Sixty-three percent of voters view the Democratic Party unfavorably, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll. On issues ranging from inflation and tariffs to immigration and foreign policy and handling the Ukraine war, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats.
These dismal numbers have Democrats scrambling to revive their brand before next year’s midterm elections. The problem for Democrats is that there is no consensus around a new ethos to propel them back to power.
The Democratic intelligentsia thinks the party has lost its way. Analyst Ruy Teixeira writes on his Liberal Patriot site that progressive Democrats have abandoned the idea of progress for the working and middle classes. He advises a return to moderate liberalism to revive the party’s image. Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn makes a similar argument. Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, argues that Democrats should abandon the pusuit of equity in the sense of equal outcomes for all and return to traditional values of fairness and equal opportunity.
So far, leading Democratic officials aren’t buying the need to reform. Governors such as Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Kathy Hochul (D-NY) are leaning into the Democratic status quo. They counsel opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies as the way forward, coupled with more appearances on podcasts and a vague appeal to young male voters alienated from the Democratic Party. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) thinks he can filibuster his way to a Democratic revival, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) undertook a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour of deep-blue districts that consisted mainly of preaching to the party faithful.
The only elected Democrat who appears to be taking Teixeira and Penn’s advice seriously is two-term Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the new chairman of the Progressive Caucus. Casar wants the party to pivot away from divisive social engineering and focus on the economic concerns of working-class voters. A former labor organizer, Casar has a track record of appealing to minimum-wage workers, but his ability to reach middle-class voters is unproven.
Despite the Democrats’ flailing about for a coherent strategy, GOP jubilation over their dilemma is premature. The Democrats’ disarray may have reached a new zenith, but, like a wounded animal, that makes it more dangerous than ever.
Take Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL). He wants to overturn the 2024 election results with a civilian revolt against the Trump administration. In a New Hampshire speech billed as his opening bid for the 2028 presidential nomination, Pritzker called on Democrats to “fight everywhere” with mass protests and civic disruption so that “Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.” His harboring of Democratic Texas legislators to thwart redistricting in that state illustrates his intent to undermine democratic processes nationwide.
Not to be outdone, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke employs violent rhetoric.
“In every single county in Texas, in every state of the union,” O’Rourke said recently, “what if, instead of awaiting the punch thrown by the other side, we throw the punch first?”
What each of these divergent approaches to reviving the Democratic Party miss is that leaders don’t control the party base. They are mere reflections of it.
When the party base shifts because of larger forces — demographic, economic, societal, technological, or external events such as wars — party leaders either adapt to that shift or lose power. Case in point: the GOP presidential contenders of 2016. Old-school Republicans were totally out of touch with the new and still emerging Republican base that has twice propelled Trump to power. Only Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee have managed that transition well.
The voters the Democrats need to draw back are the same voters who elected Trump last year. That base, shaped by the Great Recession, military misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, disastrous World Trade Organization trade policies, and Democratic Party overreach under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, will no longer pay attention to the out-of-touch Democratic leadership than it did to the old GOP stalwarts.
The only way the Democratic Party can win back its lost voters is through a deep transformation. Disavow government mandates that coerce people into dramatic lifestyle changes or bully them into phony admissions that they’re responsible for systemic racism. Give up climate catastrophizing and dictating what cars voters can drive, how they heat their homes, or what kind of stove they can have. Maintain border security and keep our military strong.
So far, there is no sign this recognition has sunk in. Instead, leading Democrats are all-in on an ideology the voters rejected in 2024 and will likely reject again in the midterm elections. They are setting themselves up for obsolescence.
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By firing up their shrunken base, Democratic leaders may succeed in fomenting disruption and disorder. Belligerent talk begets belligerent acts, as the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles and last month’s armed antifa attack on an ICE facility in Texas show. Incitement may stir Democratic activists to disrupt cities through protests and spur left-wing extremists to acts of domestic terrorism, but it’s unlikely to win back voters alienated by the Democratic Party’s agenda.
Too bad, because the sooner the Democrats jettison radicalism and pivot to the center, the sooner political polarization will ease and the country can once again have a functioning two-party system with bipartisanship in government.
John B. Roberts II served in the Reagan White House and was the executive producer of The McLaughlin Group. A veteran of three successful U.S. presidential campaigns, he was an international political strategist. His website is www.jbrobertsauthor.com.