The Democrats’ mandate is affordability, not socialism

It wasn’t a blue wave. It wasn’t even merely an indigo tsunami from voters appalled by corrupt candidates (see: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton), anti-Semites and racists (see: Georgia Rep. Mike Collins and Bo French), nepo babies (see: Sen. Darline Graham), credibly accused abusers (see: Rep. Max Miller), grifters, and charlatans (see: in many cases, all of the above). No, a Republican loss of a minimum of seven Senate seats — five of which were in states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in his second presidential victory — and at least 50 House seats was a proverbial middle finger from voters to the entire GOP.The good news for Republicans is that a loss this catastrophic is too gravity-defying to ignore, write off as rigged, or blame on some factional pet project. Despite Vice President JD Vance’s claim that it was a product of the Iran war and that we should prioritize scapegoating Israel, just 4% of voters told exit pollsters that foreign policy was their top issue. And although the hosts of the Blaze spent election night blaming mass migration, that hardly explains a national wave that definitely flipped a Senate seat toward Democrats in Ohio (foreign-born population: 5.5%) and is on the cusp of doing so in Mississippi (foreign-born population: 2.5%).Rather, the electorate decided that the Trump administration reneged on the promise that put him in office for a second time: affordability. While former President Joe Biden was obviously responsible for creating the worst inflation crisis in 40 years, Trump was elected specifically with a mandate to stabilize prices and boost real wages. While the president temporarily succeeded at the latter, he decided to impose the most sweeping slate of federal consumption taxes on voters in a century in the form of tariffs. Then, when the public complained about them, Trump — whose net worth has increased by an estimated $3 billion since the start of his second term — said that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30.” Vance repeatedly made the affirmative case that we should not allow “cheap slave labor manufactured stuff from a foreign country to come into our country, undercutting the wages and jobs of American workers.” Yes, it was gas prices. Even more so, it was the tariffs. But it was also the fact that, after being elected specifically to tackle affordability, the White House more or less ignored that promise to indulge the president’s personal vanity projects while his family and friends got rich off access in a way that Hunter Biden could only dream of. And it turns out that, especially in a persistently robust labor market that boasts near-full employment, Americans actually really, really, really like their “cheap slave labor manufactured stuff” and 35 dolls.Put another way, the indigo tsunami that swept from Iowa to South Carolina was not a vote for the worst excesses of the Democratic Party, but rather a demand to tackle affordability once and for all — the issue that, ironically enough, cost former Vice President Kamala Harris the White House two years ago.This is no mere wishcasting. Rather, it’s borne out by the data.In an election in which socialist superstars were elected, it would be easy to take their victories as mandates. But in a tidal wave election, you have to look at the margins. And the fact is that the party’s socialists performed dramatically worse than the Senate candidates who ran normie liberal or centrist campaigns during the general election.The overall Democratic overperformance averaged about 17 points relative to 2024. For reference, Sen.-elect James Talarico (D-TX) outperformed this margin by about 9 points, and Sen.-elect Roy Cooper (D-NC) overperformed by at least 6 points. By contrast, Sen.-elect Abdul el Sayed (D-MI) underperformed by about 10 points, and Sen.-elect Troy Jackson (D-ME) underperformed by some 17 points.Furthermore, Democrats can thank their moderate flank for regaining control of the House. The most moderate caucus, the Blue Dogs, more than doubled its current membership by flipping 29 seats previously held by Republicans, and the liberal-to-moderate New Democrat Coalition gained at least 39 new members, including 30 who flipped Republican seats. By contrast, one of the GOP’s few pickups occurred because a Maine progressive lost in the general election after ousting one of the Democratic Party’s most moderate members.And just consider the policies that voters approved and rejected. In California, voters rejected the billionaire wealth tax. Washingtonians voted to ban boys from girls’ sports. North Carolina passed two constitutional amendments to slash taxes. In exit polls, voters overwhelmingly favored capitalism while rating socialism negatively.Democrats would be wise to learn from Trump’s mistake and not misread their mandate. Rather than lean into the progressive laundry list of further bankrupting soon-to-be-insolvent programs such as Social Security and Medicare, Democrats ought to consider taking the supply side and actually listening to their own voters.An obvious start? Oppose Trump by reasserting Congress’s control over the power of the purse and abolishing his tariffs. After all, in a Morning Consult poll of prospective policies for a new Congress, Democrats ranked requiring congressional approval for new tariffs as their favorite proposal, with 59% support — ahead of investigating the Trump family.TRUMP’S CORRUPTION HAS COST REPUBLICANS DEARLYThe good news for Republicans, and the bad news for the country, is that there are already signs that Democrats are misreading the mandate.Soon-to-be House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has now withdrawn his support for the much-overdue bipartisan permitting bill, citing insufficient environmental protections. Let’s just hope, for the sake of the country, that the center holds and reminds Washington why the rest of the country kicked the GOP — and Harris before them — out of power.