Dila Cakir

One of the world’s most powerful and addictive drugs cannot be consumed or ingested. On the individual level, this drug perpetuates feelings of anger and hatred and makes our most violent thoughts feel pleasurable. On the global scale, this drug causes war and exacerbates political, social, religious and ideological divides.

This is the drug of revenge, and Democrats and Republicans alike have been addicted for far too long. Now that Democrats have secured decisive victories across the country, we may feel more tempted than ever to indulge in our every vengeful desire. But if we want to create real, enduring change, and if we want our politics to become healthy again, then it is time to rid ourselves of this drug for good.

For the past decade, and especially the last several years, the liberal condition has been one of resentment, existential grief and feelings of powerlessness, mainly caused by and directed towards Trump, his supporters and his unqualified, corrupt and overreaching administration. Democrats have every right to be angry at the current state of America, but this anger has all too often morphed into self-destruction. Popular political Instagram comments such as “I don’t have any empathy for Republicans because they voted for this” and “The people who need to see this can’t read it” are clear examples of our tendency to dehumanize the opposing side out of anger. And this makes sense: When we feel that we have been wronged, our natural instinct is to lash out. It feels good to be the aggressor, especially in polarized environments where stereotyping is socially rewarded. Revenge feels good.

However, these overgeneralizing Instagram comments, which gain popularity in their own echo chambers and rarely reach opposing online spheres, accomplish nothing except to further polarize the left and right. Mocking and pushing our opponents down might make us feel better temporarily, but it also makes our opponents angrier and more determined to exact a parallel revenge against us in the long run, perpetuating a vicious cycle. This is the same reason why cancel culture backfires: In the age of social media, canceled people easily find each other and become stronger in numbers.

When we desire revenge against a large group of people, we gain a false sense of certainty about the makeup of that group, and so our ability to discern individuals within that group, each with their own unique differences and nuances, rapidly deteriorates. For instance, we must grow to understand that people like Tommy, a young man who asked Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El Sayed a question at a town hall, are not born with their racist views, but rather grow into them as a result of the deeply biased media and bigoted environment around them.

Ultimately, the problem with revenge is that it works directly against our individual well-being, our social unity and the prosperity of our country as a whole. If it weren’t for revenge politics and the related practices of exclusion and infighting on the left, the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement would not have been so popular for so long. Many have summarized the social difference between Democrats and MAGA as this: Agreeing with MAGA on a single issue means inclusion, whereas disagreeing with Democrats on a single issue means exclusion. In short, everyone wants to feel that they belong, and MAGA has, until recently, mastered the art of giving its supporters that feeling.

In contrast, the left seems to require an endless number of litmus tests for belonging in recent years. Some have even described the Democratic Party as a “circular firing squad” that constantly tears its own people down due to an attitude of moral superiority, a refusal to compromise, an incapacitating perfectionism and perhaps underlying all that, a deep self-fulfilling defeatist feeling that all hope is lost. Indeed, in the months and years leading up to the 2024 presidential election, millions of young Americans, especially young men, shifted right, largely because they felt “pushed out” and “othered” by the Democratic Party. But now, Democrats have gained an enormous number of these supporters back. James Talarico, the first Democratic Texan Senate-Elect in 38 years, can show us how to keep them.

If you watch Talarico’s debates, you will notice that, no matter who he is talking to, he begins by trying to find common ground. He admits when the opposing side has a good point. He uses his Christianity as a way to bring people in, repeatedly emphasizing his duty to love everyone, even his political rivals, just as the Bible commands (Christian Nationalists, take note). For Talerico, this love is not a weakness—it is our greatest strength. In a recent podcast interview, Talarico used the example of taking car keys away from an intoxicated friend to illustrate that love often requires firm accountability. He described how he was not only trying to “protect the people of Texas” from the corruption of Ken Paxton but also, in a way, trying to protect Ken Paxton from himself. He shows us that true leadership and productive political discourse are not about revenge, but accountability. Revenge keeps wounds fresh, while accountability heals them.

These newfound victories are symbols of democratic hope and progress, and they deserve celebration, but Democrats must not become overly complacent or smug. We must resist the temptation to stoop to the level of condescension because that attitude is exactly what aided Trump’s election in 2024. If we want to fix the many problems facing our country today, we must use this upward momentum to call in as many people as possible. We must continuously make the effort to prevent rage, hatred and revenge from dominating our politics. We must continuously make the effort to notice the multitudes that exist within all of us. We must stand strong and united, and that starts with including those we disagree with. It starts with loving and respecting our neighbors. It starts with a single conversation.

Elan Cohen is a member of the Class of 2028.