“Election Day 2026 was the true celebration of our 250th anniversary.”

I totally agreed with this Bill Kristol remark above. Trump is essentially the type of executive the Founding Fathers had in mind when giving Congress the power to impeach and remove an executive. With this mechanism, Congress could protect the country from a tyrant, which is one of their most important duties, directly linked to their oath of office–specifically, defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. To fail to impeach and remove Trump, or–at the very least–to use other congressional powers to impede or prevent corruption, unqualified cabinet members, and actions that seriously endanger Americans and American interests–is an abject failure to fulfill their oath of office, which, I might add, includes a promise to “full faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.” Based on their actions, congressional Republicans have given their full faith and allegiance to Trump. This type of failure, especially left unpunished, endangers our constitutional system of government. By punishing Republicans, Americans took a big step in defending and preserving the Constitution, and that has been the best way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country.

The main reason for the GOP wipeout.

While I believe the election went a long way in protecting the republic, I don’t believe a large majority of voters punished Republicans with this in mind. I’ve been listening to pundits offer various explanations for the wipeout, and while motivations vary from voter to voter, and multiple reasons likely motivated many voters, I do think affordability issues, maybe especially relating to food and gas, was central to the shellacking. This is something that not only impacts the widest range of voters–from news junkies to the most uninformed–but impacts them in a very palpable, and even visceral way–to the degree of activating Americans who don’t normally participate, while also “deactivating” Republicans who normally do. In my view, real pain and suffering, especially affecting large numbers in the middle and upper-middle classes, is the one thing–nay, the only thing–that can lead to the sort of voting that we saw. In my view, that pain came in the form of high prices–from food, gas, as well as housing, healthcare, and education, and without this, I don’t think we would have seen a blue tsunami.

Democrats need to keep their eye on the ball

If what I’m saying is correct, then the north star for Democrats should be lowering prices. If they do a bad job of this, then I believe a lot of voters could turn back to Republicans in 2028. Now, Trump can hinder or even prevent this from happening, but if the Democrats send popular bills that can lower costs, and Trump vetoes them, this could still put them in a decent position in 2028, while also putting congressional Republicans in a bad position. But Democrats need to focus on these type of bills.

This isn’t to say they shouldn’t investigate Trump and try to expose and stop corruption, stop the Iran War, or stop the ICE abuses–really, there is a long list of issues that Democrats should take on–but lowering costs should be at the top. The only other issue that should be as important is anything that significantly and imminently threatens the safety of American citizens. This could involve a Trump official, including Trump himself, whose incompetence poses a serious threat. This could involve AI. But this approach is not easy to navigate. What constitutes “serious and imminent” threat? That’s not easy to define.

What about impeaching Trump and some of his officials?

I believe Trump and some of his officials deserve to be impeached and removed. I also believe this is important to protecting the republic. However, unless the threat they pose is clearly significant and imminent, my sense is that Democrats should use the following principles to guide impeachment. First, Democrats should pursue impeachment only with meaningful Republican support, or at least not strong Republican opposition. With enough Republican support, enough Americans will view impeachment as legitimate and not simply political. On the other hand, if the GOP unanimously opposes and attacks impeachment efforts (and choosing Rep. Jim Jordan to be the House minority leader singles this will be the case), then I think impeachment efforts could ultimately strengthen Trump and Republicans.

The second guiding principle should be public support–specifically, overwhelming public support for impeachment. Even if Republicans oppose and attack impeachment efforts, en masse, Democrats should pursue impeachment if the public overwhelmingly supports it. However, if the public support is this strong, I would anticipate at least some Republicans also supporting impeachment as well.