Put Up or Shut Up
What Democrats Should Be Running on in 2026 & 2028
This is the first post in what we hope becomes an ongoing series from The Angry Democrat writers and staff. Angry Takes!
A recent Atlantic article has been making the rounds. In it, Susan Crawford Shaw, founder of Grassroots Resistance, GRR, a Cleveland activist group, and its members said what a lot of Democratic voters already feel: they are sick of platitudes. They want more than slogans.
So do we.
Laura and I criticize the Democratic Party a lot. But if we are going to demand better, we should also be willing to say what better looks like.
So we both decided to take a swing at it.
These are the policies, priorities, and fights we think Democrats should be willing to run on right now. Some of our points overlap. Some go in different directions. But the point is the same: stop hiding behind vague language and start saying what you actually believe.
We are going back and forth here because this is not just one person’s list. It is a conversation. It is Matt’s take. It is Laura’s take. And hopefully, it is the beginning of a much bigger conversation about what Democrats should actually stand for.
Matt’s Take
Healthcare for All
I would not be surprised if Laura says the same thing. I have no clue what she is going to write, but for me, this is the starting point.
If you are not running on healthcare for all, I do not care about the excuses. I do not care about all the talking points about what it is going to cost.
Work out the numbers.
There are many countries that do it with better healthcare results and less money per capita. So stop the BS. Crunch the numbers and put it in your policy.
Talk about how much families will save. Talk about how much companies will save. Talk about how life expectancy and health outcomes will improve.
Then make a way to afford it.
Running on “lowering costs” or making it “more affordable” is weak tired and shows you have no balls.
Laura’s Take
At this point, I am a yes for all of Matt’s policies. But, I wouldn’t be the policy wonk or outspoken Democrat I am if I didn’t go a little deeper and maybe state the obvious in a few places. The bottom line is people right now want a fighter. These policy recommendations will make Democratic candidates seem more like one. They are also the right thing to do.
I spent 23 years inside the federal government across seven agencies. I know what government does when it works and is doing what has been mandated by Congress. I know what breaks when you gut it. So my list starts where Matt’s transparency point leaves off. With accountability that has teeth.
Impeach, Remove, Convict
Democrats need to stop being afraid of these words.
When an official breaks the law, you hold a hearing. You build a record and collect evidence. You go to trial. Democrats keep treating accountability like a gift they hand out only when it polls well. It is not a gift. It’s your job. Either we have a Constitution or we don’t.
When a president defies a court order, or ignores the Constitution or the law, that is impeachable. When a cabinet secretary ignores a law Congress passed and a president signed, that is removable. The Constitution handed us the tool for exactly this. Use it. When the evidence supports a crime, prosecute it.
The daily corruption, graft, open-theft, abuses, state-sanctioned murders, and denial of basic human and Constitutional rights is wrong. We just went to an war in Iran Congress didn’t ever approve - that is a power entirely reserved for them. As Democrats, how can we keep watching this and do nothing?
If you or I aren’t above the law, then no President or politician is either. Say it like you mean it. Nothing else will be possible until Trump and his ilk are gone. Sorry, not sorry.
Matt’s Take
Reduce Deficit Spending and Balance the Budget
We are nearly $40 trillion in debt, and about $1 trillion every year is going just to pay the interest on that debt.
That is insane.
Not only that, we spend close to $1 trillion on the military. Social Security is again under threat of becoming insolvent. We need to balance the budget, stop paying a trillion dollars in interest, and use that money to fund things people actually need, like healthcare.
But that does not mean the debt is fake.
Stop wasting the money. Balance the budget. Reduce the debt. Use the savings to help people.
Laura’s Take
It’s Time for a Living Wage. End Legalized Political Bribery
Wages should be high enough to support a family.
Right now that lands around $30 to $35 an hour. MIT’s Living Wage Calculator shows a no-frills budget for a family of four runs $20 to $30 an hour per working parent, and well past $40 on a single income. The federal minimum has sat at $7.25 since 2009.
People know it is broken. Polling by Data for Progress found 74 percent of voters back a $20 federal minimum, 60 percent of Republicans included. Three quarters back $17. This is not a fringe position. It is a landslide Washington keeps ignoring. Unfortunately, you will never pry a living wage out of a Congress that answers to the donors fighting against one.
So, fix the machine. Pass a constitutional amendment (or similar legislation) to overturn Citizens United. Ban corporate money in campaigns. Ban the Super PACs. Publicly finance federal elections and run them to one national standard, so your ballot counts the same in Ohio as it does anywhere else.
Pay people enough to live. Then make sure the people they elect work for them, not the highest bidder.
Matt’s Take
Raise the Cap on Social Security
It is absolutely ridiculous that there is a cap on Social Security. Once you make over a certain amount, you max out on what you pay into the system.
Social Security, like it or not, has become the default retirement plan for a lot of people. We are saving it away for them. So raise the cap, fund Social Security, and make sure everybody has a way to live in dignity.
With that said, the fact that we tax Social Security is absolutely absurd.
Do not tax Social Security.
At the same time, Social Security should not sit in a bank account losing money to depreciation and inflation. It should be in Treasuries or another safe structure that at least keeps up with inflation.
If we are not investing Social Security in a way that beats or at least keeps up with inflation, then we are failing.
The government is failing.
Just admit it and do better.
Laura’s Take
Rebuild the Civil Service. It Keeps You Alive
They answer the phone at Social Security. They Inspect your food. They show up after it floods. I got dialysis patients to their appointments across 19 states during the pandemic. Government keeps people alive in ways you never see until it stops. It is also what you pay for.
About 317,000 federal workers were purged in 2025, reported by Bloomberg from Office of Personnel Management data. On June 3 an executive order made about 8,000 career experts “at-will,” with an accompanying agency rule that will likely lead to an additionally 50,000 more civil servants being purged. Every single firing is illegal.
HHS announced cuts of 20,000, a quarter of the agency, per Government Executive. This is not waste, fraud, or abuse. Federally funded research is behind every new drug the FDA approved from 2010 to 2016, STAT reported (FDA, NIH, HHS, and even DoD supplements budgets for drug research and trials). Anyone who thinks we built American science without the civil service is delusional.
The goal of this administration is to get rid of every civil servant, privitize every public service, help themselves to your tax money, and govern on high from a board room. Don’t let it happen. Reinstate every program, rehire every worker, honor every contract, and expand the civil service.
Matt’s Take
Universal Basic Income
I was part of the Yang Gang.
Andrew Yang was the only person talking about the future and trying to future-proof America. Everybody else was focused on the now or looking backwards, trying to fix problems that had already gotten out of control.
Yang was the one saying, hey, there is this thing called AI and robotics, and it is going to take a lot of jobs. It is coming. Can we please start talking about it?
Everybody laughed at him.
But somehow, as an unknown candidate, he made it through to become one of the last people standing in the Democratic primary.
Why?
Because he had an actual fucking policy.
With the rise of AI, automation, robotics, Tesla’s Optimus, Waymo, self-driving cars, Tesla’s self-driving fleet, and AI replacing real work, now is the time to start introducing universal basic income.
No, that does not mean everyone is to be on the government dole.
It means we need policies in place so companies are not just lowering their costs, replacing workers, and eating all the profits for shareholders while workers get displaced.
There has to be a policy where some of those profits are shared or dividends payed with the country they are doing business in, the workers who are displaced, and the communities where jobs are lost.
Laura’s Take
End Our Current Immigration System; Hold Officials Accountable for Deaths and Abuse
Renée Nicole Good, a mother of three and a legal observer watching out for her neighbors, was shot through her windshield by an ICE officer in Minneapolis this January. Two weeks later and less than two miles away, Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA, was shot by Border Patrol agents while trying to help a woman they were accosting. Months later, the federal investigations into both deaths remain stalled, with the administration fighting to withhold the evidence.
That sits on top of 31 people who died in ICE detention in 2025, the deadliest year in two decades, while the office meant to investigate those deaths lost hundreds of staff and went dark during the shutdown. I shouldn’t have to even mention that we are also imprisoning young children and infants, allowing sexual abuse of young girls at detention centers, engaging in starvation, beatings, and murders of those detained.
These victims aren’t fodder. They are why this has to end.
We need to end ICE as we know it and rebuild immigration enforcement from the ground up. One that solves the backlog instead of terrorizing human beings. We need to fund real processing capacity, real asylum courts, and iron clad oversight. Then we need to seek justice, and prosecute the officials who gave orders for, or let people die in the street and in custody. Not reassign them. Not let them retire. Prosecute them.
Matt’s Take
Transparency
Everything in government is so obscure.
Yes, there are records requests, but they get delayed. Police departments drag their feet. Governors drag their feet. Departments drag their feet. Everyone has an excuse.
You are not allowed to do this. You need to file that. You need to wait. You need to appeal.
No.
This is a government of the people.
Unless something is classified, top secret, related to clandestine operations, protecting assets, or some real national security concern, everything should be auditable and transparent to the American people.
Build trust in government.
Let us audit how much the pencil costs.
Is this like Independence Day, where a toilet seat costs $35,000 and a hammer costs $2,500?
The people should know.
They should be able to go to a website, type into a search bar, and get the receipts for what we are paying for.
And PS: if the Pentagon fails another audit, people should get fired. If there is fraud or misconduct, there should be prosecution.
Laura’s Take
Democrats Need to Clean Their Own House
Voters do not separate the parties on corruption anymore. Ninety-two percent of them call corruption a big problem in politics, rating Congress corruption at 85 percent, and not just the president. Democrats should know a battleground poll found voters in frontline districts see Democrats as more corrupt than Republicans, even while Trump’s own scandals dominate the headlines.
After this presidency, voters will be starving for a real anti-corruption party, not just one that points at Trump’s. There is movement already. AOC, Jason Crow, and Mike Levin just launched an End Corruption Caucus inside the House Democratic caucus. Good. Now point it inward too.
Democrats have to turn informer on their own party. Investigate our own dark money. Audit our own endorsement deals. Name our own insiders trading access for loyalty. The party willing to police itself first is the only one voters will ever trust to police Washington after this.
Matt’s Take
Campaign Finance Reform and Ending Stock Trading in Congress
This is simple.
You cannot have trust in government if government officials are front-running the books.
You cannot have trust in government if they are in bed with big business.
You cannot have trust in government if members of Congress are trading stocks while writing laws that affect those companies.
And you cannot have trust in democracy if, at any minute, Elon or any other billionaire can put a tiny fraction of their net worth into elections and change the whole field.
Elon Musk Could Fund a Political Machine Forever
This is a thought experiment about political power.
Campaign finance reform must happen.
End congressional stock trading.
Limit the power of billionaires and corporations to buy influence.
Make elected officials work for the people again.
Matthew, I agree that healthcare access matters. No one should be bankrupted because they get sick, and any serious healthcare proposal should explain both the costs and the benefits.
But I think there is an important part of this conversation that politicians on both sides rarely discuss.
We spend enormous amounts of time debating who pays for healthcare, yet very little time talking about why so many Americans need so much healthcare in the first place.
Whether healthcare is funded through private insurance, employers, taxpayers, or some combination of all three, the underlying reality remains the same: a nation that is increasingly overweight, sedentary, sleep-deprived, stressed, and chronically ill will always face rising healthcare costs.
Healthcare for all may address access. It does not automatically address health.
Imagine if political candidates spent as much energy promoting exercise, nutrition, sleep, preventive screenings, metabolic health, and personal responsibility as they do debating insurance models. Imagine if we measured success not just by how many people have coverage, but by how many people avoid preventable disease altogether.
This shouldn't be a dichotomy - the conversation shouldn't be either/or. It should be AND.
We should absolutely discuss how healthcare is financed. But we should also be honest that no healthcare system—public or private—can sustainably solve problems that are largely driven by preventable chronic illness.
The goal shouldn't simply be healthcare for all.
The goal should be better health for all AND the responsibility is in the hands of the very ones we say we care about. It's time for citizens to do something about their health by getting better sleep, eating less, moving more, making wise choices about what they allow to stress them out. Get educated on their bodies.
A healthier population requires fewer interventions, fewer prescriptions, fewer hospitalizations, and ultimately lower costs regardless of who is paying the bill.
That's a conversation I wish more politicians were willing to have.
Laura, I agree that people who work full-time should be able to support themselves and their families. The frustration many Americans feel about stagnant wages and rising costs is real.
But I think there is another conversation that rarely gets enough attention.
Whenever politicians talk about economic opportunity, the discussion almost always centers on getting employers to pay more. What I rarely hear is a serious effort to encourage more Americans to become employers themselves.
A job is one path to financial security. Entrepreneurship is another.
Not everyone is meant to start a business, and it certainly isn't easy. It requires risk, sacrifice, long hours, uncertainty, and often failure before success. But throughout American history, millions of people improved their lives not because someone gave them a raise, but because they created value, solved problems, and built something of their own.
If wages are too low, we should ask why. But we should also ask how we can help more people climb the economic ladder through ownership, entrepreneurship, skilled trades, freelancing, and small business creation.
Too much of our political conversation treats citizens primarily as employees. We should also see them as builders, creators, investors, and future business owners.
A healthy economy needs workers. It also needs people willing to take the risk of creating jobs.
The question shouldn't only be, "How do we make employers pay more?"
It should also be, "How do we help more people become employers?"
Economic mobility has always been strongest when people have both options available to them.