With the election inching closer and closer, I have been spending a great deal of time thinking about what comes next. It’s something that, oddly, no one is talking about, at least not honestly. Candidates are making promises as they always do, but no one can say with any certainty that any of them will get a chance to govern, no matter how many of us vote for them.
And while the outcome of the election is far from certain, it’s clear that Americans want change, and we damn sure want accountability. And while we’ll get a bit of both, we almost certainly won’t get enough of either.
Democrats are already managing expectations by arguing that affordability is their primary concern. It’s certainly important, as costs are ridiculous and families are struggling, but Dems are already arguing out loud that accountability might have to take a backseat to our more immediate economic concerns. It’s a false choice, as we are certainly capable of taking on multiple problems at once, but the sheer tonnage of change that America needs means that Dems are certain to disappoint, not because they’re crooked or dumb, but because the problems are simply too massive to take on in the time we will give them, and our own impatience will almost certainly undo us.
Think about it. We need to rebuild the entire federal government. We need Nuremburg levels of accountability for the Epstein Class. We need to remake the Supreme Court. We need to restore voting rights. We need to restore Roe. We need to end Citizens United. We need to end yet another useless war. And so so so much more. Basically, we need to demolish and then rebuild our entire system of government. And since we are now an Amazon culture that expects everything right now, we’ll start complaining about “weak Democrats” before we even get home from the polls.
And the people we elect are doomed to disappoint us, not because we are unreasonable or because they are too soft, but because the size of the job is so immense that no one could fully satisfy our need for change.
Typically, I’m one of the first to verbally club weak politicians for being what they are, but this time around, it just isn’t fair. This time, the job is just too big, as are our expectations, and my fear is that our demands, when not met, will lead to the inevitable return of the GOP to power. If we don’t see the political equivalent of heads on pikes and daily billionaire perp walks, we’re very likely to lose all belief in our leaders.
For my entire life, the most obvious difference between Democrats and Republicans could be summed up like this: Democrats want you to vote for them so they can try to help you, and Republicans want you to vote for them so they can hurt the people you hate. It’s the simplest and most accurate way to summarize each side’s actions over the last half century or so. But as the midterms approach, Democrats need to understand that we’re voting like Republicans this time around. If we put Democrats in power, we expect Democrats to hurt the people we hate. But unlike our opposition, we don’t hate immigrants or people of color or people who don’t conform to outdated ideas on human sexuality. Instead, we hate corruption and tyranny, and we hate billionaires, and we hate these things for very good reasons.
If Democrats think they can come to power and focus on “kitchen table issues” alone, then they have certainly lost the plot, and the party will pay dearly in 2028 if they don’t deliver the retribution we demand. Without real accountability, there will no longer be any reason to trust in our government, and no reason to restore the voting rights we will no longer have any desire to use. Simply put, if Dems fail on accountability, there will be nothing left to separate them from Republicans in our eyes, and even the most loyal of base voters will go looking for a new political home.
If Democrats find a way to let Trump and his cronies off the hook, which I fully expect them to do, then 2028 will end just like 2024 did, and every pundit will pretend to be shocked by it, because that’s what the billionaires pay them to do.
The post-election approach to rebuilding our government must include significant action on all fronts, and any deal-making or compromise with the criminal element that now holds power will be met with a level of public scorn that makes Trump’s current poll numbers look strong. But if we’re strong, and if we’re completely uncompromising when it comes to punishing those who dismantled our freedoms, then Americans will reward steady, imperfect progress. But one deal, one shortcut, one weak-willed compromise, and the billionaires will choose who wins the presidency in 2028.
I don’t know much, but I know that.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days amplifying the voices of freedom and democracy as an Editor right here at The Political Voices Network, and he spends his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.
Spot on everything. Totally agree. It is that Dem impatience that got us here today shooting our selves in the foot & getting TRAMP. I do want to make 1 distinction from your fabulous article, we don’t hate billionaires. Heck, we admire the good conscientious ones. What we dislike are the corrupt greedy, narcissistic, selfish tax cut 1% COMMUNIST billionaires like TRAMP!?