IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9 August 2026WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932Label vs. labelBy Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – Is it really going to be Democratic Socialists vs. MAGA Republicans in America’s mini version replay of the Spanish Civil War when socialists fought fascists? Or will the center hold and resemble 1960 when Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon struggled to find a difference and decided to debate the fate of Quemoy and Matsu?Going into the midterms, it looks a little like the former, leaving the 2028 presidential election up in the air.Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow win in the Michigan Democratic Primary puts a Democratic Senate seat at risk. He doesn’t call himself a socialist (or a communist), and he wasn’t endorsed by the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). He says he’s a capitalist. And he’s focused on health care, ending foreign wars, and hiking taxes on billionaires. “Money for the many” is his catchphrase.But the Oxford and Columbia University-trained doctor in global health has credentials and cannot let President Trump define him as a communist or allow people to call him anti-Semitic. He will be asked if he disavows the virulent views and support of Hasan Piker and favors Israel’s right to exist. A simple yes would allow him to move on. Anything less will label him and doom him.His opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, has President Trump’s endorsement. And while that’s an asset in a Republican primary electorate, that could be toxic in Michigan, a purple battleground state. Trump’s approval rating is at a record low, and he’s mired in an unpopular war.Rogers, 63, is not a superhero. A former FBI agent and four-term member of Congress, this is his second try for a Michigan Senate seat. He lost by just 19,000 votes two years ago to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, and this time is supposed to be the charm.But who is Mike Rogers, really? After initially calling on Trump to concede the 2020 election, saying Biden had won fair and square, he became an election denier to gain Trump’s favor in 2024 and again in 2026 in a race that could decide which party wins the Senate.He’s a down-the-line Trumpster and has no policies to expand health care coverage or address affordability. He’s so bound to an unpopular president that two people Trump pardoned for alleged roles in a fake elector’s plot to overturn the election are county chairs for Rogers. He has also called for recruiting police officers to monitor election workers.These are two diametrically opposed candidates on virtually every issue, so the choice could not be clearer between them and the political parties they represent. So far, and it’s been less than a week, Democrats have shown a surprising willingness to set aside their internal policy differences for the sake of the larger prize, a potential Senate with the power to halt and begin to turn back the worst of Trumpism on our people, our environment, and on our world allies.The race is on. If it’s about El-Sayed and how he wants to change America as defined by the GOP in a negative way, Rogers wins. If it’s a referendum on Trump and the party in power, and how they have no plans to better the lives of stressed Americans, El-Sayed wins. See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).Twitter: @douglas_cohn© 2026 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
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