Two things are clear to those of us who think clearly. First, is that this country is in big trouble thanks to our current president. Second, barring death or the 25th Amendment, we are going to be with him for the next two and a half years.

We also know that we have mid-terms coming up in less than six months, and that the outcome of those elections have been made uncertain by the chaos into which the not-so-Supreme Court has thrown us with its decisions on Congressional redistricting (among many other reasons).

There are a few other things we know. We know that (speaking very broadly) this country is fairly equally divided into Democrats, Republicans and Independents. We know that virtually all of the Democrats, and perhaps three quarters of the Independents (at last polling) are anti-Trump, but that about 70 percent of the Republicans are still smitten by him.

We also know that the Democrats have at least two internal problems (actually three, but the third one will come later). First, the Democrats are still using Shumer and Jeffries as their spokesmen, paying no attention to me that two New Yorkers will funny accents and whining dispositions are not the right guys for the task. Second, the Democrats have not found their equivalent of Make America Great Again. It is this second problem that I want to address today.

To me, this is simple. The Democrats should campaign on “Just This One Time!”.

And it should basically be a plea to the 25 to 30 percent of registered Republicans who do not like Trump, and to a number of center-right leaning Independents who tend to vote Republican. And it is a slogan that should be used only in 2026. Not even in 2028.

The premise is that the anti-Trump Republicans and Independents share an important point of view with those of us who tend to vote Democratic. That is that we have a corrupt, dangerous, out-of-control president, who can, over the next two and half years, hurt this country even more than he has to date. Therefore, it is important, in the 2026 midterms, to make sure that the Republican Party, whose political leaders are virtually all scared to death to do anything but kowtow to Trump’s every whim, does not control either house of Congress for the last two years of Trump’s presidency. Therefore, these anti-Trump voters, who tend to vote Republican, need to vote Democratic in November. Just This One Time!

They can do what they want in 2028, when their party will no longer have Trump at its head. Every seat in the House will be up for grabs then. But for the remainder of the Trump term, there must be an opposition controlled Congress. It is as simple as that.

There are those who say that the Democrats need to be something more than anti-Trump. I agree with that, starting in 2028. But for 2026, anti-Trump is the way to go.

Clearly each of these Republican voters will disagree with many things that Democratic candidates stand for. That’s okay. For the next two years, without the presidency, none of those things will come to pass. For the next two years, the priority is blunting Trump.

On the normally Democratic side, this slogan will serve its purpose, too, especially among many Jewish Democrats who are concerned that the Democratic Party is changing its stance on supporting Israel, with some progressives wanting to cut back on military assistance and others even suggesting that the State of Israel is an illegitimate “settler” state. To those one-cause Democrats who might want to support Republicans who are more supportive of Israel, I say (just as I say to the Republicans), forget it. For the next two years, the important point is that Trump’s destruction of this country be stopped. Israel will be just fine, and if these voters think Israel requires a vote for the GOP in 2028, that is fine. But not in 2026.

Just This One Time! should be a national slogan, widely spread by national voices. But there is no national election in 2026, but separate state elections, and this slogan, to be effective, must be used in every state. And now that the primary season is winding down, the time is at hand.

How do we do this?