Democrats Need to Learn How to Fight Each Other

By Michael Brendan Dougherty

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

 

Donald Trump is a mysterious figure in political life. It has become a cliché to say that in 2015 he launched a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. He questioned its commitment to free trade, to muscular military intervention abroad, and to its embarrassing tolerance of mass illegal immigration. It was broadly believable that he could win the nomination, so long as there were multiple “Republicanism is just fine, thanks” candidates dividing the anti-Trump vote. The more shocking thing was that he could then swiftly win the loyalty of most of the party that he had been beating up for nine months (including its donor class) and defeat a candidate the opposition party had sheltered and consolidated around as early as was practicable.

 

But sometimes families are at their strongest precisely because they’ve just come through a knock-down, drag-out argument over the Thanksgiving table. There’s energy, passion, and even a renewed affection among those tilting at each other, a feeling that what you said, even if it didn’t triumph, mattered.

 

There are long-term structural reasons related to globalization that caused Republicans to enter into a state of civil war then. They are the same reasons why populism has divided right-wing parties across the West in the past decade. In fact, this fight for the soul of the party is ongoing. One hears the battle cries among those who are already partisans for Marco Rubio or JD Vance as a successor to Trump.

 

This civil war within the GOP has, of course, hampered Trump in setting his own agenda. He has often settled for passing the priorities of his party adversaries. But it has also helped to keep him “the main character” in American politics even as his poll numbers dip.

 

The Democrats, meanwhile, have a serious brand problem that hasn’t been solved by Trump’s foray into Iran or the unpopularity of his tariffs. A 2025 CNN poll found that only 16 percent of Americans said Democrats had stronger leaders than Republicans. Even then, more respondents saw incumbent Republicans as the party of change. Maybe Democrats lost their brand as the party of America’s future because they’ve stopped debating about how that future will look. They’ve lost the mantle of the party of change because the party is so settled in its identity.

 

Right now, the Republican Party uneasily, but noisily, accommodates people with differing views on how the global economy should be engaged. Can Democrats even accommodate voters who think girls should compete only on the girls’ team? It’s not clear.

 

What are the Democratic ideas about America’s role in the global economy or as a geostrategic actor? Well, you can have every flavor of globalism offered by the Kennedy School of Government.

 

Sometimes it seems like Democrats have a more progressive and less progressive wing. Sure, AOC and Abigail Spanberger have different priorities. But, for the most part, Democrats revert to a hive mind. In 2020, during the Covid emergency and in the weeks after the death of George Floyd, that meant everyone in the party shifted dramatically to the left and started sharing their pronouns.

 

I think if Democrats want to fix their current brand, when 70 percent of voters view them as “out of touch,” they need to start having big, public fights with each other that give more voters a stake in the party and its future. One of the downsides of the progressive faith that the arc of the universe bends their way is that it gives incumbents the sense that their triumph is assured by capital-H History. Anyone who thinks differently feels left behind.