UNITED STATES CIRCA 2028

The United States of America could be a declining Empire but more significantly for Americans is who will be governing it circa 2028? Both official political parties are divided and while the Republican situation is unsustainable the Democrats have their knickers in a knot over shades of difference. There is little doubt that the Democrats will regain the House of Representatives in 2026 and are on a path to win the Senate - an assumption that would have been absurd 18 months ago. Not that the Democratic Party, (DP), is too popular but Donald Trump, who is the Republican Party, (GOP), is far less so. 

The Democrats have to be careful how they frame this interim fight as they cannot deliver too much in opposition with a President who has had his power enhanced by the Supreme Court. If they promise the moon not being able to deliver the 2028 Presidential election will be thrown open. A  MAGA contender, who has ditched Trump for betraying the Party that he defined, will run against a Democrat whose party has not presented a united front. 

It has sunk into Trump's incoherent mind that his Republican Party is going to sustain heavy losses in the 2026 midterm election. Plan A is to try and take over the electoral process thereby ensuring a victory. If Plan A fails, Plan B, is the allegation that foreign influences such as China want him out and crooked the voting machines. It will be fraud one way or another. The President in moments of lucidity has even mused that the Party in power always loses in the midterms. 

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CIRCA 2026

The DP have yet to hammer out a consensus policy that they could run on in 2028. Rather they are set to have an internecine battle as to who their presidential candidate is going to be in the inane belief that whoever wins so will the country go. The rise of  Democratic Socialists is nothing new. The types of progress needed is not dissimilar to the New Deal by FDR, in the 1940’s,  Dwight Eisenhower, in the 1950’s and then by LBJ in the 1960’s. Obama moved it modestly in the 2010’s. However as the Mandela mantra argued it is a “Long Walk to Freedom”

Over the past 50 years the DP has moved from the party of the workers to that of special groups - not that that was unworthy but it allowed Donald Trump to take the mantle of being the people’s candidate. He has not delivered. His charisma and rhetoric cannot cancel out that he is creating an oligarchy at the expense of the electorate. Rousing speeches don’t remove the realities of higher food and energy costs, loss of health care, savage treatment of alleged illegal immigrants, the high cost of housing, and an unpopular ill thought out an escalating war. That Communism is the greatest internal threat America has ever faced, "....greater (than the) World Wars, Pearl  Harbor and 9/11", will be his message for the 2026 campaign. 

Bernie Sanders, the leader of the Democratic Party, Socialists, (DPS),has a huge responsibility. He cannot afford a repeat of his 2106 Primary battle with Hilary Clinton where at the Democratic Convention his supporters screamed down the crowning of the eventual candidate. At the moment he and his protege Ms Ocassio - Cortez are touring supporting their candidates in Democratic Primaries. They are visiting red and blue states to wild receptions. That is all very well, in 2024 Harris's herself had crowds of 50,000, but can they a swing Congressional seats in rural Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, Iowa, Alaska or Texas?. Can any of their candidates win in the other contested Senate seats other than Maine which was won by Kamala Harris in 2024. The dice is really being rolled, for example, in the Wisconsin Governor’s  and Michigan’s Senate DP Primary elections as to whether an electable nominee can emerge.

The DPS move the debate starkly exposing the inequities in the American society. It is interesting to note that in 2020 Sanders after competing with, eventually allied with Biden knowing that Trump was a danger to the Republic. Now he seems to be supporting anyone whom he thinks can win a DP Primary without proper research, vetting and working through the consequences. The two factions within the DP need to strategize.

THE 2028 DP PRESIDENCY CANDIDATES

What is crucial is that in 2028 the DP win the Presidency. The latter more so than ever because the Supreme Court has given that Executive Office unimaginable power. For that he or she will need a legislative record as well as not being a polarizing figure. At the moment there are two rising stars in the DP, Jon Ossoff and Alexandra Ocassio - Cortez. They are young and charismatic. The former is too young and inexperienced. He, Ossoff, has soared into contention as a devastating authentic attacker of Trump and a certain Senate winner in Republican Georgia. He is inexperienced and the fact that he is Jewish can’t help. Ms. Ocassio -Cortez is just that a Ms, young but more experienced than Ossoff. She is a former bartender who knocked out an establishment Congressman Democrat in a very blue Congressional constituency in New York. A genuine worker and like Ossoff a rock star. She is the DPS torchbearer as Bernie fades into the sunset. 

The obvious nominee should be Biden’s Transport Secretary Pete Butticieg who ran a magnificent Presidential Campaign in 2020 with the experience of only having been a Mayor of a small town in red Indiana. He is at ease in GOP environments and a regular on Trump’s echo chamber, Murdoch’s Fox News. He is left of center skillfully declining to comment on some of the far out policies of the DPS such as throwing out the Senate!. He maintained that there is much that can be agreed upon. In a similar vein is Andy Beshar ,Governor of the red state Kentucky. He would not have the national following Butticieg has. The bias against the latter is the one that led Kamala Harris not to consider him as her Vice Presidential running mate - he is a gay. Kamala Harris herself is a contender but the same prejudices still apply to her.

There are many other contenders such as Gavin Newsom, Governor of the fourth largest economy in the world, California. Legislators Corie Booker, Ro Khanna and Amy Klobuchar and Governors Pritzker, Moore and Shapiro can be added to the deep DP bench - not forgetting Rahm Emanuel former Obama's Chief of Staff. 

But the Democrats in general have two priorities - to see to it that the elections take place in an environment where all those that support them feel it is safe to vote in 2026. They also have to have a unified policy going into the 2028 with everyone backing the Presidential nominee who emerges from the Primary.

THE RESPONSE TO TRUMP THREATS TO 2026 MIDTERMS

The issues of safety, fairness, voting and even cancellation of the 2026 election are being seriously addressed by the DP, it’s supportive Political Action Committees , non governmental organizations, and it’s legal team. Within and without the Congress the Dems are responding to Trump’s unabashed attempts at nullifying the midterms. Recently the DP leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer held a second caucus where different scenarios were played out. The fear that ICE or any other Federally controlled militia could be sent to intimidate  is being countered by discussions with local police officials who constitutionally are in charge. Other scenarios were discussed but generally speaking participants were tight lipped and concerned. Their lead counsel. Mark Elias was more positive.

Every move to abort free and fair elections is being fought in the Courts where Elias and his team of 80 lawyers are in active litigations against infractions of the process. Elias’s company Democracy Docket are tracking a 194 active cases at the moment. In the principal area of Trump’s powerful Department of Justice, (DOJ), weighing in, the DP plaintiffs have won all 17 cases that have been decided. These are Trump’s attempts via his DOJ to get State voting lists. 

As Elias has pointed out Trump tried every thing possible to overturn his loss in 2020 including watching over an attack on the Capitol by supporters who threatened to kill his Vice President. Trump has made it quite clear that he has every intention of not allowing defeat in 2026 and alluded to the fact that he may run for an illegal third term in 2028. That would be his fourth victory he swaggers as he still argues he beat Biden In 2020. His fight against reversing failure has marked his career since being a businessman. As Elias points out he even reversed a referee in The FIFA World Cup Football Championship.

So far the Supreme Court have given Trump what appears to be two victories. First they allowed States to gerrymander constituencies. The GOP States kicked off potentially giving Trump more seats in the House. DP States countered and the overall advantage to Trump’s GOP was minimized. Then that august body placed no limits on money that could be spent on elections. As it happens the DP candidates have overwhelmingly out raised  their opposition with small donations while the GOP Political Action Committees have a ton more money. The Conservative Court however narrowly ruled against the biggest threat to DP safe voting, mail and absentee ballots by ruling against the regime.

Another Trump move is the “Save The Vote” Act which would seriously damage DP voters who do not have original birth certificates or up to date passports and women who have married and have changed their name. This Act is stuck in the Senate where the Republican leader has stated, in spite of daily belittling and cajoling by Trump, he hasn’t 50 votes let alone 60 to break the filibuster. So Trump has gone to the courts to claim the right to control elections where has lost so he has urgently gone to the Supreme Court.

“WE THE PEOPLE” RESPONSE TO THE TRUMPIAN  REGIME

So far “We the people” are more than doing their bit. The violent ICE, (United States Customs and Enforcement), have been forced out of cities in spite of their stormtrooper like behavior. There have been, day in and day out, placard carrying dissidents in the streets screaming their opposition to all efforts to create an authoritarian state. “Illegals” have been rounded up like cattle while protestors, and others besides the undocumented have been killed in the round up. Over 50 detainees have died in a year. Protests everywhere at the turning of warehouses into detention centers have virtually called the objective to a halt. The “Indivisible” organization have held 3 countrywide “No Kings” protests that have produced a record number of citizenry at each, 7 million at two. The left wing online podcasters and not for profit groups have burgeoned and are dominating. Bye election results and primaries show at least a 10 percent swing away from Trump. Even the Murdoch media empire is divided. The “Wall Street Journal” is full-time into hammering Trump. So what now?

SO WHAT NOW?

The DP need a plan, strategy that goes beyond 2026. It is much more difficult to run as a potential government and then just attacking a corrupt, incompetent administration. Whatever part of the legislature they control they need to spell out what a DP Government could in enact if it had the Presidency. 

Trump came in with a plan, “Project 25”, although he truthfully denied he knew its contents. The key author of the plan is sitting in The White House, (aptly named for him and Trump). Russell Vought is Director of the Office Management and the Budget and several other “acting” positions. He has achieved his main goal, expansion of the power of the Presidency. He should have been careful what he wished for although he assumed and has yet not been proved wrong that Trump would be there forever.

For heaven’s sake there are politicians at the helm of the DP. They have to understand how to get things done. For example, every sane person knows that medical care should be available for all and costs are out of control.The strategy now should be comprehensive including to fully reinstall the Affordable Care Act, (Obamacare), and widen it to fill the gap that an expanded Medicaid and Medicare won’t cover. Progress to a single payer system and central government control in this milieu is a pipe dream. An overall plan that is doable is needed.(Remember it was the GOP President Eisenhower who built a massive infrastructure program and raised the maximum tax rate to 92 percent).There also aren’t enough doctors at the moment. They have to expand the nurse practitioner program where specialized skills can be learned in a few years by those who have already clinical experience. Hospital and Insurance groups cost structure needs overall. Obscenely the CEOS earn millions of dollars. Sixty - five percent of people going bankrupt stated medical issues as the cause. 

Timothy Snyder has mentioned the nuclear option. cecession of the blue states like, California, Illinois, New York et al. As matters stand at the moment they are receiving far less than they pay to the Federal Government. In fact they subsidize the Red States

AT THE END OF THE DAY

If 2026 is maneuvered to MAGA it will be the end of democracy for a long long time.

If 2026 is lost by MAGA and then won back in 2028 it will be as bad.