David Plouffe

The ugly truth is it could get worse when Trump leaves the stage.

It's not like we're going to be Trump's gone and the Republican Party turns back to pre-2016.

The entire enterprise will be a battle to who can go even further, who can destroy norms even more, who can actually put a more palatable kind of wrapper around Trump's crazy.

So it's going to get worse and worse.

I mean, think about the 28, 32, 36.

Right.

The door is shut.

You're in a situation right now where the Republican Party is obviously deeply unpopular.

The only thing maybe more unpopular is the Ebola virus and the Democratic Party, okay?

But because the Republicans are in control, they will pay a price in 26 almost certainly.

The degree to which it is, I don't know yet.

But, you know, we have market failure.

People have two options in the marketplace.

They don't like either.

The Republican brand is not going to improve with Trump astride it.

I write about this.

So it seemed to me if the Democratic brand can significantly improve where enough voters say, you know what, this candidate or the party generally seems different.

Think about how much stronger we'll be, particularly if you think about it not through the lens of, well, we'll win some elections, we'll lose some elections.

We actually have to win most of the elections going forward here.

You know, I would say at least eight years, maybe 12 years, control the White House from 28 through 36 or 40 and control the Senate, the latter being really hard.