New Year's resolutions
Simple but Not Easy
Here are six resolutions for Democrats in 2026.
1. Upgrade from affordability to financial freedom. Affordability is a hot potato tossed between parties. Financial freedom could be a governing agenda for Democrats. I lay out a 10-word agenda for financial freedom in a series of five Substacks: treat cost disease, reduce the debt, and save Social Security.
2. Stop treating the electorate as a patchwork of demographic groups to be courted. (The demo currently filling pollsters’ slide decks: young men). Start emphasizing the freedom and equality of each individual. We are all born free & equal. The circumstances of your birth should not determine the condition of your life. We as Americans are in covenant with one another to defend these natural rights.
3. Take back patriotism & public safety. MAGA’s corruption and blood & soil populism can be beaten with constitutional patriotism and respect for the rule of law.
4. Take sides in the clash between IRL & digital dopamine. Choose IRL. Bulldoze the merchants & miners of digital dopamine, in part through my federal legislation. And build IRL – new cities & a sense of belonging.
5. Be able to say two things MAGA’s gotten right and two things Democrats have gotten wrong. To earn a governing majority, Democrats need to win over independents who agree with the president on some issues. If we are reflexively & rigidly partisan, we lose credibility. My two where MAGA’s gotten it right: the federally funded savings accounts for poor children and the National Science Foundation’s new Tech Labs program. My two where Democrats got it wrong: early-decade policies to open the borders and close the schools.
6. Win the freaking midterms! Relentlessly pressure congressional Republicans – on Venezuela, Ukraine, tariffs, drug pricing, Medicaid, gerrymandering, free speech, RFK Jr., and more. Deliver where we have power as mayors & governors. And elevate Majority Democrats who can define the new center & govern for a generation, not just a cycle.
We have to get behind Jake!
Stop talking and complaining and pointing a finger in one direction and making lists...do something. Enough with the talk and preaching.
Corruption is America's biggest problem.
Not affordabilty.