Lessons from 2026 Midterm elections

Remember the Bollywood movie HUM from the late 1980s where a Jailer played by the legendary actor Dilip Kumar slaps the Evil Dr. Dang ? After receiving the thunder slap Dr. Dang responds - "ISS THAPPAD KI GOONJ SOONI TUMNE" (Did you hear the reverberation of this slap) ? Hopefully Trump has heard the echo of the slap given to him by the American voters in the just concluded midterm as the Democrats swept to majority in both House and the Senate.

Though the midterm was about races for House and several Senate seats and Governors, no doubt it was a referendum on Trump and his policies. This election yet vindicated that aggressive vocal rhetorics and demagoguery may sound influential, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one's influential and followers would stay loyal and numerous forever. Everything has its own expiry date and there can be crack in the wall of loyalty. Nothing lasts forever.
What was the main reason for the Democrat's victory ? Elections boil down to one thing - it's economy stupid. End of the day it's not the GDP or Data centers, it is the price of gas at the local gas station and the cost of grocery at the neighborhood supermarket which matters. Stubbornly high inflation and high gas price due to Iran war hung like an albatross on the voters neck. They breathed a sigh of relief by venting their frustration at the polling booth. One thing was clear - the voters though not very fond of the Democrats didn't show no love lost for Republicans - because of the two "I" - Iran and Inflation.

At the same time Democrats shouldn't be prematurely popping up their Champagne. By taking over the House and the Senate they have their tasks cut out for them. Just opposition to Trump isn't what they should to do. They need to spell out their narratives and agenda, especially about the middle class and the economy - which is their Trump card. Simply being anti-Trump will take them nowhere. It's time they let the keep the voters trust on them with a bipartisan plan for the future, so that they won't get blamed if Trump won't cooperate. Democrats should go back to their drawing board, be the champion of the American middle class, not the party of the woke, or the extreme left. In nutshell, Dems should realize that this is a vote against Trump's policies, not a mandate for socialism. Otherwise they will have the same fate as Republicans. What goes around, comes around.

Going forward both parties need to do some homework from lessons learnt. GOP should be the party of moderates, the party of Abe Lincoln. Democrats shouldn't breathe a sigh of relief that the Republicans are getting decimated. They are being seen more and more as the party of the woke. They should get back to their basics and be the champion of the American middle class who had been the traditional the base of the Democratic Party. America is a Center - Right nation, so harping on defunding the police, unbridled illegal immigration isn't going to help the party on long run. They need to have a coherent messaging for the public rather than sitting and waithing for Trump to fail. Hope both parties have learnt their lessons in this midterm election. May going forward, common sense and bipartisanship prevails and becomes the sine qua non of the elected officials in Washington.