You don’t need to be a political scientist or even a Democrat to know that the Democratic Party has some factional divisions. They are different in nature from the factional divisions among Republicans, which used to be over ideological orientations and policy arguments, but are now over relative degrees of loyalty to the chaotic views and corrupt interests of Donald Trump.

While it’s possible to slice and dice Democrats into multiple tribes, they mostly fall into the rough categories of progressives and centrists (or moderates, or “pragmatic progressives,” or whatever they choose to call themselves). These groups often differ, sometimes vociferously, over economic policy, cultural perspectives, America’s role in the world, and effective political strategies. Tensions between them have understandably been heightened by a painful and extremely consequential defeat in 2024. Ancient grudges between center and left have been revived in the guise of explaining that defeat, though it may have had little or nothing to do with which faction was driving the campaign bus. It’s time, however, for all Democrats to pivot toward the 2026 midterms, in which party unity is both possible and essential.

I cannot count the number of times when self-styled Democratic centrists (the tribe with which I have identified during much of my own career) have blamed Kamala Harris’s defeat on her unwillingness to stand up to The Left, defined as “woke” identity groups bullying politicians to follow their narrow but unpopular agendas (from transgender rights to loosened immigration laws), socialists pursuing big-government panaceas, and critics of America who never understood basic voter patriotism. And you see the mirror image of this blame game in a fairly typical offering at the New Republic this week from progressive organizer........

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