A poster from 1935 introduced Americans to the Social Security program.

The Democratic Party is at a crossroads.

Republican cuts to education, Medicaid and agriculture programs will deeply harm areas of the nation that now vote Republican. Further, most people already despise Elon Musk acting as co-president. Less than four months into Donald Trump's presidency, we're facing more inflation, economic chaos and a teetering democracy.

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Blowback against Republicans in the midterm elections is likely. However, waiting for the Republicans to implode — as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has advocated — is not a sound strategy for the Democrats.

Assuming Trump leaves office voluntarily, the Democrats will return to an unstable political system. To address that problem, we first need to look at how we got here.

Ronald Reagan convinced the American people that government was the cause of all manner of problems. All we needed to do was diminish government and unleash the free market.

Bill Clinton proclaimed that Democrats needed to be........

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