The midterm elections are over. Yes, some returns are still being counted, but the outcome was clear before midnight on Tuesday. Democrats across the country crushed their Republican opponents, in many cases by running on “top vs. bottom” economic populism. Victorious candidates—including James Talarico in Texas, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Troy Jackson in Maine, and Sherrod Brown in Ohio—pledged to take on the corporate corruption that has rigged the game against regular Americans. This message worked, even in Republican-leaning districts where Democrats were badly outspent, like Michigan’s 7th, which Sunrise co-founder Will Lawrence managed to flip despite over $23 million in Republican outside spending, the most faced by any House candidate this cycle.
With these electoral triumphs, Democrats have seized the initiative. Now, they have to decide what to do with it—and already we are seeing very different answers to this question.
On one side is Team Small Potatoes. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii went on CNN recently to articulate this uninspiring view. “I do not think it is time to propose things that the President of the United States is guaranteed to veto,” said Schatz, who is ...