But as the 2026 landscape takes shape, a question is whether this also reflects newer damage to the Democratic Party brand. Since last year’s election, polling has continued to find Democrats with a worse image than Republicans.
I know it seems hard to believe but it kind of makes sense. The Republican party has been fully taken over by the MAGA movement, and, in the words of Walter from the Big Lebowski: "say what you want about [MAGA], at least it's an ethos." What is the ethos of the Democratic party?
There are ideological factions in the Democratic party, but none has clear control. There is no unified, cohesive vision that the majority of Democratic voters, and American voters broadly, can rally around.