SUMMARY: Democrats should be taking steps now within the national party and at the state level to lay the ground work for electoral successes and for policy making in the future. Running against Trump is not enough; Democrats need to clearly state what they are for. Americans support progressive policy solutions. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state committees should ban super PAC and dark money from their primary elections.

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While Democrats have very limited influence on national policy right now, there’s a lot they should be doing now within the national party and at the state level to lay the ground work for electoral successes and for policy making in the future. My previous two series of blog posts on fair taxation and the affordability crisis identified policies that Democrats should be supporting at the national and state level, and enacting now at the state level.

Electorally, running against Trump is not enough; Democrats need to clearly state what they are for. Sure, Trump is a convicted criminal and unpopular, but nobody cares about that if they cannot afford basic needs and they think Trump and the Republicans will address the affordability crisis better than Democrats. That’s what happened in 2024 in a nutshell.

Voters will not believe Democrats are serious about addressing the affordability crisis if they don’t unequivocally embrace progressive remedies, as Senators Warren (D-MA) and Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among others, have been doing. Opponents, including Democrats, call their policies “too progressive,” which is code for opposition to any policy that favors working Americans over the oligarchs.

The real split among Democrats is between (a) Democrats on the take from the oligarchs of the crypto industry, Big Tech and AI businesses, and Wall Street; and (b) Democrats who are standing up for working Americans and against the oligarchs and their monopolistic companies. It’s that split that deprives Democrats of unity and of a consistent message that resonates with the real frustrations of everyday Americans. Democrats need to acknowledge the failures of our rigged economic system and clearly advocate for structural changes to the status quo that would: [1]

• Boost pay including by raising the minimum wage
• Build more affordable homes and crack down on corporate landlords
• Increase Social Security checks
• Provide universal child care
• Block price gouging
• Strengthen unions
• Establish universal health care
• Tax the wealthy and giant corporations
• Stop members of Congress from buying and selling stock and crypto assets (i.e., insider trading)

For years, polling data have repeatedly shown that Americans support progressive policy solutions to the challenges they face in their daily lives. For example, over 70 percent of Americans support Medicare for All, which would make health insurance more affordable and health care more accessible and less fraught. Seventy percent believe our tax system is unfair, while 66% support universal free child care. More broadly, 66% of Democrats now view socialism favorably, while only 42% view capitalism favorably. [2]

To enact this policy agenda and to get Democrats to unequivocally support it, billionaires must be stopped from buying our elections and our policy making process. A Democratic Party that worries more about offending wealthy donors than enacting policies that support working Americans will not succeed. Democrats should refuse campaign money from organizations and individuals opposed to basic workers’ rights and a strong social safety net.

As a first step, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state committees should ban super PAC and dark money (i.e., money where the true donor is unidentified) from their primary elections. Unfortunately, the DNC recently voted for a resolution that simply condemned the influence of dark and corporate money in Democratic primaries. It needs to go further and ban such money, which it can do, given that it sets the rules for its own primary elections. Corporate and Republican-linked super PACs and dark money organizations spent over $200 million in 2024 Democratic primaries. Their goal, sometimes successful, was to defeat progressive Democrats, particularly ones opposing Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinians. [3] The Israel, crypto, and AI interests have been, and will in 2026, skew Democratic primaries and candidates to ones supporting their interests, which are not the interests of mainstream Democrats and Americans.

A ban on super PACs and dark money would force Democrats to turn to smaller donations from regular people, as Senators Warren (D-MA) and Sanders (I-VT) and New York City Mayor Mamdani have successfully done. This is what democracy, as opposed to oligarchy, looks like.

I encourage you to contact your state and local elected officials, as well as your U.S. Representative and Senators, to ask them to support policies that support working Americans. If any of these officials are Democrats, I urge you to point out that just running against Trump isn’t enough, as we saw in 2024, and that they need to run on what they stand for. [4]

If you’re frustrated that the Democrats aren’t unequivocally supporting working Americans, you might want to look at and perhaps support the Working Families Party. They’ve put forth a platform, their Working Families Guarantee, which is reminiscent of FDR’s economic bill of rights. It includes:

• A home you can afford
• Healthcare you can rely on
• A good job to support your family
• Childcare when and where you need it
• Paid family and medical leave
• Taxing the rich, and
• Getting big money out of politics.

For lots of good news, see Jess Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water blog’s most recent good news Sunday post here.

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[1]      Warren, E., 1/12/26, “The Democratic Party is at a crossroads,” The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/elizabeth-warren-democrats-2026-midterms/)

[2]      Meyerson, H., 1/7/26, “The Democratic base is social democratic,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/2026/01/07/democratic-base-socialist-democratic-zohran-mamdani-medicare-for-all/)

[3]      Wilkins, B., 4/10/26, “DNC half-measures condemning dark money won’t cut it, says Sanders as he demands total ban,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-dark-money-ban)

[4]     You can find contact information for your US Representative at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and for your US Senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.