The midterm election is the Democratic Party's to lose. They might lose it anyway.

In 2026, the wind in their sails after a couple of off-season, special election victories (mostly in deep blue areas), Democratic Party leadership announced they would not be releasing the party’s audit and report of what went wrong in 2024.

It might have been a mistake.

Voting Democrats may not know exactly why the report was shelved without being published, but they know the results couldn’t have been good. By virtue of burying the report alone, progressives (and conservatives, for that matter) were left to wonder.

Most speculation includes some version of the following: “Democrats swung too far left in 2024.”

Of course, far left progressive activists have been fighting this casual assessment tooth and nail. By not publishing the report, the Democratic Party basically admitted that to be the case.

If the cause had been a poorly managed digital media strategy, the weakness of Kamala Harris as a candidate, the concealment of Joe Biden’s infirmity from progressive voters (conservatives knew, of course. Biden’s decline was well-covered by right-leaning media outlets), party infighting, or some other innocuous cause unlikely to create further controversy and division within the the Democratic Party, the DNC would have published it.

And that’s too bad.

Understanding what went wrong in 2024 that allowed Donald Trump the chance to return to power might have strengthened the party.

But pretending they know best-- while the Democratic Party continues to lose voters to the Republican Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, and others, while public trust in once-strong party policies like education--is what establishment Democratic Party leadership does best.

After all, they haven’t seen fit to trust progressive voters to select a primary candidate since 2008. Tampering with the Democratic Party nomination process to help establishment-favored candidates, from Hillary Clinton to Joe Biden, took the party in a certain direction.

Away from populist candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In 2024, the Democratic Party flat-out refused to let voters choose. Democratic Party leadership pivoted from “shut up and get behind Joe Biden” to “shut up and shill for Kamala Harris” in about three seconds flat after it  became clear — to everyone — that the Biden debate mess couldn’t possibly be cleaned up and the then-President’s obvious deterioration could not be concealed any longer.

Now, of course, voting Democrats are mad. But they are mad at Donald Trump when they should be more angry with their party leaders.

Donald Trump is a useful scapegoat for Democratic Party leadership. At times, this has been an effective strategy. 

At other times, not so much.

After all, it was President Joe Biden who threw the border wide open, provoking a humanitarian crisis of epic proportion and letting an unprecedented, unimaginable number of unvetted people into the country without a reasonable pathway to citizenship or any plan as how to handle such a massive, sudden influx.

Democrats probably assumed that the nation’s border troubles would continue be born by benighted border communities, most of which went red long ago so who cares? Except, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott started sending the overflow of illegal immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities.

And the problem came home to roost with the Democratic Party at last.

Democrats are now hoping that President Donald Trump will screw up enough, or at least alienate enough voters to swing the pendulum back progressive’s way. But how did they think 15 million people admitted into the country without a proper path to citizenship was going to end?

Democrats haven’t been able — or willing — to pass mass amnesty measures. Ever. Not even when they controlled both Congressional branches and the Oval Office after Biden took the oath in 2021.

And that was for the “Dreamers” who were already here and, in some cases, had been for decades.

Former Obama aide de camp Susan Rice is threatening to bring the full force and legal might of the U.S. government down on those individuals and companies deemed to be “bending the knee to Donald Trump" if Democrats return to power.

Unmentioned is the unfortunate fact that President Joe Biden, on his way out of office, preemptively pardoned dozens of people, and more, who had never been accused, let alone charged, with any crime.

It is unlikely that Donald Trump, or any future president, will leave office without doing the same. 

We are now living in a new world in which, in addition to the constitutional requirements to be president, candidates can now expect to face years of crushingly expensive legal battles and the threat of jail once they leave office. They can also expect their tax return information to be leaked.

Democrats aren’t angry enough at their leaders, if indeed they are angry at all — unable, or unwilling perhaps, to see beyond the red haze of rage progressive media outlets have foisted onto the public about Donald Trump.

If they did take a hard look, they might consider just how much Democratic Party leaders have let them down.

California is a mess. Michigan is no better. Minnesota has an embarrassing fraud problem. The Chicago Bears are considering leaving Chicago.

Yet somehow, Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Gretchen Whitmer (D-Michigan), Tim Walz (D-MN), and Jared Pritzker are considered the future of the Democratic Party.

Unless someone does something, one of those names is likely to be at the top of the Democratic Party ticket in 2028, whatever progressive primary voters may want.

A scant handful of progressives are willing to call out “The Democrats’ Fraud Problem: Ignoring it will not make it go away,” (Ruy Teixeira, the Liberal Patriot) or “Californians Deserve Better Than Economic Fairy Tales: California, like a careless heir who squanders a fortune, keeps menacing its top taxpayers. Unless lawmakers start showing some restraint, the state’s many economic strengths are likely to further erode,” (Bloomberg Editorial Board), most are staying mum.

Hoping, no doubt, that Donald Trump and the Republicans will squander whatever political good fortune they won in 2024. That might happen. 

Then again, it might not.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)