A lot is being made of the Democrats’ momentum heading into the midterms after a string of special election wins, but there’s an uneasy current running through the party’s recent success — and that’s what or who do they stand for? Even the mainstream media is willing to admit that after the president leaves office, there won’t be an anti-Trump wave to ride anymore. Once the progressives’ favorite punching bag is gone, the fringe views they’ve been standing on will be all that’s left. And judging by the record they’re leaving behind on 80% issues like girls’ sports, the coming collapse writes itself.

Asked who the leader of the party is, even their own rank and file can’t answer. On the “All-In Podcast,” Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) bluntly replied, “We don’t have one.” Trump Derangement Syndrome “is the leader right now,” he argued. “Our party is governed by TDS.” If the president came out “for ice cream and lazy Sundays … suddenly, Democrats would hate it. We would wanna vote it down.”

That might work as a political strategy in the short-term — to win back the House this year or maybe even the Senate. But, as voters quickly realized under Joe Biden, the outrage only powers a party for so long. Eventually, the fuel of anti-Trump contempt runs out, and Democrats are left to justify their outlandish agenda. “You can’t win a presidential election on opposition alone,” Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, told Axios. “The midterms are going to be 85-90% driven by voter opposition to Trump and maybe 10-15% based on what Dems stand for,” he argued. “We cannot rely on that same calculation to win in 2028.”

There’s also a chance that Democrats are overestimating Trump’s unpopularity. Despite the media’s overwhelmingly unfavorable coverage of the president, Trump is still more popular at 41% than two Democratic standard-bearer wannabes: California Governor Gavin Newsom (27%) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at 31%, both of whom are vying for the reins of the national party.

And while the headlines would lead Americans to believe otherwise, the Democratic Party as a whole isn’t exactly getting rave reviews. According to NBC News, only 30% of voters view the party positively, which is seven points lower than the GOP’s favorability at 37%. Neither side is winning popularity contests, but the gap has to be concerning, especially considering that the same survey found that voters trust Republicans more than Democrats to deal with border security, crime, and immigration. “On the economy, Democrats didn’t have an advantage despite Americans’ anger over continuing high prices under Trump. Voters were split on which party would do a better job handling it.”

That doesn’t surprise Messina, who said bluntly, “We have no economic message, and if we don’t get one, we’re not going to win.” It’s not enough, he emphasizes, to just blame Trump. There needs to be a unifying governing vision that resonates with the American people. And right now, a party hijacked by socialists who hate Israel but worship transgenderism and open borders isn’t going to cut it. Does the country really want to hand the keys to a movement that can’t embrace common sense?

This is a national party, we were all reminded this past weekend during the SAVE America amendment votes, that can’t even bring itself to say boys shouldn’t be on girls’ teams or in girls’ locker rooms or robbing them of places on fields, podiums, and record books. For the fourth time, not a single Senate Democrat had the guts to stand up and side with 80% of the country — and 67% of their own voters — to protect America’s daughters from the lunacy of gender ideology.

This is an injustice that literally the entire world is fighting — with the exception of elected Democrats. While the International Olympic Committee, dozens of global sports governing bodies, 29 states (and counting), and the White House roll back the devastating effects of this social experiment, Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) party continues to blindly ally with activists whose sole purpose is to erase women. “I’ve been here six years, and this is the fourth time that I’ve had this bill on the floor,” Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) lamented Saturday. “I’m still trying, and I’m gonna continue to try till I’m gone. I can’t believe that this is even an issue,” he shook his head. “Every single time that we’ve voted on this, I have not gotten one single Democrat to vote for it.”

The tens of millions of people who tuned into the State of the Union also saw a party that stayed shamelessly glued to their seats when the president asked members to stand if they prioritized American citizens over illegal immigrants. They sat when Trump called to end political violence, lower crime, keep violent criminals off the streets, protect children from irreversible gender transition procedures, secure our homeland, respect law enforcement, safeguard our elections, block the flow of deadly fentanyl and other drugs across our borders, bring peace to war-torn regions, and fight terrorism. Last time anyone checked, these were areas of broad consensus.

Democrats will have to answer for these wildly controversial stances if they have any hope of regaining trust with the middle of the country, where most elections are won or lost. “For the next decade, [they’ll] have to be able to win elections in what are now red states in neutral and even challenging environments,” David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, warned. “That is the test. And anyone who thinks we are ready to do that is spending too much time inhabiting a political world that does not exist.”

They will try to obfuscate, no doubt, throwing everything they have into impeachments, subpoenas, and more lawfare even as Trump rides off into retirement. Already, The New York Post warns, “They’re revving up the old #Resistance machine and studying their old playbook for ideas. … The Defiance crew are all but announcing their plans for a Democratic majority: Any effort to actually do the people’s business will be back-burnered in favor of endless bogus hearings to bolster fresh articles of impeachment — the specific accusations to be manufactured when they’re needed, as with Vindman’s 2019 ‘whistleblowing.’”

Earlier this month, The New Republic openly suggested an “elaborate plan” — not to lead, but “to harass and imprison Donald Trump and his advisers, once Trump leaves office. … Instead of talking about ways to improve the lives of American citizens, they’re still fixated on retribution,” The Daily Wire laments. The piece is called “There Will Be No Post-Presidential Peace for Donald Trump.”

There’s even, with no small amount of sarcasm, a “Project 2029” on the Left — their ruthless response to the Right’s blueprint for a Republican administration two years ago. But instead of outlining their vision for America, they’re plotting more revenge — a distraction (they hope) from the growing policy vacuum and polarization the party refuses to address.

Uniting over their shared hatred of Trump has been an effective strategy, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter agrees. But its expiration date is coming. “Despite being historically unpopular and being on the wrong side of an array of issues in which supermajorities of the American public agree — such as men in women’s sports, subjecting minors to ideologically-driven ‘gender transition’ procedures, and late-term abortion — it’s hard not to notice the Democrats have performed well in special elections ahead of the upcoming midterms. Some of this,” he explains, “is because the party is willing to put enormous resources into races they would otherwise avoid, because they desperately want to show momentum heading into November. But mostly, it’s because of the base’s enthusiasm to vote in opposition to the Republican federal government,” Carpenter notes.

The problem with this strategy, he stresses, “is that it will not easily translate into a governing coalition. Rest assured, no matter how well the party does in 2026, come 2027 — when the presidential primaries begin in earnest — there will be many candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Likely, the race will settle on a handful of viable candidates: one anointed by the super delegates and big donors and a few others who represent the most aggressively leftist tendencies of the base.” That’s when the plan spectacularly falls apart, “because this divide will expose the fractures that currently exist in the party and are only held together by their hatred for Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress,” Carpenter believes.

At the end of the day, former Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany asks, “What’s the governing strategy of Democrats? Because you could win this election, you could win the midterms, because it’s a historical trend.” And maybe, she shrugged, Trump Derangement Syndrome “is your strategy. But TDS cannot be the strategy in 2028. It’s not going to take you to the promised land.”