‘Democrats can’t rely on Trump to deliver them elections’
asserted
Democrats → rely → elections
His economic plans are incoherent, the Iran war is making inflation worse, and his complicity with Israel’s crimes in Gaza and other acts of lawlessness, from the extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean to the kidnapping of Maduro, have been combined with a continuing coarsening of American culture.
asserted
complicity → make → culture
We live in a country with more casual racism, with more speculation and moral depravity, more selfishness than at any point in the recent past, and the rot starts in the White House with a man who’s the personification of vice.
asserted
who → live → vice
Voters are making him pay.
asserted
him → make → ?
But the fact that even a victory like this leaves Republicans with so much support tells us about the extreme polarization of the country and the limits on how much electoral punishment a disastrous administration can expect.
asserted
administration → leave → punishment
To break through, Democrats need to do better in rural and semi-rural areas, and they need to reverse the trend of class dealignment in a more systematic way by making their party the party of working-class concerns and interests.
asserted
party → break → concerns
That means fighting for higher wages, stronger unions, affordable housing and healthcare, and giving working people a reason to believe that Democrats will make their lives better.
asserted
lives → mean → reason
They can’t rely on having Trump gift them elections through his erratic rule.
asserted
Trump → rely → rule
A normal Republican administration can be almost as dangerous to working-class interests but will present nowhere near these opportunities.
asserted
administration → work → opportunities
Democrats need to give voters something to support beyond their opposition to the man in the White House.
asserted
Democrats → need → House
Fundamentally, we need a durable popular supermajority for progressive change in this country.
asserted
we → need → country
And we need a wider coalition to do that.
asserted
we → need → that
Winning back the House and Senate gives Democrats an opportunity to build it.
asserted
Winning → win → it
But I have no confidence they’ll even attempt to build one.
asserted
they → have → one
-
Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, the founding editor Jacobin, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in An Era of Extreme Inequalities
‘The most consequential midterms in decades’
It hasn’t been at the front of most minds as the results have come in, but one of the biggest victors of the night has been the polling industry.
For a decade, since Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016, the field of opinion research has been placed under a tremendous amount of scrutiny – partly as a consequence of misses that suggest pollsters have systematically been undercounting Trump supporters.
asserted
pollsters → found → supporters
Those critiques pointed to real challenges facing survey science but also an underlying anxiety – that Trump and Republicans under him have been able to defy gravity thanks to a standing reserve of disaffected, previously marginal voters willing to show up and back the right through thick and thin.
asserted
Trump → point → thick
Given that, the wild margins predicted for Democrats ahead of tonight couldn’t possibly have been real.
uncertain
margins → give → tonight
An ailing economy and high prices, an idiotic war abroad, a war being waged, here at home, against American cities and immigrant families that in no way resemble the criminals and vagrants the right has been ranting and raving about for years, naked corruption in Washington in the service of adding filigrees to the president’s fascism – these things did mater, it turns out, even to voters who’ve been willing to give the Trump circus multiple chances at the ballot.
asserted
who → ail → ballot
A blue Texas would have set the mind reeling at the extent of the backlash alone – what’s happened on top of that is the most consequential midterm result in decades, big enough that this is already being discussed as a realignment election.
asserted
this → set → election
The majorities Democrats have won comprise candidates on both sides of the party’s internal divide – both the left and the center will have victories and near misses to crow about and parse.
asserted
left → win → victories
The question of where the party should go in the broadest sense will remain unanswered in all of this; it’s not altogether obvious how Democrats will collectively decide to handle even the next two years of this administration, pulled, as they’ll inevitably be, between camps rightly demanding a crusade against Trump and rightly insisting that Democrats will need to prove to voters that they are attentive to the policy concerns that sent so many voters their way.
asserted
that → go → way
It will take bold, but shrewd political leadership to bridge those two tasks.
asserted
It → take → tasks
We’ll find out very soon if there’s any of that to spare in the freshman class.
asserted
We → find → class
-
Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist
‘The Republicans are a toxic brand now’
The Democrats swept Tuesday’s midterm elections, and the Republican party has no one but itself – and its leader – to blame.
asserted
party → sweep → itself
Democrats took the House, winning seats that had been blood-red just two years ago.
asserted
that → take → seats
They took the Senate, grabbing formerly Republican seats in the Republican strongholds of South Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Ohio and Iowa, all states Trump won in 2024 with significant margins.
asserted
Trump → take → margins
Voters didn’t seem to be particularly enamored with the Democratic candidates.
asserted
Voters → seem → candidates
They did, however, seem fed up with Republicans.
asserted
They → seem → Republicans
And who can blame them?
asserted
who → blame → them
As they worried about the cost of gas and ground beef, Trump obsessed over his new ballroom and the presence of algae in the reflecting pool.
asserted
Trump → worry → pool
Many people who voted for Trump did so in part because he promised to bring prices down and to refuse to enmesh America in messy wars in the Middle East; he has instead decided to go to war with Iran, which has sent prices skyrocketing at the pump.
While Americans on the left and the right have made clear that they don’t want datacenters in their backyards, those AI behemoths have been built anyway, even in the face of intense community opposition – and Trump has essentially told people to get over it.
asserted
Trump → vote → it
The Republican party talks about “freedom” and scaremongers about Muslims taking away the rights of Americans, and yet across a significant chunk of the country, women can no longer get safe abortions – largely thanks to conservative Christians.
asserted
women → talk → Christians
As Americans see their real spending power decrease, the Trump family and friends have used their power to make billions in corrupt deals.
asserted
family → see → deals
But while candidate quality may have taken Democrats across home plate in some of America’s reddest states, it was Trump who got them to third base.
uncertain
who → take → base
And as Republicans consider their party’s future two years from now when Trump is leaving office for good, they should take this as a clear lesson – the president has made their brand toxic.
asserted
brand → consider → lesson
They should do their best to excise him from their systems now.
asserted
They → do → systems
-
Jill Filipovic is an American author
‘Political earthquake, but not a realignment’
Republicans used to have a saying – that a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
asserted
you → use → everything
It turns out that this saying applies equally to Donald Trump.
asserted
saying → turn → Trump
In 2024, Republicans gave Trump unprecedented and almost dictatorial control over the party, and he delivered victory on a scale that suggested populist majorities for decades to come.
uncertain
that → give → decades
But returned to the White House without any restraints on his worst instincts, Trump brought misery to his working-class base through tariffs and the kind of forever war in the Middle East he had specifically promised to avoid.
asserted
he → return → East
…and 57 more, not listed.
The Aporia
