If last week was about what Republicans need to learn from the midterms, today is about what Democrats need to learn. As with all unwelcome lessons, this one is better delivered by a friend.

Ruy Teixeira is a Democratic columnist. He’s also a voice for moderation in the party, which at this moment means soberly assessing Dem wins. For Teixeira, those wins came down to one thing: Donald Trump. Without the former president’s outsize presence in the race, 2022 most likely would have been a rout for Democrats. Party leadership doesn’t seem to be aware of this, though. President Biden said he would change “nothing” going forward; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cited climate change legislation as a reason for electoral success. With voters preferring Republicans by as much as twenty points on several of the day’s top issues, these men might want to rethink their positions. 

Trump won’t be around forever. The sooner Democrats develop a winning message that doesn’t involve him, the better. And since one recent poll showed voters consider the Democratic Party more extreme than the Republican Party (55% to 54%), that winning message should probably involve tacking to the middle. As one commentator put it last week, voters made it clear they prefer “out of touch” to “out of their minds.” If Democrats misread the reprieve they’ve been given, they might start looking out of their minds, too.