The Democrats are not popular right now — and that's putting it lightly, given that they're not even really enjoying the approval of their own party members. At the same time, the outlook is rosy for a Democratic comeback in the midterms next year. How do you account for this dissonance?
Senior correspondent Eric Levitz breaks it down. In short: The Republicans have been doing the Democrats' work for them, and it goes beyond the current rampage of Elon Musk's DOGE. But while Republicans tanking their own popularity seems useful in the short term — as Eric puts it, being "the slightly less despised party is sometimes good enough" — it's certainly not something to bank on, and the Democrats will need to be more than the party of opposition.
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—Angela Chen, senior politics, policy, and ideas editor