Democrats spent Tuesday night riding a high I’ve been fortunate enough to experience, too. There’s nothing quite like being in the room on election night when the results break spectacularly in your favour. Few moments in life compare. One that does: being told I was cancer-free.
It’s human nature, after a big win in politics or in health, to want to hit the gas and take a victory lap. But hold that thought.
If Democrats called me this week, I’d say: Tuesday ended your exile. It didn’t end your crisis. Voters stopped trusting you in 2024, and Donald Trump’s bad night doesn’t change that. Only you can.
Amid the excitement of the blue tsunami, Democrats must resist two temptations. The first is taking too much credit for the results. Polls show their party still has a net unfavourability rating among Americans. A rebuke of red isn’t a mandate for blue.
The second temptation is to overreach. Robert Garcia, the House’s incoming Oversight chair, greeted the sweep with two words for Republicans: “LAWYER UP.” Wrong tone. What American voters said, loudly, is that prices are too high. And they want an end to a very unpopular war with Iran. Those are their top priorities. Yes, oversight is a constitutional duty. But opening investigations won’t lower the cost of groceries or gas, so it should not lead the agenda.
Credit where it’s due: Trump did not dispute the midterm results the way many had feared. He spent the next day touring reporters through the White House ballroom and admiring its “magnificent” columns. He suggested he could work with Democrats, unless they were “destructive.”
Trump’s almost farcical focus on home renovations is Democrats’ opportunity. They can pour all their energy into a message and a plan that resonates with voters. The hard part: agreeing on what that message is. Their tent just got a lot bigger.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won as an unapologetic progressive. In Texas, James Talarico won quoting scripture. And in Maine, Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger, unseated Susan Collins as a blue-collar populist. That’s not one party. It’s three.
The number of breakthroughs is astounding: The first openly gay man elected to the Senate. The first Native American woman elected governor, and the first elected to the Senate. The first Black woman elected governor. The first Muslim senator. The first Latina governor of Texas.
All of this shows Democrats can elevate new voices, have debates, and fit candidates to the district instead of vice versa. In doing so, they make room for leftists and centrists alike.
Prime Minister Mark Carney knows something about all this. Carney also owed his win to Trump. Then he turned that crisis win into lasting trust. He’s viewed favourably in every region of the country, including Alberta and Quebec, because he treated the win as a loan, not a gift. He grew a minority government into a majority. And in the federal budget tabled on Thursday, billions went into affordability and sovereignty, right where Canadians want to see it.
Before Democrats start daydreaming about the presidency, they have to offer voters some of what Carney has: memorable speeches and concrete policy ideas. Put a cost-of-living bill on the floor in the first 100 days. If Trump wants to veto it, let people see that.
Moreover, where Democrats got something wrong — like insisting Joe Biden was fit to run when voters could clearly see otherwise — say so. Same goes for brushing off inflation while prices climbed.
A second chance offers no guarantees. Look no further than your local movie theatre for proof. That’s where audiences are flocking to see Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous founder of Theranos, try to explain herself in the documentary “You Can See Everything.”
Certainly, viewers come away with a more nuanced understanding of Holmes. Some even feel for her. But when Nathan Fielder asks whether she really feels she did nothing wrong, Holmes replies, “I did not.” All that time onscreen and she never did the one thing that matters: apologize and show people she’d changed.
Democrats now have their own audience and their own second chance. A tsunami cleared the ground for them. Now they have to build something that lasts.
