The Morning Briefing: Dems Are Getting Way Out Over Their Skis About 2026 Midterms

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Delboozh surprised everyone with the success of his "Captain and Tennille Welsh Karaoke" nights at the rec center.

I would once again like to express my deep gratitude to my friend Kevin Downey Jr. for jumping in on short notice and handling yesterday's Briefing. I'm back now and have no plans for any more unplanned stuff.

Because our election cycles never really end, we have been talking about the 2026 midterms pretty much since President Trump was declared the winner last November. I've probably been guilty of it more than most of my colleagues because I have been fascinated by trying to figure out how the Democrats are going to orchestrate any kind of a comeback after their rough 2024 performance.

We all know about tradition and historical trends when it comes to the midterms. The party that holds the White House tends to underperform. Whether that underperformance is mild or a shellacking depends on a variety of factors, but mostly on how well the party in power is going about its business.

President Trump, as we know, is doing a bang-up job. The thin Republican majority in Congress, not so much. My friend and partner in thought crime Stephen Green is convinced that the Republicans in Congress are leading us into an electoral Battle of Little Bighorn next year. I agree that they need to do a lot more to get the president's agenda enacted into law. This country isn't going to last long if it's just a battle of executive orders every time the presidency switches parties.

The thing about conventional wisdom now is that Donald Trump threw all of that out the window in 2016. I also don't share the dread that other people do because the Dems who are running the party are the least serious politicians I've ever seen. That's saying a lot, given the fact that I've been a Republican for over 40 years.

For most of my adult life, the Democrats were a formidable political machine, developing years-long strategies, while the GOP reacted to everything in the moment. That party no longer exists. The Democrats in Washington today are a collection of grown children who are trying to live out some naively ignorant Che t-shirt fantasies. Even with all the help they get from their propagandists, I can't rule out their ability to completely blow whatever opportunities might be given them for next year.

Here's a prime example from something Matt wrote yesterday:

Democrats aren’t even pretending anymore. If they retake the House, they’re coming for Trump—again. On Sunday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) openly admitted she would “absolutely” launch an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump if given the gavel on the House Oversight Committee. No pretense, no evidence—just raw political vengeance. From Elon Musk’s role in cutting government waste to Trump’s legal fights with Harvard and high-powered law firms, Crockett is already laying the groundwork to turn routine policy and legal disputes into impeachable offenses. Her comments make one thing unmistakably clear: Democrats are gearing up to use the power of Congress not for oversight, but for retaliation.

I'm still not convinced that this "We still super-duper hate Trump!" approach is a winner for bringing the Democrats back to any semblance of political relevance. Sure, it gets the coastal and Illinois Democrats frothing even more than usual, but it can't have much — if any — play at all with the traditional voters that they have been losing.

As far as long-term planning goes, the 24/7 Trump Derangement Syndrome shtick is really going to leave their tank empty come January of 2029. They'll try to brand JD Vance, Ron DeSantis, or whomever emerges as the GOP frontrunner as the next Satan, but it's not going to have the same zing for their base that "ORANGE MAN BAD!" does.

If another sham impeachment is all they have to sell to the American voters, I'm still not sure the Republicans are in for the 2026 butt-whuppin' that so many others think is a foregone conclusion.

Then again, we also can't rule out the Republicans in Congress mucking up the works a lot between now and then, either.

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06/02/25

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