Democrats head into elections divided

The Democrats are fighting on two fronts at once: against Donald Trump’s Republicans and against the party’s left wing. As the United States approaches this year’s midterm elections and looks ahead to the 2028 presidential contest, the party’s internal divide is becoming harder to ignore.

The central question is how much support the democratic left actually commands among voters. America’s primary system can confuse outside observers because activists play an outsized role in those contests. November’s election will provide a more meaningful test of the left’s strength.

Bloomberg columnist Ronald Brownstein argues that when centrist Democratic candidates lose primaries, the problem is not necessarily their message or personal profile. It is their unwillingness to fight for their own ideas. Moderate Democrats have challenged progressive proposals mainly by asking whether they can be implemented or whether they can win elections. Few have asked whether the proposals are good.

That silence gives the left a moral advantage. When moderates say a policy cannot pass Congress or would alienate independent voters, progressives can present themselves as the side willing to dream big. Brownstein identifies health care as the clearest example. Every successful left-wing candidate has campaigned for universal health insurance, while moderates who lost to them chose not to engage the issue directly.

The article cites Urban Institute estimates putting the cost of such coverage at more than 34 trillion kronor over 10 years. That would effectively require the government to nearly double its total tax revenue. Economists who worked on health policy during the Clinton administration have calculated that seven in 10 Americans would face higher taxes. Nevada’s hospitality workers’ union has also warned that a single government insurance system could destroy the favourable agreements it negotiated.

The Atlantic writer Jonathan Chait describes the same conflict from another angle, arguing that the left is directing its energy toward defeating moderate Democrats. He also points to the left’s prominent role in defending Joe Biden during the party’s disastrous 2024 campaign, even as it later placed the blame for Biden’s collapse on the establishment and presented itself as an untainted alternative. The article concludes that the party has no simple answer to its dilemma.

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This is a struggle between the left and the moderates.