There has been considerable discussion recently about the state of the Democratic Party, as it seeks to determine why it lost the 2024 election and what changes are needed to make the party more competitive. Everyone understands that the progressive wing has taken over the party, moving it far left of center, and they have implemented an ideology that most Americans cannot accept. What should be done about it?
Traditional Democrats observing the party’s post-mortem are surprised that party influencers are unable to accept the reality demonstrated by the 2024 election. Reality showed that most Americans supported Trump and rejected left-wing ideas.
Progressives believe that everyone who voted for Trump is ignorant or misinformed. They also think that their plan for a cultural reconstruction of American society is the proper one for a 21st-century Western society. That vision imagines universal equality and the transformation of the federal government into a true nanny state. It also envisions the implementation of the neoliberal state, which is a code word for a form of socialism. Borders must be open so that America can become a fully functioning multicultural society.
In this telling, when white people become a minority, their influence will fade, and the elites on the left can take full control. These left elites are white, but they’re qualified to rule because they are the “smart” whites, who really understand what society needs.
A significant obstacle stands in the way of any move toward the center, however. The majority of the Democrats in Congress are now progressives who support the progressive master plan. Even some traditional Democrats have drunk the Kool-Aid. A few days ago, James Carvell, the respected Democrat curmudgeon, said that Democrats must open “Pandora’s Box” and grab power to save democracy. After regaining control of Congress, they must quickly make the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico new states and expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices. These provide a diagnosis of Carvell’s case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
It might be useful here to consult the history books. Let’s go back to the period from 1980 to 1992, covering the Reagan and Bush presidencies. The Democratic Party was at a low ebb and was seeking a path back from the wilderness. The party focused on four specific areas to reposition itself.
They moved toward the center under the label “New Democrat.” The goal was to combine market-based economic policies with a moderate form of social liberalism, signaling the end of big government.
They countered Reagan’s image as the Teflon president by shifting from straight criticism of him to redefining themselves as pragmatic and responsible, thereby separating themselves from the old New Deal ideology.
They worked to regain the loyalty of middle-class voters by advocating for women, minorities, and the disadvantaged, while co-opting Reagan’s law-and-order philosophy.
Lastly, they identified and targeted specific voter groups. One such group was suburban voters who the excesses of liberalism had alienated.
Bill Clinton exemplified the new Democratic approach and utilized it to win the 1992 election.
Back then, it took the Democrats twelve years to recover, as it took that long to devise and implement an effective strategy. Crashed ideologies are difficult to discard because they were a party’s primary driver before the crash. The Democrats ran two uncompetitive candidates in 1984 and 1988: Walter Mondale, who won only one state, and Michael Dukakis, who won ten states.
How will this history lesson apply to today’s Democratic Party? It looks like a bigger mountain to climb because the party is farther to the left than it was in 1980.
The early 2028 momentum shows the leading candidates as Harris, Buttigieg, Newsome, and AOC. It’s hard to imagine Harris being nominated. Her nomination would be a case of insanity – doing the same dumb thing over and over again. Pete Buttigieg is the Democrat with gravitas, articulate and smart. He also checks the box of the first gay president, to make all the identity politics folks happy. Pete has a big problem, though. In the south, he polls 0% support among black people. That would be fatal. Newsome is overseeing the implosion of his state, proving that socialism as an ideology and a working government are very different animals.
Then we have AOC, who is leading the charge to replace the old guard with the young radicals. Her popularity stems from Gen Z, who lean towards socialism. They view the old guard as worthless, largely due to their inability to defeat Trump and retain control of Congress.
AOC and her ideological cohorts have energy and speak to issues that the generation worries about, which has caused an increase in far-left candidates entering the stage. Zoltan Mamdani is running for mayor of New York, and Omar Fateh is running for mayor of Minneapolis. In Seattle, Katie Wilson looks to unseat Mayor Bruce Harrell in the Democratic primary. In Albuquerque, Alex Uballez is challenging Mayor Tim Keller.
These developments are predictable. The mainstream Democrats have been neutered by their lack of ideology and leadership. A new generation of Democrats is rising, but they are too far to the left. The logical outcome is that this radical left momentum will die at the ballot box. Some candidates will win, but the ideology is too radical to survive. Out of the ashes of its fall will come a new, more centrist Democratic ideology, one that is more centrist in philosophy.
This is the left’s version of Trump populism, a rejection of platforms that don’t address the needs of the American people, but it can’t unravel itself from radicalism, which will be its downfall.
The radical left ideology could reach its peak in time for the 2028 election, making it difficult for them to win. A Republican victory could put the Democrats on the sidelines for an additional eight years, repeating the experience of a twelve-year rebuild plan.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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It's interesting, probably more comical than anything else, when it comes to democrats. It's never a matter of doing all the wrong things and never learning from them, what it is - is a 'communication error' of s I me sort. Somehow, democrats have the idea that if only they had communicated their ideas more, or better, or more widely, or in a particular form, or whatever else they conjure up as being reasons for their lack of popularity and failure to succeed. Failures to communicate their messaging 'just right' is what it all boils down to as according to DC inner-beltway liberal eliteist politicians and news pundits. The problem here is that they DID get their messaging through and always have - how the hell else could they fail in messaging when they have Hollywood and 95% of all media pushing their narratives and agendas? What they somehow miss is that the whole world heard their messaging and at least, the majority of the US said, "Nope!"
When the democrat platform consists of absolutely ZERO policy proposals and attractive potential resolutions to deal with all the shit that Prdsident Trump is now dealing with (the sloppy leftovers of criminal politicians both left and right, present and past) and is absolutely 100% purely trashing the sitting Prdsident who IS making significant headway in undoing much of what should never have been done that culminates ito a much stronger nation economically, militarily, socially and in every other way possible, it should come as no surprise to democrats why their party I is in the shitter and swirling faster by the day, not far from going down the sewage pipes.
Of the many notables here, considering the history of the democrat party, it's like trying to polish the proverbial turd. Democrats decide thag they'll need to stop attacking Republican politicians and presidents, re-label themselves as the 'new democrats, 'pragmatic and responsible'. For one, since when were democrats ever pragmatic or responsible? And two, re-label themselves? Sort of like their whole big start up I f a group called 'no labels' - a group that wasn't right, left, Republican or Democdat, they were just 'no labels', better known as all liberal democrats. It was a deceptive play. Deceit - one of the democrat party's favorite tactics. You see, democrats forever have to manipulate and sugarcoat, employ euphemisms to make their policy proposals more attractive and palatable. For example, calling abortion - the murder of unborn babies - 'reproductive healthcare' and 'reproductive jhstice'. See how much more palatable those are than just calling abortion murder? Or, 'no one is illegal' pertaining to illegal migrants. Sounds all soft and more acceptable but, no, anyone in a foreign nation who has overstayed their permitted tine, licensing, or otherwise, is illegally in thag foreign nation. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from or what country you're in. And yes, this applies to any American not legally in a foreign nation, including Mexico. Democrats are always scheming on how best to undercut, however wrong, illegal, or immoral the measures are tha t need to be executed for their success and wins. Lawfare - check. Subvert constitutional law - check. Upend constitutional law - check. Plans to pack the supreme court - check. Attempted assassination attemps on US Presidents - check. Successful assassinations of US Presidents - check. All their manufactured lies, hoaxes, false actors, fake victims, especially since 2016 to the current day - all check!
Democrats were holding out hope that all of their bullshit wouldn't surface and see the light of day ag least until after they had regained power. But they overplayed their criminal hand, they, like the criminal that they are, became so proud and arrogant, believing that they were untouchable. But they aren't untouchable. We sent President Trump back to clean up all the shit. Every day more people are awakening to who and whag he democrat party criminal syndicate really is and a great many are making their exodus to the Republican party. The world now sees everything thst democrats did, how they wasted our money, our time, time that could have been much better used, their outright hatred for the US, Americans, and western values.
An interesting theory that I heard proposed in the past week: its strange how the American left and radical Islam are so close to one another given their polar opposite positions on virtually everything. But the one thing they do have in common is hatred of western values, free speech, individual liberty, etc. Together, if allowed and not stopped, the Anerican left and radical Islam would utterly destroy the US. But then, once they did that, radical Islam would simply begin forcing American leftist gays and lesbians off thd tops of buildings, subjugating females, murdering the rest at which point, radical Islam would raise its flag over thd US White House, declare victory and establish its goal of a worldwide caliphate.
Perhaps this sheds a bit of light on what's going wrong with the democrat party. They have officially destroyed themselves and whag remains, will ultimately destroy itself over time.
Just out of curiosity: anyone else happen to notice all the politicians that we never see or hear from anymore? Just sayin'.
When you listed the potential frontrunners for Dems 2028, every hair stood up on the back of my neck. These are leaders of failing cities, and they need a reckoning, not a reward, for their poor decisions.