Why Democrats should want to lose this election

James Carville would rather Republicans keep the House. He may be right, and the Democrats who make it happen may end up saving their own party.For decades, the choice inside the voting booth was automatic for lifelong Democrats. You looked for the “D” next to a candidate’s name, confident that it represented a familiar tradition.To be a Democrat meant standing in the footsteps of leaders such as Presidents John F. Kennedy, who once observed that “sometimes party loyalty asks too much,” and Bill Clinton, who told the nation on the night of his 1996 reelection, “It is time to put country ahead of party.” You aligned with this party because its legacy reflected your vision of America. Across the country, lifelong Democrats are now looking at a slate of candidates demanding a fundamental rewrite of the party’s historical platform and are being asked to endorse a socialist agenda, all in the name of securing a congressional majority.The trap of a slim majority The cold, hard math of a razor-thin majority is that if Democrats win the House by only a handful of seats, they get the gavel, but not the power.In a narrowly divided chamber, a small faction of left-wing lawmakers can exercise veto power over the entire legislative agenda. Mainstream Democrats will be forced to cater to an uncompromising fringe just to pass basic bills. Republicans learned this the hard way in 2023, when eight members of their own conference removed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.This isn’t a Republican talking point. Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist, sounded this exact alarm last month on The Bulwark on Sunday podcast: “I would rather the Republicans keep the House by five than the Democrats to win by five because if that happens, they’re hostage to the [Democratic Socialists of America].” Carville has since gone further, calling for a formal “schism” between Democrats and the socialists.In the minority, Democrats can blame Republicans for everything that goes wrong prior to the next election. In a slim majority held hostage by the DSA, they own every socialist bill that clears their chamber, and they carry it straight into 2028. Win the short game, a majority in 2026, and they may forfeit the long one, the White House in 2028.‘He can start his own party’ When Carville vowed to leave the party if left-wing streamer Hasan Piker became one of its leading voices, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) didn’t hesitate to side with the streamer: “If Mr. Carville doesn’t want to be in my party … he can start his own party.”Let that sink in. The country’s most famous socialist chose an internet influencer over the strategist who helped put Clinton in the White House. The message to the center-left base is unmistakable: The DSA wing is moving in, and everyone else can find the door.If that wing is allowed to claim a mandate by delivering a congressional majority now, its capture of the entire institution may be irreversible by 2028. The core principles that defined the party for generations would be lost to a faction that rejects both American and Democratic values and demands absolute loyalty to its socialist agenda.A historic bipartisan sacrifice If moderate Democrats make a sacrifice at the ballot box to save the country from an extreme socialist agenda, make no mistake: it has benefits. The crossover is not a surrender to the Republican Party, although Republicans may benefit from the math over the next two years.This sacrifice would be made by Democrats, for Democrats, to reclaim their platform and put their party in a competitive position to win the presidency in 2028. It would be a calculated, principled move to give Democrats their strongest shot at the White House and Congress after President Donald Trump.The price of courage Drawing a line in the sand can be a lonely endeavor. Look at what happened in Michigan on Sunday.Two days before Election Day, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) did what almost no sitting member of Congress dares to do: She endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for Senate over her own party’s DSA-backed nominee, Abdul el Sayed, and she stood beside Rogers in a Detroit church to do it.The breaking point was not a policy paper. It was an ad, run by a PAC promoting el Sayed, blaming rising grocery prices on Jews and Israel. The Anti-Defamation League called it a “case study in antisemitism.” Stevens asked el Sayed to condemn it. He would only say the ad wasn’t his. Then his campaign told her she was not welcome.Within hours of Stevens’s announcement, the state party declared that she “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” Her chief of staff resigned. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it “a despicable betrayal.”She knew the cost, and she paid it anyway. She still calls herself a proud Democrat, casting one vote for a Republican while continuing to support her party’s other candidates. That is not betrayal. It is the discipline required of moderate voters today: drawing a line against extremism to preserve the sanity of the system. Some would say it’s placing country over party.OBAMA IS ‘TIRED OF BEING DIVIDED’: POT, MEET KETTLEThe ballot box For lifelong Democrats, if you cannot bring yourself to vote for a Republican, leave that bubble blank and keep voting downballot. Denying a fringe candidate your vote, whether by crossing the aisle or leaving a line blank, is not a betrayal. It is a strategic, patriotic move. It stops the momentum before it becomes permanent.Politics is a long game. For Democrats, true patriotism may require looking past a two-year majority, for a shot at a 4-year sweep. Protect your party’s future — vote the long game.Jacqueline Cartier is a corporate and legislative strategist focused on communications, crisis leadership, public trust, and emerging technologies that shape human behavior and decision-making. Follow her on LinkedIn.