Constipated. Leaderless. Confused. A cracked-out clown car. Divided. These are the words I hear my fellow Democrats using to describe our party as of late. The truth is they’re not wrong: The Democratic Party is in shambles.
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary wasn’t an isolated event. It represents an undeniable fissure in our political soul. We are divided along generational lines: Candidates like Mr. Mamdani are impatient for an economic future that folks my age are skeptical can actually be delivered. We are divided along ideological lines: A party that is historically allegiant to the state of Israel is at odds with a growing faction that will not look past the abuses in Palestine. From Medicare for All purists to Affordable Care Act reformists, the list goes on and on.
The Democratic Party is steamrolling toward a civilized civil war. It’s necessary to have it. It’s even more necessary to delay it. The only thing that can save us now is an actual savior, because a new party can be delivered only by a person — see Barack Obama in 2008 and Bill Clinton in 1992. No matter how many podcasts or influencer streams our bench of candidates go on, our new leader won’t arrive until the day after the midterms in November 2026, which marks the unofficial-yet-official beginning of the 2028 presidential primary. No new party or candidate has a chance for a breakthrough until that day.
Until then, we must run unified in opposition to the Republicans to gain as many House seats as possible in the midterms, because every congressional seat we gain in 2026 means we will be more likely to bring about change in 2028. And there’s good news on that front.
There’s plenty of tantalizing political scandal surrounding the president right now. But issues of moral or ethical concern are almost always more powerful when they’re self-inflicted. Let President Trump Rope-A-Dope with MAGA on the Jeffrey Epstein case, and don’t get in the way.
Instead, the midterms will, like all elections, be decided largely based on issues that affect Americans’ everyday lives. This time around, we don’t have to run with a shred of nuance when it comes to kitchen table issues: Mr. Trump’s “big, beautiful” domestic policy law is a big, steaming doggy nugget of epic proportion, contemptible to a vast majority of the nation. According to a new CNN poll, over 60 percent of Americans were opposed to Mr. Trump’s bill. For context: When Mr. Trump’s first-term budget dropped in 2017, the split was closer, with 41 percent opposed and 28 percent in favor.
Our midterm march starts with a simple phrase every candidate can blast on every screen and stage: We demand a repeal. A “repeal” of Mr. Trump’s spending law is the one word that should define the midterms. It is clear, forceful and full-throated. It must be slathered across every poster, every ad, every social media post from now until next November. That single word is our core message. Every Democrat can run on it, with outrage directed not at the president or a person but at this disastrous bill. And the reasons are countless, each one a venom-tipped political dagger.
We demand a repeal to protect Medicaid. Mr. Trump’s law will slash roughly $1.1 trillion from health care programs, stripping coverage from an estimated 11.8 million people over the next decade. This will lead to a shuttering of rural hospitals and facilities, leaving people in red and purple states without vital health care. A vast majority of the public support Medicaid. This is a unifying issue. We demand a repeal.
We demand a repeal to save the deficit. Not only will the new policy explode the national debt — the Congressional Budget Office estimates it could add $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years — it will actually take money away from the poorest 20 percent of Americans. According to analysis from Yale University’s Budget Lab, a nonpartisan research center, households in the top 20 percent (those earning over $120,000 a year) stand to gain roughly $5,700 annually. By contrast, the poorest 20 percent (making under $13,350 annually) would see their incomes shrink by about $700 a year. Could it be more obvious? We demand a repeal.
We demand a repeal to end the endless wars, because the bill boosts military spending to $1 trillion for the very first time. We demand a repeal for students who are losing loan protections, or who may no longer be eligible for Pell Grants. We demand a repeal for working families, children and seniors who could go hungry because the bill is estimated to demolish SNAP by over $180 billion.
We’ve never had a simpler, more unifying oppositional message. Soon it will no longer be possible to avoid a brawl between the factions ignited back in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. But for now, whether you’re the progressive Mr. Mamdani, the centrist former Rep. Abigail Spanberger running for the Virginia governorship or even Elon Musk, we can all agree on one thing: We demand a repeal. Onward to the midterms.
James Carville is a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s in 1992, and a consultant to American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC.
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