Democrats in Disarray?
“Democrats are in disarray. Now What?” – The New York Times
“Democrats in disarray and call for new leadership” – CNN
“Democrats in Disarray as Trump Pushes Through Agenda” – Wall Street Journal
“Democrats Are in Disarray With No Easy Fix” – Bloomberg
“Democrats in disarray” – Fox News
Political analysts in lockstep breathlessly exclaim that ‘Democrats are in disarray!’… but are they?
In 2024 Democrats lost the presidency by 1.5 percent of the popular vote.
Democrats lost the House of Representatives by a small handful of seats.
They lost the Senate by a few more seats.
While the elections were close, the consequences have been dire.
These same Political analysts demand to know ‘what do Democrats stand for besides opposing anything Trump wants?’.
From Trump’s claim of bone spurs to his disrespecting former prisoner of war John McCain to calling vets ‘suckers and losers’ Democrats – for years- have called out Trump’s hostility to our veterans.
Now Trump is taking a chainsaw to the VA and putting veterans out of work.
What do Democrats stand for? Veterans.
Democrats have warned that MAGA’s Project 2025 advocates eliminating civil service and re-instituting the old spoils system. To that end the Trump administration is indiscriminately firing massive numbers of government worker who will be replaced by partisan cronies.
What do Democrats stand for? A merit based civil service.
For years Democrats have warned that Trump is in cahoots with Putin. Since his reelection Trump has sided with war criminal Putin over Ukraine peace talk territorial concessions.
What do Democrats stand for? The right of sovereign nations to be free.
For years Democrats have warned that Trump will take a wrecking ball approach to norms, rules. conventions, morals, and laws.
Since his reelection Trump has intentionally insulted allies and has intentionally caused world wide economic panic.
What do Democrats stand for? Diplomacy.
The same can be said of Social Security, Medicare, climate change, women’s reproductive health issues, and vaccine efficacy.
These are more than mere political issues. These are values.
Where will Democrats find the votes to retake and restore government institutions?
No matter how much Trump fails Democrats will never make inroads with MAGA authoritarian base voters. Democrats will never do the one and only thing necessary to gain MAGA support- dog whistle. Such is the nature of authoritarianism.
In 2024 Harris lost almost 7 million vote that Biden won in 2020. Had those voters turned out, those numbers distributed across swing states would have given the election to Harris. Those 7 million stay at home voters are the pond that Democrats need to fish in.
Democrats can identify and reach out to voters who stayed home in 2024. They can identify unpopular Republican positions on not only political issues, but on important values as well.
Democrats have a lot of hard work ahead, but they are hardly in ‘disarray’.
Thanks and a tip of the hat to DonkeyHotey for the image.
