Democratic Party Unity or Debate? Yes to both.

Democrats need to unify around core principals, but also have a serious debate about our party’s future

I started writing an article about Democratic unity early last week, and as we drifted into the trainwreck over the Continuing Resolution, I thought to myself: I need to do a serious rewrite once the smoke clears. The problem is that the wreck was big enough that the smoke hasn’t quite cleared yet. What a fucking mess.

As I wrote the day of Schumer’s decision, I strongly disagree with what he did for all kinds of reasons, and I obviously wasn’t the only one. One of the most important jobs of a party leader is to unify your party. Hakeem Jeffries, to his great credit, had done that in the House to a remarkable extent. And the Senate Democrats were mostly unified as well, but Chuck Schumer chose to blow that all up.

However, it is time to move on. Democrats and progressives have to move forward and unite in the fight against Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and MAGA. Because we are quite literally facing that point, as Ben Franklin famously said after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, where we all need to hang together or we will all hang separately.

So what do we do?

The answer to this question of unifying vs debating the party’s future is that on some really important things, we absolutely need to have unity. But outside of that, we also need to have an engaged debate, because we clearly have big disagreements. We need to walk and chew gum at the same time, as the old saying goes.

What Unity Should Look Like

The most important thing right now is having unity on the big votes coming up in Congress. The House and Senate Democratic caucuses need to be united in opposing the big Republican budget bills, and in any votes on the power-grabbing dismantling of governmental agencies by DOGE. We have to stick together on these hugely important issues and force the Republicans to either own the misery they are about to impose on Americans, or to fail in what they are trying to do.

A close second in importance is sticking together in a message around fighting against cuts in benefits. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Administration health care. These benefit cut fights are the central economic issue the 2026 election is going to be fought over, and we need the entire Democratic Party in clear, loud, and passionate opposition to these benefit cuts.

Finally, there should be unity on the outrageous examples of civil liberties violations like the one that just happened with the detention of Mahmoud Khalill, and the scandalous lack of due process and ignoring of a court order on the Venezuelans being deported. If that’s not a “first they came for…” situation, I don’t know what is. Democrats all need to be loud and united in taking on clear cut moves toward fascist authoritarianism.

What Debate Should Look Like

Let me start by saying that even with emotions running understandably high, Democrats need to treat each other with respect in the debate within our party. In the matter of whether Trump and MAGA are ultimately defeated, there are just two teams: those who want Trump defeated and those who want him to win. Let’s be focused on winning the ultimate battle, even as we argue vigorously on how best to achieve that goal.

The first big question facing our party is how fierce, loud, and passionate we should be in our opposition. My answer is that we need to be FIERCE, LOUD, AND PASSIONATE AS FUCK. There are those who argue that we should lay low right now, and let Trump destroy himself. As I have argued elsewhere, I think when the fascists are in a full scale assault on our democratic form of government, it is the last time we should be quiet.

But while focusing on the existential battle with Trump, Musk, and MAGA, we also need to have a debate over whether we are truly going to be the party for working people again. There are two important parts to that debate. The first is on economics and the second is on the culture war issues that Republicans talk about excessively.

The Economic Debate

On economics, Democrats have debated for 30 years whether they should be a pro-working families party or whether they should sidle up to Wall Street, Big Tech, and corporate power. Democrats need to decide once and for all whether we are going to be the party that stands up for working folks when their lives get messed up by powerful corporations and the top 1% gaming the system:

• Are we going to fight corporate monopolies/oligopolies when they jack up prices and crush small businesses?

• Are we going to insist that people with over $50 million in assets finally start paying taxes on their wealth, and that corporations have to pay at least a minimum tax on their profits?

• Are we going to stop corporations from abusing workers and consumers with non-compete clauses, junk fees, wage theft, cheating them on overtime pay, etc?

• Are we going to go to the wall and fight, really fight, for the labor movement?

• Are we going to make an all-out push for not only a minimum wage increase, but for indexing the minimum wage to inflation and to giving the full minimum wage to restaurant workers?

• Are Democrats going to fight for trade deals that put workers first rather than big multinational corporations?

Democrats have to clearly, strongly, passionately ask the age-old question: which side are you on? And the answer better damn well be the side of working people. There are still those in the party who want us to soft-peddle a populist approach to corporate power. We need to have this debate now, because this party will not win by being squishy on these issues.

I get that not everyone is going to frame this debate as starkly as I just did. I know there is nuance on some economic policy questions. But there is a clear debate right now in Democratic circles over whether we should be more friendly toward Wall St, Big Tech, and other corporate powerhouses – the way people like Third Way, Larry Summers, and Jason Furman have been advocating – or whether we should be more strongly pro-worker and pro-labor the way I am advocating. An example of thoughtful debate among economists on this score is Gene Sperling’s outstanding response to a Jason Furman column attacking Biden pro-worker policies.

Both on policy and on politics, I think the progressive populist approach is the way to go. NAFTA didn’t help American workers and has become a millstone around the neck of the Democratic Party among working class voters. Deregulating Wall Street led to the 2008 financial crash. Bailing out banks while not helping people who lost homes and jobs led to Democrats being killed in the 2010 elections and ultimately led to Donald Trump.

Democrats have to decide which side we are on and join the damn fight.

The Social Issue Debate

The other big debate we need to have is what we do about the culture issues Republicans love to talk about incessantly: immigration, crime, and transgender rights. This is also at the core of how Democrats relate to working class voters.

Based on the research my organization, American Family Voices, has done with working class voters, I believe that leading with economic issues – and making it clear that Democrats will fight for working families on those economic issues – will help us overcome our weaknesses on the culture war issues. In the most recent polling we have done, a populist economic message is clearly competitive with a Republican culture message among working class voters.

The most important thing working class voters need to understand about Democrats is that we are fighting for them, prioritizing the things that matter the most in their lives. What Republicans and right-wing media have convinced people of is that we care more about everything and everyone else but the issues that will improve their lives. Leading with a fighting-for-you, populist economic message will help us on every other issue.

Having said that, I also believe Democrats need to figure out how to reposition themselves on these issues while not throwing our vulnerable allies under the bus. We have to use language that working class folks relate to, and we need to understand and respect the questions and discomfort a lot of people have on some of these issues without calling people bigots. When we do take unpopular stands on issues, we need to explain why we believe what we believe, what the values are behind our views, rather than just avoiding the subject and hoping it will go away.

People will still vote for us even when they disagree with us on some issues, just like they voted for Trump even if they disagreed with him on many things, but we have to show we are listening. We need to not be condescending or lecturing when we do talk to them about these issues. I don’t agree with James Carville on everything, but I do agree with him when he says we have to stop talking like we are in the university faculty lounge.

We also have to look for positioning on issues that don't immediately drive people away. Two examples from Trump’s first term make the point. Slogans like “abolish ICE” and “defund the police” drove working class people away from us, including significant numbers of Democratic base voters. We need to make the case for not bullying trans kids in schools, and a humane immigration and criminal justice system by making thoughtful policy arguments, not incendiary and overly broad slogans.

We can be a unified party on the issues that matter the most and still have the serious debate we need on how to position ourselves for the future. We have to stick together on what really matters, but we couldn’t avoid debating some things if we tried. Let’s fight hard together to win this battle against Trump and MAGA, while at the same time having the debate over how we win back the voters we need to win elections.