Democrats Don’t Have an Easy Way Out

The New York Times ^ | Dec. 11, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET | Thomas B. Edsall

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The weakened condition of the Democratic Party leaves it ill-prepared to defend itself against a Republican Party determined to eviscerate liberalism and the left.

Evidence of the fraught state of the party can be found everywhere.

Pew Research asked Democrats and Republicans whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future of their party after the five presidential and midterm elections from 2016 to 2024. Republicans in 2024 were more optimistic, 86-13, than after any of the previous four contests, including Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. Among Democrats, optimism fell to 51 percent, while pessimism rose to 49 percent, well below the 61-38 for Democrats after the 2016 election.

Ken Martin, the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and a leading candidate to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee, acknowledged this erosion of political clout in a memo to party leaders:

For the first time in modern history, the perception that Americans have of the two major political parties switched. The majority of Americans now believes that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and that the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and the elites. It’s a damning indictment on our party brand.

Polling suggests that Trump is ideologically closer to the median voter than Harris. Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, conducted a post-election survey asking voters to place themselves, Harris and Trump on a scale ranging from zero (very liberal) to 10 (very conservative). The mean response for Harris was 2.45, for Trump 7.78 and for all voters 5.63.

Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, voiced serious doubts by email about the ability of the...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The weakened condition of the Democratic Party leaves it ill-prepared to defend itself against a Republican Party determined to eviscerate liberalism and the left.

They say that like it's a bad thing.

[Spktyr]

Sure they do! “suicide is painless/It brings on many changes…”

[packagingguy]

Bud Light, Jaguar, the Democrat Party…who’s next?

[Tom Tetroxide]

The title of the article reminds me of a song from the Rocky IV soundtrack.

“No Easy Way Out”
by Robert Tepper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOXaPE6gklI

[Jim Noble]

This column uses the now popular construction of “democracy” and “populism” as antonyms.

Its really important to understand that what they mean by “democracy” and especially “Our Democracy™”refers not to individuals voting but to INSTITUTIONS set up to “safeguard democracy” by censorship, incarceration, and suppression of the truth in favor of lies.

Using this construction, people speaking freely and voting is a mortal threat to those institutions, and hence to “democracy”.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Kick em while they’re down. 😉

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This column uses the now popular construction of “democracy” and “populism” as antonyms.

I came to a similar conclusion a while back:

Populists believe in limited government of, by and for the people.

The opposite of populism is elitism.

Elitists believe in unlimited government of, by and for an entitled, hereditary, autocratic political/bureaucratic class.

[Billthedrill]

Parties who drift that far to the left have become captive to the “progressiver than thou” syndrome, and people who once considered themselves left of center have watched their former party in a lockstep march off into radical oblivion. I heard something like that from, of all people, Cenk Uygur the other day - he said that if you’re in a group of proggies and disagree 2% with the party line you’re cancelled and thrown out, but if you agree even 2% with the MAGA side, it’s “howdy, come on in.” That’s how populist movements work. Lefties, especially establishment lefties, who find it hard to imagine how a billionaire real-estate developer and long-time Democrat like Trump could possibly have managed to seize the populist high ground need to look no further than their own mirrors.

[fastrock]

Don’t be fooled, we will lose one or both Houses in 2026 if we don’t turnout is not huge! Then 2 years of impeachment, impeachment, impeachment.

[Gene Eric]

>> a Republican Party determined to eviscerate liberalism and the left.

Mainly the Woke Left

[rbg81]

Its really important to understand that what they mean by “democracy” and especially “Our Democracy™”refers not to individuals voting but to INSTITUTIONS set up to “safeguard democracy” by censorship, incarceration, and suppression of the truth in favor of lies.

---

This was a theme in the Joe Rogan - Mike Benz podcast. It was very eye opening and explains an awful lot. I too had wondered for a while what the Dems really meant by “Our Democracy”.

[sauropod]

Edsall buys a clue. /eyeroll

[KarlInOhio]

I can see Nancy Pelosi mixing up the Flavor Aid.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

I would give them one month to divest/sell everything and then permanently leave the country.

[LeonardFMason]

Step on their throats. They are pestilence. Utterly destroy them.

[Nervous Tick]

eviscerate liberalism and the left... They say that like it's a bad thing.

I like that word "eviscerate". Disembowel the DemonRat party!

[Georgia Girl 2]

Ill second that emotion.

[lurk]

Collectivism grows in the fertile soil of ignorance and evil. And we’ve got plenty of people to grow it.

Now is not the time to strut.

[Organic Panic]

The democrats party must be completely removed from power for ever and relegated to the dustbin of history along with their ideological brethren of communism and naziism.

[GOPJ]

Its really important to understand that what they mean by “democracy” and especially “Our Democracy™”refers not to individuals voting but to INSTITUTIONS set up to “safeguard democracy” by censorship, incarceration, and suppression of the truth in favor of lies.

Ding, ding, ding - we have a thrad winnah!