization, Leaders we Deserve, is still relatively new, but its fundraising power is growing, they've seen some electoral success in their candidate support, and they are lighting a fire underneath the cumbersome, slow-to-react Democratic party. That's where my contribution is going at the moment. There's an energy there, and a sense of direction along with the ability to clearly articulate the problem and the solution. They have, in fact, had a strong enough voice that the Democratic Governors Association has been seeking their support.
Coming at the Trump administration with something along the lines of Contract with America isn't going to be strong enough. Getting things done without a single Republican vote should be strategized and prioritized, there are clearly ways to do it and it must be done. A lot of the momentum and support for the No Kings days has come from political independents. It is time to leverage that, and shoot it like a cannonball at the GOP. Let's see how they handle it.
The approach to the remainder of the Trump presidency should mirror the approach McConnell took to the Obama presidency, and that was to do everything possible to make the President fail and do absolutely nothing that could be considered to his political benefit. That's exactly the approach Democrats now must take with Trump. No compromise, shut down everything that can be shut down and make sure he owns the consequences. We need leadership that is politically savvy and sharp enough to make that happen and if it requires some dusting and cleaning the musty corners of the current status quo, so be it. Let 'em go.
The corruption must be exposed and expunged. I will be highly disappointed if impeachment proceedings are not brought immediately, even though there might not be a possibility of conviction, but I'm not opposed to putting whatever pressure can be put on enough Republicans to force them to vote to convict. There's certainly enough pork barrels in each red state to make them think about their own self-preservation.
There are a lot of things that can leverage the President's ability to stay in office or be forced to resign, and all of that needs to come out. Every aspect of his involvement in the Epstein scandal should be exposed. The cases regarding his document theft and sedition on January 6th should be lined up with evidence, publicized and prepared to start trial the day he leaves office. Let him dare to veto things that are popular with voters.
Well, you get the drift. We need to come out in an overwhelming way, force issues and expose it all.
I hope, after the election, we have the leadership to do this.
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