Voters Want Transformation, Not Restoration
Takeaways from CAP’s 2026 IDEAS Conference.
It is a dark moment in American history. The Trump administration is making life harder for working- and middle-class people, including the very working-class people who voted for him in the past three elections. Gas now costs 50 percent more than it did at the beginning of the year. Tariffs and the president’s war in Iran are pushing prices past wages for the first time in years. Consumer confidence is at an all-time low. The Supreme Court gutted Black political power across the South.
And all the while, the president and his allies are shaking every cent they can out of the pockets of the American taxpayer. Just last month, the Treasury Department settled a lawsuit levied by Donald Trump himself in exchange for a nearly $1.8 billion payout to the president’s allies on the public’s dime.
These are policy failures, and we should say so plainly. But pointing out the president’s shortcomings is not the same as addressing the reasons for his rise.
In 2010, at the bottom of the Great Recession, six in ten Americans still believed people like them had a good chance to improve their standard of living. By 2024, only one in four did. Children born in the 1940s had a 90 percent chance of outearning their parents. Children born in the 1980s had just a coin flip.
The fact is that people feel stuck — because they are stuck. They don’t believe the system works — because it doesn’t work for them. That pessimism begets fear, and that fear begets hate.
That is why restoration is not enough. The American people do not want to go back to a broken status quo. They are demanding more dramatic changes — even transformation, with ideas that match the scale of the problem and ambition that matches the scale of the public’s desperation. In essence, they want a new social contract, updated for the 21st century: one where hard work pays off, where everyone plays by the same rules, where strivers succeed, and where children can expect to do better than their parents.
In May, leaders from across the country gathered at the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference to hash out what this new contract could look like. Their focus: outlining where the basic bargain of America has fallen short for most working Americans and how government might repair it. They all offered new ideas that solve the country’s most pressing problems.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for instance, described his vision for an America that builds—one where liberalism is defined, in a word, by “building,” whether institutions or housing or trust in government. To Newsom, the center-left can’t just focus on “restoration” when the country is demanding “transformation”; we must provide ideas at the scale of the problem. He also unveiled a new executive order on artificial intelligence, directing the California state government to expand existing workforce systems to mitigate AI’s impacts on the labor market.
That’s just one example of leaders offering ideas to the scale of the problem. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, for instance, shared his approach to making America safer. For a generation, he explained, voters were presented with a “false choice” between funding police and funding prevention. Moore rejects that premise, and, under his “all of the above” approach, Maryland has posted record drops in crime. To Moore, public safety is not a political issue; it is the basic obligation of a government that works for everyone.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill discussed ideas to lower costs. Affordability is the central issue of her governorship, and she declared a state of emergency on utility costs on day one, moved quickly to expand the supply of energy, and proposed record property-tax relief while still offering the most fiscally responsible state budget in years.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) proposed ideas to make America healthy. He announced his Food is Medicine agenda, tackling the “quiet emergency” making us sicker and poorer at the same time, with 2,700 Americans dying every day from diet-related disease while a handful of food and drug companies profit. And he called for a new relationship between the private sector and the American people, one where we “no longer accept a system where corporations get rich profiting off our pain.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) described a path to an America where every full-time working parent can afford child care. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) laid out a plan to ensure every soldier knows their government won’t risk their lives in ill-considered conflicts of choice. Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) spoke to how every American can benefit from the gains of AI thanks to strong unions and a “Works Progress Administration of the future.” And Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) outlined reforms to guarantee every ballot cast by an American citizen counts for something.
We need not wait for a new administration to bring change. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), ranking member of the House Oversight committee, promised that if he holds the gavel come next January, his staff will investigate how Trump and his family members are enriching themselves off the presidency. And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) described how a new majority can pursue both “affordability and accountability” by passing legislation elected Republicans would feel intense pressure to support, like rolling back the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and reinstituting the enhanced premium tax credits that would help millions more Americans afford health insurance.
The throughline was that the past is never coming back — nor should it. Nobody vowed a return to normal or waxed poetic about a nation long since gone. All eyes turned toward the future: how we can expand our coalition, appeal to a broad majority, and move beyond the deceptive promises of Trumpism once and for all.
The IDEAS Conference demonstrated that we have the leaders and ideas that can win the battles of today. But, more important, it showed we have the leaders and ideas that can meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Neera Tanden is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress.
The next challenge? Get the word out with a charismatic leader.
Again I'll say that I find it the responsibility of the Democratic National Committee to lead transformation by shifting their focus from raising money to raising awareness and bringing all Americans together. The 2020 Dem virtual national convention was a triumph. It didn't feel partisan; it made me proud to be American by displaying the diversity and beauty of citizens all over the continent, islands, and protectorates. It was the kind of free forum and patriotic entertainment that broadcast television once provided.
A DNC virtual platform should do the same thing year round. It can be part civics lesson, part arts advocate, and part spotlight for up-and-coming candidates. We need to get to know candidates long before campaigns and elections because that's how trust is built. Voters don't care how much money you raise; we care about whether we can trust you or not. Give us that chance, and we'll be able to vote thoughtfully, support our neighbors, and feel connected again. Transformation, indeed!