The Big Question After Election Day

Voters sent a clear message with the blue tsunami on Election Day: we want change. Now.

After Tuesday’s spectacular Democratic blowout, I woke up in the part of the antidepressant commercial where everything goes from black and white and into color. And it’s blue.

There’s a lot to celebrate. Democrats took back the House and the Senate, securing huge advantages in both chambers with healthy majorities. Democrats flipped states we never thought possible, like Texas, and one we haven’t won in almost a century— Kansas. And Democrats overcame Trump and Republicans’ shameless gerrymandering scams, winning districts specifically redrawn to ensure exactly the opposite outcome. Historic doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The next question is now what? What should Democrats do next?

Should Democrats launch investigations into the criminal behavior of the Trump administration? Or should they have a concrete agenda, a “to do list”?

Both.

First, we need to restore faith in government, and that starts with holding people to account for their corrupt or criminal behavior. We tried the “let bygones be bygones” approach. We did it in the Biden era, and look where it got us. All it does is embolden bad people to feel like they can act with impunity.

The Oversight and Judiciary Committees should exercise their subpoena and investigative powers and begin building cases that could be sent to a future DOJ or state attorneys general for prosecution. The era of self-dealing, of crypto scams, of kickbacks, and of selling access is over.

Then, we need to do the legislative work.

Yes, it’s still a divided government with a Republican in the White House who’s promised to put the veto to work. I say, let him.

Let Trump try to veto ending the disastrous war in Iran.

Let Trump try to veto unwinding his suffocating tariffs.

Let Trump try to veto the solutions to every single problem voters just told him they want handled.

Then he can leave Republicans holding the bag in 2028, forced to explain why the leader of their party spent the last two years in power vetoing 80/20 issues.

We have two months until the winners are sworn in. Between now and then, I’m going to be talking about what I think Democrats need to do to wield this hard won power effectively. I’ll be talking to those politicians and pressing them on what their plans are. And I’m going to be breaking this all down with experts to understand what we might expect to see from Democrats, and the Republican responses we should brace for. Just because we won doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Winning the election was just the end of one battle. To quote Leonardo DiCaprio, from here on out it’s one battle after another.

And Trump loves nothing more than a fight. He’s really at his best when he’s playing the victim. So he’s certainly not going down without one. We’re just getting started. Time to fight back.