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The one thing Democrats can do to win the election (besides voting)

Another Trump moment

With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, Democratic Party leaders and candidates have been focusing on the issues they think will work best to defeat the Republicans. For example, Democrats have been hammering “affordability” regarding gasoline prices, food prices, healthcare costs, childcare costs, etc., and that is certainly an important issue to stress.

At the same time, Democratic voters have a crucial role to play, besides just showing up to vote. One area where Democrats can make a difference is to get out their computers, tablets or phones and share pictures and videos of Donald Trump. We can hear you ask, “What? I already do that!” Well, we’re talking about specific pictures and videos showing Trump falling asleep, rambling incoherently, and in obvious declining physical and mental health.

This kind of focus on Trump’s physical and cognitive decline should work well for several reasons. First, Republicans (and their media supplicants) hammered President Joe Biden over his age, stamina, and fitness for office, often on very thin evidence, including Biden’s life-long stutter. During the 2024 campaign, Republicans repeatedly argued that age-related concerns about Biden raised questions of leadership and capacity. That messaging proved effective, helping make Biden’s age a defining story of the election cycle and driving Biden out of the race after just one debate with Trump.

Trump’s Iran War brings affordability to the fore

Gas prices causing election havoc

For Donald Trump and the Republicans, the political problem right now is sticky. It’s “affordability”, the new buzzword that takes the place of the less personal-sounding “inflation”.

The same issue that powered Trump’s 2024 campaign is now moving in the wrong direction—and voters are noticing. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 77% of Americans blame Trump for rising gas prices, driven in large part by Trump’s Iran War and disruptions to global oil supply.

Gasoline prices well over $4 per gallon are only part of it. Energy shocks don’t stay contained—they ripple outward into food, transportation, and everyday goods. That broader anxiety is already showing up in more polling, where respondents say the economy is getting worse, and they blame Trump’s policies for these results. Moreover, all this is on top of inflation caused by Trump’s tariffs over the past year or more.

This affordability problem is cutting directly into Trump’s political standing. Multiple surveys now show his approval rating sinking into the 30s, with economic approval even weaker—just 31% approving of his handling of the economy and 27% on inflation. Moreover, this erosion in Trump’s standing is tied to a specific chain of events: a war of choice against Iran that has disrupted oil markets, pushed prices higher, and left Trump without a clear exit.

That connection is what harms Trump and the Republicans politically, because voters can tie Trump’s tariffs and his Iran War to their gas and grocery bills. When oil spikes above $100 a barrel amid instability in the Strait of Hormuz, they experience it as higher prices at home. And when that happens, accountability can be immediate and unforgiving.

There’s even a deeper problem here for Trump heading into the midterms. In 2024, he specifically ran against the alleged high prices of the Biden administration (ignoring that, first, the temporary high inflation was due to fixing the COVID mess that Trump left in his first term, and second, that Biden steadily brought inflation down, leaving office with a lower inflation rate than what Trump brings us today. Now, with rising gas and food costs and a war driving economic uncertainty, that argument is coming back to bite him.

This is the risk that lingers. Not just a war overseas, or even declining approval numbers—but a steady, daily reminder at the gas pump and the grocery checkout line that Donald Trump’s central promise of the last election isn’t being met.

Photo by A Siegel, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/5gvmGq