Let me start with an oldie but a goodie. I was watching “Casablanca” while working out just now. (TCM’s Valentine’s Day fare seems to be complicated love stories. The movie before it was “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”) While I am fully aware of the critique of the colonialist subtext when the patrons in Rick’s bar are led in singing “Le Marseillaise” by Victor Laszlo, it still gets to me every time. And each time I have watched this seen in the past year, I have felt this strong sense that although the movie is full of pro-American jingo-ism, if the movie were made today, jackbooted thugs from our own modern Gestapo would be the ones freedom-lovers would be seeking to defy and drown out. Our government is now the greatest enemy America and Americans face and frankly, it’s not even close. Recent weeks have been a pretty harsh reminder of that with serial efforts by Trump and his lackeys and enablers systematically destroying protection after protection the people of the U.S. have sought and benefited from. They removed protections against the climate crisis. They have let lapse our last remaining vital nuclear arms agreement. They have undermined our alliances (even when trying to pretend otherwise as in the case of Marco Rubio this weekend.) They have undercut vital health protections. They have attacked the rule of law. They are planning the most major assault on the right to vote in our modern history. They have debased our government with corruption and incompetence, attacked the Congress with contempt and lies. As I have argued before, they have crossed the line from being political adversaries to being the enemy within our borders. It is important we recognize this because it underscores what kind of moment this is. It is vital that they be defeated. There is no good or acceptable Plan B. (I’d add that there is a useful reminder in the reference to colonialism above. It is true that the French patriotism we cheer in the movie lies atop a foundation of French control of a nation that was entitled to but had been denied the right of self-determination since 1912. But, had the Germans won the war and taken control of all of France, Morocco would never have had the chance to become independent as it did just 11 years after the conclusion of World War II. Why is it relevant? Because in a world of manifold injustices and enemies, we have to set priorities and defeat the most dangerous and urgent ones first so we have a chance to get to the others. Translation: Nothing nor any single issue should stop those of us who care about the future of this country from defeating Trump and MAGA both in 2026 and 2028. Then we can get to the business of fixing the many other often grave problems we face.)
There are groups of Dems here in DC and outside the Beltway that have taken up efforts to prepare for remaking the government once Trump is gone. This is a worthy task. The damage Trump, MAGA and the GOP has done is so massive that it will not only take a concerted effort to fix it but we must enter office with a real concrete plan. If we spend the first years of the next Dem presidency (should we be fortunate enough to have one) debating plans we will get nowhere, the weakening of the country will continue and another far right government will be waiting in the wings. I’m participating in some of these efforts and leading a couple. As a consequence, I see some real problems emerging. First, too many of the policy and political folks involved are caught up in their own habits and legacies to provide the new thinking we critically need. Going back to the way we did things under Biden or Obama is not the answer. Hitting reset on US AID or State or DoD or HHS is not the answer. We need new ideas and structures to help us meet new challenges…and we need to recognize that budgetary and practical constraints and the march of progress in the world has made going backwards a foolish idea. Another reason that a lot of these groups revert to old formulations is that many of the folks in these groups are not there to break new ground or imagine a new America or US government. They’re there to get a job in the next administration. For most DC Dems, Project 2029 centers on their own future employment prospects. Not only is this not great because it should not be the priority and because we really need new thinking and thinkers, it is also not great because too many “savvy DC insiders” realize that the only way to get confirmed is to not be too bold or controversial. (That’s why DC think tanks produce so many bland and unreadable monographs and studies. They don’t ever want to stick their neck out for fear that doing so will lead to static when it comes time for the Senate to approve them. That’s why so little actual thinking goes on in think tanks. Many are, as I have said before, just large meat lockers in which we store former government officials and academics who hope to someday be future government officials.) The whole thing makes me think we might want to consider term limits for the policy community. Once you’ve been in a couple of administrations, then you just time out and we’d be forced to get the turnover we need. That’ll never happen. The ambition of the average DC denizen won't allow it (nor will the self-interests of those who spend so much time cultivating them). So, rather than taking it as a serious suggestion, take this whole point as an admonition that if you are in such a group, keep your eyes on the future and reward creativity and big ideas and if you are not but you start seeing the reports, ask yourself who the authors are and how their self-interests have likely shaped the conclusions they reached.
I know that’s pretty “inside the Beltway” but what’s the point of having me live around here if not to provide such points of view. That said, let me offer two more related points. First, most of these discussions get way way down in the weeds. What we need are big ideas and big picture thinking. The rest will take care of themselves. (To take one example: Don’t rebuild, US AID. But by all means reallocate the funds to do the vital work it was doing. Best path: allocate it to bureaus at the State Department to better connect the spending to the foreign policy goals of the US. Let them spend the money and where possible do so by allocating it to creative problems solvers closer to the issues being addressed.) What is more for those coming up with ideas in 2026 and then in 2027 and 2028…try to give special focus to those that can actually help Democrats win. (See point 1 above.) That means, in each discussion ask, “Does this matter to voters?” If it doesn’t, it may be important but it is secondary to winning. We need to triage our work.
In addition, a friend suggested one Project 2029 that is essential and frankly, I’m not aware it exists. That is one that focuses on the issue of accountability. We need a plan to identify abuses and corruption and then determine how to remove, prosecute and penalize members of the Trump Team and their co-conspirators and collaborators and enablers. Again, see point 1 above. The next transition in Washington will not be a normal one. There will be massive efforts to destroy records, pardon officials who did criminal things, steal, and sabotage. It has already started. We need folks planning now how to ensure that a clear message is sent that we cannot and must not ever go back to the serial destruction of our institutions and the staggering contempt for the rule of law in America that we are seeing now. Accountability must not be an afterthought and old school thinking must not leave us open to precisely what happened between 2020 and 2024.
Oh, did I hurt some of your feelings by suggesting that President Biden and some on his team failed us by not realizing that perhaps their primary job was to keep Trump from returning to office—because he was/is the greatest threat we face? Sorry not sorry. Democrats who do not recognize the nature of this moment or what our priorities should be must be called out and asked/forced to step aside. If you think this in contradiction to the point above about winning at all costs, that’s wrong. We do not harm the party by calling out those we see as being too soft or misguide or not as capable as others and challenging them, primary-ing them. We want candidates who can win, of course. But, we also need candidates who will do what is necessary should they win. (No more Fettermans or Manchins, please.) We can handle it as a party and as a country. Furthermore, the country is not in the same place it was. (That’s how you go from Eric Adams to Zohran Mamdani in New York…or produces massive swings to Dems in district after district countrywide.) Voters realize that we face an existential threat and we have a government that does not give a fuck about them unless they are billionaires who bend the knee to Trump. They also realize that we face new problems—from AI to the rise of China to the degree of income inequality that has turned into unprecedented political inequality. So they too are ready for and more open than ever to new approaches and the honest debates that can help address those things.)
As my friend Mike Tomasky puts it in an excellent piece in The New Republic and as AOC made it clear in her effective and well-received speech at the Munich Security Conference, attending to the needs of working-class Americans—to all Americans who are not privileged who are coddled by our system—is essential. Read Mike’s piece. It’s worth your time. And he makes a key point. Right now most Americans do not believe our system is working for them. They believe it is rigged. Because it is rigged. While the current and recent administrations bend over backwards to help those who already have much, most Americans today are stalked by, tormented in one way or another by economic insecurity. It’s appalling. Like the obscene inequality in this country and directly tied to it, is a failure of our system. Ask around. Who do you know that does not fear that a serious health crisis could wipe them out, that they may never be able to own a home, that owning or renting a home is making it impossible for them to afford other daily needs. Tens of millions of Americans can’t afford energy costs. Aged and aging Americans fear that they will live in poverty as they get older. That’s the reality. Not just for the poor. For middle-class and even upper-middle-class Americans, too. Politics today is about unrigging our system. It is about ensuring that as a democracy should, the needs of the many are addressed and not shunted aside by the disproportionate power of big corporations and big donors. This is a country riven by social crisis and the failure of our political system. These issues and not just halfway measures and slogans are what voters want to see addressed. It is a time for clarity, courage and boldness.
HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Saturday, February 14, 2026
A Dose of Hard Truths
