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With U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rating at record lows amid high inflation spiked by an unpopular war, many pundits view the upcoming midterm elections as the only serious emergency brake left for the nation.

But even if, as expected, Democrats win substantial victories in the House and possibly the Senate—and if Trump doesn’t follow through on his threats to call it fraud and somehow nullify the vote—the nation may still be heading into a political morass.

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rating at record lows amid high inflation spiked by an unpopular war, many pundits view the upcoming midterm elections as the only serious emergency brake left for the nation.

But even if, as expected, Democrats win substantial victories in the House and possibly the Senate—and if Trump doesn’t follow through on his threats to call it fraud and somehow nullify the vote—the nation may still be heading into a political morass.

Rather than rallying around a common direction—other than opposition to Trump—the Democratic Party appears to lack anything like a coherent governing philosophy or compelling leadership. On the contrary, even on the verge of victory on Nov. 3, Democrats seem to be coming apart at the seams ideologically, making a party that is fractious in the best of times much more so today. It is racked by deep fissures between moderates and candidates allied with left-wing populist forces such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), including major divisions over taxes, health care, and Israel.

In a bruising Senate primary race in Michigan, for example, most establishment Democrats backed Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate. The DSA-aligned candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, a public health official who ran on a progressive platform of Medicare for All and major new taxes on the rich, barely squeaked out a win. That costly battle, along with El-Sayed’s controversial criticism of Israel, has dampened his support among centrist voters in a tightening race against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. The state’s former Democratic chair, Lon Johnson, even urged Michiganders not to vote for El-Sayed, saying that doing so would surrender “our party to ideological extremism.”

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed holds a campaign town hall event in Ionia, Michigan, on Oct. 11.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The Democrats have this incredible capacity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Sidney Milkis, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. “I’m worried about voters’ reaction to the Democratic socialist insurgency. Michigan’s a really important race for control of the Senate. El-Sayed is a good candidate, but he has a lot of baggage.”

Many younger voters are openly dismissive of those who, in the absence of any other national figure, remain placeholders at the top of the party: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. (Schumer’s unfavorability ratings have soared since 2025, and Jeffries’s ratings are only slightly better.)

Much of the party’s direction depends on the size of the Democratic victory, if one occurs,........

© Foreign Policy