The Democratic Party Abandoned the People and is Paying the Price. Is this the End?

By Bill Wilson

Mainstream Democrats were stunned when President Donald Trump won reelection on a populist America First mandate from a diverse coalition of Americans.

It is clear the institutional left believed that Kamala Harris could win the presidency and firmly believed we the people endorsed their destructive anti-American agenda.

They were wrong. From their disastrous open borders experiment to their abandonment of the working class, radical diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda, and insane deconstruction of gender, the institutional left has been focused increasingly on issues Americans either outright disagree with them on or simply do not prioritize.   

Now, the American people are largely out-of-sync with the Democratic Party, and President Trump’s already diverse coalition — which includes sizeable shares of young people, minorities, women, independents and former Democrats — is growing.   

This isn’t to say most Americans are now identifying as Republicans, they aren’t. However, a vast and growing number of independents are shifting the country’s focus toward issues like the economy and the border.  

A great many of these independent voters support the foundation of Trump’s platform — including his quest for energy independence, his promise to avoid foreign entanglements, actions to secure the border and his declaration that the science of gender is indeed, science.

According to Gallup polling conducted as 2024 wrapped up, Democratic Party identification has been sliding precipitously since it’s golden age under newly-anointed President Obama in 2008.  

The share of Americans who identify as Democrat has fallen below 30 percent, with just 28 percent of the country saying they are Democrats now. In 2020, 30 percent of Americans said they were Democrats. In 2016, 31 percent did, and in 2012 the number was the same at 31 percent. In 2012, 36 percent of Americans said they were Democrats, the highest number in the last 25 years.  

As Democrat identity has fallen, independent identity has been on the rise. Independent identity is at a peak, with 43 percent of the country identifying as independent. This is up eight points since 2008, and four points since 2020. The share of Americans who identify as Republican is the same as it was in 2008 — 28 percent. Clearly, as the number of independent voters has grown, the Democrat Party has lost membership. 

Americans reached a breaking point in the 2024 election, and rebelled, aggressively, against the institutional left. Now voters say they believe the Democratic Party is focused on all the wrong issues, and none of the ones they themselves care about.

A recent New York Times poll found that the way Americans perceive the Democratic Party’s priorities is very telling as to why the party is losing membership.

Voters say the Democratic Party’s priorities are abortion, LGBTQ issues, and climate change, while saying their own priorities are the economy and inflation, health care and immigration.

Voters also say the Republican Party is more focused on issues they care about — stating that Republicans are more focused on immigration, the economy and taxes.

Americans have correctly identified that Democrats are heavily fixated on abortion and LGBTQ social issues, at the expense of attending to the economy, the border, and the regulatory and tax environment.

31 percent of voters say that abortion is the Democratic Party’s primary focus, while just 13 percent of Americans say abortion is their primary issue, an eighteen-point disparity. 31 percent of voters also say the Democratic Party’s primary focus is LGBTQ issues, but a mere 4 percent of Americans say LGBTQ issues are their top concern.

There is slightly more overlap on climate change and the state of democracy, with a quarter of Americans saying Democrats are primarily focused on climate change while 15 percent of voters say climate change is their primary issue. 20 percent of Americans say the Democratic Party is primarily focused on the state of democracy, while 13 percent say the state of democracy is their top issue.

Not a single top issue that Americans say the Democratic Party is focused on is an issue that they themselves prioritize.

So what do Americans prioritize? The economy is a good start — 47 percent of the country says the economy is the most important issue to them personally and 35 percent of the country says the Republican Party is primarily focused on the economy. Just 17 percent say the Democratic Party is focused on the economy.    

Healthcare is the next most important issue to Americans, with 30 percent of the country saying healthcare is their number one priority. 17 percent of voters say healthcare is the Democratic Party’s top focus, far fewer than the share who say the party is focused on abortion, LGBTQ issues, climate changeand democracy.

Immigration (26 percent) and taxes (20 percent) are also high priorities for Americans. Unsurprisingly, Americans say the Republican Party is more focused on immigration (55 percent) and taxes (26 percent) than the Democratic Party is.  

What this shows is a startling lack of awareness on the part of not only the Democratic Party proper, but the entire matrix of political analysts, pollsters, media hacks, lobbyists and large institutions that prop it up.

How a collection of individuals who believe themselves to be highly educated observers of social behavior managed to miss the fact that people care more about crippling inflation and the border crisis than fixating on abortion and gender issues is truly remarkable.

If Democrats do not come to terms with the reasons for their losses instead of lecturing over half the county, they will sink into irrelevancy. They destroyed the economy, the border, the culture and nearly the American spirit, and now they ask why people are fleeing in droves.

Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.