The push to drive Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) into taking a permanent vacation is very real after the New York Democrat wisely decided to vote with Republicans on a continuing resolution spending bill last week.
Democrats and his now-former friends in the media are openly livid that the Senate minority leader had the audacity to ensure his party wasn’t blamed for shutting the government down. The far-left wing of the party is especially incensed because opposing President Donald Trump on every issue appears to be the strategy, although it’s unclear what it stood to gain politically from a shutdown besides being seen as obstructionists without a solution.
But while Schumer wisely chose common sense over chaos, his decision to do a media tour with most hosts being decidedly liberal, and therefore angry, was anything but wise.
“I think you and nine other Democrats caved,” co-host Sunny Hostin lectured Schumer on ABC’s The View. “I don’t think you showed the fight this party needs right now because you’re playing by a rule book where the other party has thrown that rule book away.”
“There are people in your own party that are saying, ‘Look, it’s time for you to go,’” Gayle King told Schumer on CBS This Morning. “They no longer trust your leadership. They want somebody else in there. What do you say about that? [People] in your own party saying ‘You gots to go.’”
Yes, this is the same King who once vacationed with the Obamas in Tahiti while portraying herself as a serious journalist.
So while Schumer was being humiliated on national television, one of the few Democrats to vote with him, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), assessed the current state of the party.
And the analogy is perfect.
“A sad cavalcade of self-owns and unhinged petulance,” Fetterman said. “It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained. We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to — and it may not be the winning message.”
A recent NBC News poll underscores just how poorly the party is perceived: Just 7% of all voters have a “very positive” view of the party. Cancer may be more popular.
The car alarm Fetterman is referring to might as well be called the Elon Musk alarm. It seems the latest genius idea some Democrats are running with is to encourage violence and potentially deadly acts against Tesla dealerships across the country, all while celebrating Tesla stock plunging as a result of liberals revolting against the top electric car company they once embraced for helping to save the planet.
Enter Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the 2024 vice presidential nominee, who is on what comes across as a standup comedy tour.
“On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day. [The price is] $225 and dropping!” a gleeful Walz said in a recent speech to uproarious laughter from the audience. “And if you own one, we’re not blaming you. You can take dental floss and pull the Tesla [logo] off,” he continued.
Yes, that’s right: The guy who was almost a heartbeat away from the presidency is celebrating the value of America’s seventh-largest company falling. If it leads to some of Tesla’s 125,000-plus employees being laid off, so be it.
It’s hard to overstate just how vapid Walz is. Because according to Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin, it’s not in his state’s best interest to root against Tesla for a cheap laugh.
“As Gov. Walz gloats about Tesla stock dropping, records from the Minnesota State Board of Investment show that as of 6/30/24, the state of Minnesota had 1.6 million shares of Tesla in its retirement fund, and 211,000 shares of Tesla in its non-retirement fund,” Melugin reported.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Late-night “comedians” are also getting into the act. Enter Jimmy Kimmel of ABC, who explained Wednesday night that domestic terrorism at Tesla dealerships has included scores of cars being set on fire, Molotov cocktails being thrown at showrooms, and gunshots being fired at windows. Well, that’s all justified because of the Department of Government Efficiency cuts Musk is recommending as he roots out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
In a recent interview with Sean Hannity, Musk speculated that Teslas were being vandalized because of “some kind of mental illness thing going on here.” He’s right about that, but Kimmel says it’s because of Musk’s actions with DOGE that justify overt domestic terrorism.
“Well, let me see if I can explain it for you,” Kimmel told Musk, “When you pull out a chain saw to celebrate firing thousands of people, they get mad.”
“Please … don’t vandalize, don’t EVER vandalize Tesla vehicles,” he sarcastically said in another monologue, clearly implying it was OK.
We’re a long way from Johnny Carson.
The clip went so viral that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) openly asked ABC if any reprimand was coming.
“Does ABC approve of Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air incitement of criminal behavior?” Lee asked. “Will ABC take any action or make any statement in response to it? If not, why not?”
Good question.
A recent CNN poll shows that the extremes are winning. When asking Democratic voters which figure best represents the party, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) clocked in first, with former Vice President Kamala Harris, once seen as the most liberal senator in the country, finishing a close second. Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was third, followed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), a 2016 election denier.
The ubiquitous Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) tied former President Barack Obama, who could almost pass for a centrist in the Democratic Party at this point.
This week, Crockett declared that all she wants for her birthday on March 29 is for “Elon [Musk] to be taken down.”
Considering there were two attempts on Trump’s life last summer, rhetoric involving political opponents being “taken down” has no place anywhere, especially among elected lawmakers. But instead of party leaders instructing attention-seekers to take a seat and stay off TV and social media for the near future while the party continues to tank, Democrats are only moving more to the left.
The latest example is a barnstorming tour through red states featuring Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders. Because nothing speaks better to working-class people than two self-described “democratic socialists” saying they’ll fight for them and their families by doing everything possible to shut down the government.
“We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us!” Ocasio-Cortez exclaimed at a rally in Arizona.
This prompted Fetterman to respond thusly on X: “Fight ‘harder’— a stunt that would have harmed millions and plunged us into chaos. We kept our government open. Deal with it.”
Ouch.
And he’s right. It seems the only things that Democrats are fighting for are government shutdowns, American companies to fail, Teslas to burn, men to compete against women in sports, illegal immigrant gang members and pro-Hamas green-card holders not to be deported, and Ukraine and Russia to be in a perpetual stalemate.
Quinnipiac University’s annual first-quarter congressional polling shows that for the first time in the poll’s history, Democrats in Congress have higher disapproval numbers than approval among their own voters, with just 40% of Democratic voters approving. Last year, 75% approved while only 21% disapproved, a stunning reversal.
Perhaps not having a presidential primary and installing Harris has Democratic voters upset.
Perhaps it’s the fact that despite suffering huge losses in 2024, with the GOP now controlling the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, leadership remains the same. Schumer is still leading Senate Democrats, and Jeffries still runs Democrats in the House.
Just as it occurred in 2009 as pundits wondered if the GOP was only a regional party that couldn’t win elections again, Democrats need their own Tea Party movement. But they also need a clear issue to own that is also popular among its voters and hammer home solutions.
Right now, it’s as clear as mud as to what that unifying message is outside of “Trump and Elon are oligarchs!”
DEMOCRATS ARE DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID
As a result, the civil war continues between a shrinking centrist wing and a louder far-left wing.
And the left wing is winning right now, much to the delight of Trump and the Republicans.