Normie Democrats Are So Back

Turns out the Democratic Party is bigger than its loudest schmucks.

Thanks to Trump, we really did make America great again. 🌊💙🌈🦄

On the morning of Election Day, I was feeling pretty bleak. Not because I doubted Democrats would retake Congress, but because I worried about what kind of Democratic Party would emerge victorious. Would it be a party that welcomed disagreement or one beholden to its most extreme factions?

As it turns out, I’d spent so much time obsessing over Michigan’s admittedly riveting political shitshow that I’d allowed one state’s drama to overshadow what was happening across the country.

Here’s some of the amazing victories:

• First Black woman ever elected governor in U.S. history: Keisha Lance Bottoms (Georgia)

• Three Black women elected to Georgia’s top statewide offices: Keisha Lance Bottoms (governor), Tanya Miller (attorney general), and Penny Brown Reynolds (secretary of state)

• First openly gay male U.S. senator: Chris Pappas (New Hampshire)

• First Native American woman governor in U.S. history: Deb Haaland (New Mexico)

• First Native American woman U.S. senator: Peggy Flanagan (Minnesota)

• First Latina governor of Texas: Gina Hinojosa

• First Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since 1988: James Talarico

• First woman and Jewish governor of Ohio: Amy Acton

• First woman elected to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina: Annie Andrews

• First Latino elected governor of California: Xavier Becerra

• First Democratic U.S. senator elected from Kansas in 94 years: Adam Hamilton

• First Black governor of Wisconsin: David Crowley

• First Black governor of Nevada: Aaron Ford

• First woman governor of Minnesota: Amy Klobuchar

• First Paralympic gold medalist elected to the U.S. Senate: Josh Turek (Iowa)

• Three Black women serving simultaneously in the U.S. Senate for the first time: Juliana Stratton (Illinois), Angela Alsobrooks (Maryland), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (Delaware)

• First state represented by two women of color in the U.S. Senate: Illinois, with Juliana Stratton and Tammy Duckworth

And with Democrats taking back the House, Hakeem Jeffries will become the first Black speaker of the House.

peter f✡︎x@thatpeterfox

“A setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback.” Pinning that to my fridge.

2:08 PM · Nov 4, 2026 · 101 Views

For months, I’ve heard Jewish friends describe themselves as politically homeless. I understand why. But I’ve never felt that way, because I’ve never confused the Democratic Party with the DSA or the anti-Zionist left. I don’t need to abandon my political home just because some of the people in it are behaving like sleazeballs.

I support the party of Jeffries, which apparently makes me a genocide-adjacent corporate shill and neoliberal cuck. Or is it neoconservative? I’ve never been entirely clear on the difference. And here I thought I was just a Democrat.

For the past year, much of gen-z and the self-proclaimed “dirtbag left” has treated Hakeem Jeffries as everything wrong with the Democratic Party. The same self-righteous “shitlibs” who never shut up about fighting racism have been perfectly ok reducing a distinguished Black politician to a puppet of Jewish money and shadowy Zionist interests. Apparently, Black leaders should be celebrated until they dare to think differently than you.

Now, with this massive blue wave, we have an opportunity to recalibrate what kind of party we’re building and who gets to define it. The loudest voices aren’t the most representative and shouldn’t be dictating the rules for the majority. I never want to see a Democrat campaign with Hasan Piker ever again. It is disqualifying.

This moment demands political courage and the willingness to call bullshit, even when doing so makes your own side livid. We should be able to celebrate a historic Democratic victory without pretending every Democrat deserves our applause.

It was reassuring to see that the Democrats who succeeded largely included moderates and progressives who understood the value in treating people outside your ideological tribe as potential allies rather than enemies.

Michigan’s Mishegas

*Wipes proverbial sweat off forehead*

There’s a lot to unpack here

For starters, let’s make one thing clear: both Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed ran extremely bigoted campaigns. The difference is that now one of them likely has a lifetime seat within the Senate.

Neither antisemitism nor islamophobia is ok. These are not competing injustices. You can condemn both. It’s actually pretty easy. I just did it in two sentences.

To be clear though, I don’t think Abdul hates Jews. But I certainly don’t think he has much respect for us, either.

He knew he could spread conspiracy theories and ostracize the community without losing his base of support because jews are a small minority. Congrats on being proven right.

He was cool enough, hot enough, smart enough, and charismatic enough to sell voters a compelling message of grievances that paid off.

Even his campaign’s core slogan, “Money Out of Politics. Money in Your Pocket,” veers into implicitly antisemitic territory when you realize he’s suggesting that Jewish special interests and American aid to Israel are the reasons your life sucks.

No, the reason your life sucks is because decades of rising housing costs, unaffordable healthcare, and wages failing to keep pace with inflation have priced younger generations out of opportunities our parents and grandparents took for granted. I realize that’s less catchy on a bumper sticker, but it’s the truth.

American aid to Israel amounts to roughly 0.05% of the federal budget.

Israelis are not the reason we don’t have Medicare for All, you schmuck!

El-Sayed is far too educated not to understand the scale of the federal budget. And yet this kind of rhetoric invites people to get BIG MAD at Israel over problems that have been festering in America for generations.

I understand why people like him. He’s smart af (now the most highly educated member of the Senate) and Daddy AF (full respect for his bowling ball shoulders and meat rack triceps). But education level and intellect sadly aren’t a substitute for moral decency. You can have a PhD from Oxford and still be a fear-mongering asshole.

Unfortunately, we will likely be stuck with this schmuck for the rest of our lives. With his narcissistic Main Character Energy, he’ll spend his political career trying to remake the Democratic Party in his own image, treating everyone else as disposable extras in The Abdul El-Sayed Show.

Whether he uses his influence to build bridges or burn them down remains to be seen. I would love to be pleasantly surprised.

My concerns with El-Sayed have never been simply his views on Israel. It’s how he treats people who disagree with him. He’s a bully with callous disregard for the people he finds disposable. He treated his former opponent Haley Stevens like dogshit, even after she graciously endorsed him and campaigned for him. Rather than welcoming an ally, he made her feel unwanted. Stevens bears responsibility for her own erratic handling of the fallout, but the last-minute spectacle she created doesn’t absolve El-Sayed of scrutiny, especially when he’s the one who started this shit. He’s incredibly arrogant, which is not something you want in a politician. I have very little respect for politicians who demand solidarity while treating their own allies as disposable. Elected officials are supposed to be humbled by the people they represent, not act as though everyone owes them loyalty.

And if this is how he treats fellow Democrats who disagree with him, imagine what coalition-building with him in Washington will look like.

Notice how James Talarico ran on a progressive platform without making entire communities feel unwelcome. That’s because this isn’t about personal identity or how far left you are. It’s about basic decency.

But Haley Stevens is Cray-Cray THO

Hot take: I think Haley Stevens had the right read on Abdul El-Sayed and the potential threat he poses to the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, her handling of the situation was a disaster.

She should have raised her concerns weeks earlier in a written statement — like she later did — instead of stumbling through a series of frazzled, incoherent TV appearances, 2 days before the election struggling to explain her decision to endorse Mike Rogers. If she wanted to demonstrate her loyalty to the Democratic Party, she could have withdrawn her support for El-Sayed and spent the final days campaigning for Democrats in Texas and elsewhere.

I don’t buy the simplistic narrative that Stevens was merely a sore loser. If anything, Abdul was a sore winner. She supported El-Sayed after losing the primary, only to feel she’d been treated with contempt in return. From her perspective, she was confronting a bully with abhorrent views.. Her concerns weren’t without merit.

So no, I don’t think she’s a traitor. Far from it. While incredibly reckless, I think she reached her breaking point and made a desperate attempt to take a stand, likely believing that a coming blue wave would give Democrats enough seats to withstand losing Michigan. That’s speculation, of course. Her public explanations hardly clarified what she was thinking. Unfortunately, she set her own political career on fire and became toxic to the party she loves. The irony is that many of the Democrats celebrating victories across the country ran campaigns closer in temperament to Stevens’ than to El-Sayed’s.

Random thought: All this drama could’ve been avoided if Pete Buttigieg ran. He would’ve won easily. Instead he has his sights on the white house. Foolish.

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For the first time in years, I’m excited about the Democratic Party’s future. Look at the emerging talent: Jon Ossoff, Wes Moore, James Talarico, Keisha Lance Bottoms. There’s no shortage of intriguing potential contenders for 2028. Days ago it seemed like there was no one.

Tuesday proved that Democrats can win in places once considered unwinnable when they put up candidates who promote common sense instead of appealing to extreme positions.

I feel much better about the direction of the Democratic Party today than I did yesterday.

The party is much bigger than its loudest bigots, but that doesn’t mean the problems have disappeared. The tolerance for antisemitism within parts of the Democratic coalition remains deeply disturbing. I’m not about to pretend otherwise just because we had a historic night.

The Democratic Party hasn’t cured itself of antisemitism. But it’s a hell of a lot healthier than many of us gave it credit for.

Pluralism beats tribalism every time.