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The direction of the Democrat Party is the talk of the 2026 midterms. Will it go farther left or somehow moderate? The simple answer is that Democrat Party will move even farther left.
As the nation considers this question, it is a mistake to look at the current Democrat Party in a vacuum. We should not be focused on individual candidates. The focus should be on the trend.
What is happening in the modern Democrat Party is the natural progression of parties on the left.
Consider this: In 1887, President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, vetoed a drought relief bill stating that “Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people.”
New York City Democratic Socialists hold a rally in Union Square on Nov. 16, 2025, to mark the start of a campaign to tax the rich and win universal childcare. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu)
Cleveland’s message was stark. Government was not our brother’s keeper.
A half century later, however, the times and the Democrat Party changed dramatically, with government support of the people at the center of their policies. The first major step toward occurred when Democrats used taxpayer dollars to provide government jobs under Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.
A decade later, when passing the Employment Act of 1946, the Democrat Congress declared: “that it is the continuing policy and responsibility of the federal government to use all practicable means…to promote maximum employment.”
The second major step came during the 1960s with the Democrats’ passage of Great Society legislation, which changed Democrats’ focus from jobs to welfare. Since then, the size of the welfare state has exploded. All the while, the Democrats have convinced voters they could vote themselves rich.
Here is why there will be no turning back from that for the Democrat Party.
1. The Democrats are the party of government
Government is the largest industry in America today – by far. Tech is less than 10% of the economy. Government spending, local, state and federal, is around 35% of the economy.
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Our governments are also the largest employers in the United States. One third of all those government employees are unionized. Their bounty of union dues is then used to make campaign contributions to Democrats. Indeed, over 95% of government union contributions go to Democrats.
The Democrats know that unions seek to grow their ranks, which would result in even larger amounts of political donations for Democrats. The Democrat Party is not going to bite that hand that feeds them. As a result, the Democrats will remain the party of ever larger government employment.
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2. The party no longer controls candidates or campaign finances
As I wrote recently, the political parties have lost control over campaign spending. We live in the age of the super PACs, which includes union PACs.
The Democrats know that unions seek to grow their ranks, which would result in even larger amounts of political donations for Democrats.
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In the olden days, before 2010 and Citizens United, the political parties were the super PACs. The parties received the vast majority of contributions and decided which candidates got money and endorsements.
Now super PACs fund the candidates more than the political parties. As a result, socialist/communist candidates like New York Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who were not favored by the Democrat Party establishment, can overcome the party influence and win major offices and primaries.
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This cycle, the success of candidates not preferred by the Democrat Party is almost exclusively on the left, in significant part, because the party lost control to super PACs and the reasons below.
3. The farthest left activists are the most active
It is the nature of political parties that (a) the base of each party is more to the left or right of their party’s establishment, and (b) is more politically active and motivated than their party’s establishment.
They also show up in greater numbers to vote in party primaries than the moderate voters of their party. That has always been so.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a press conference to ask for the release of Federal Counterterrorism Funding in New York City, Sept. 1, 2026. (REUTERS/Heather Khalifa)
That gives the edges of both parties a greater say on who wins primaries. In today’s Democrat Party, that means the far left of their party is deciding primaries. They also want to move the party further left.
According to a 2025 Gallup poll, among liberal Democrats, 45% wanted their party to become more liberal, 22% wanted it to stay the same and 30% wanted it to become more moderate. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents overall, however, 45% wanted the party to become more moderate, 29% wanted it to become more liberal and 22% wanted it to stay the same.
Among liberal Democrats, that means 67% wanted the party to remain as liberal as it was or become more liberal.
According to a 2025 Gallup poll, “Liberal Democrats would prefer that their party become more liberal (45%) or stay the same as it is now (22%) rather than be more moderate (30%).”
That means 67% of liberal Democrats like how liberal the Democrat Party is now or want it to be more liberal.
4. Once you become the party of handouts, only more handouts will do
Elections are about the future. Almost all voters want to know what you are going to do for them tomorrow.
For Democrats, who have been promising government assistance to voters for 90 years, with each new election and each new candidate, the only path to victory has become promising more than whatever was promised yesterday.
They are not alone in that addictive spiral toward socialism.
That was the path of the Labor Party of England over the last century. Long before that, it was the path of those on the left just before the end of the ancient Greek Democracy and the left in the years before the end of the Roman Republic.
Stated simply, there is no path to victory for a Democrat candidate who promises to spend less. History also demonstrates that today’s socialist is never extravagant enough for tomorrow’s socialist.
5. The party of class warfare and socialism almost never turns back
Finally, socialists and communists rarely change their stripes. Note how the 1901 platform of the first Socialist Party of America reads like the DSA platform of today, including this 125-year-old pledge: “The collective ownership of all means of transportation and communication and all other public utilities as well as of all industries controlled by monopolies, trusts, and combines.”
It is the nature of political parties that (a) the base of each party is more to the left or right of their party’s establishment, and (b) is more politically active and motivated than their party’s establishment.
Also, reaching the socialist goal has always meant ever greater government control of the economy. As that occurs, the economy weakens under the burdens of big government, employment then lags under weak economic growth and the calls for ever-larger welfare state grow louder.
That is a lesson of history.
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At the center of that dynamic has always been the Party of Government. That is the Democrat Party of today, which is repeating an age-old pattern in pursuit of power.
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So, do not expect the modern Democrat Party to change direction. It has been more than 100 years in the making, and it is gaining steam towards its destination – the Party of Socialism.
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Thomas G. Del Beccaro is the author of “The Lessons of the American Civilization” and “The Divided Era.” He ran against Kamala Harris in the 2016 U.S. Senate race in California.
