By Bill Wilson
The Democratic Party is splintering before our eyes, with independents and moderates fleeing the party in droves while the base is apparently threatening bloodshed if Congressional Democrats do not stop President Donald Trump’s America First overhaul of the country.
After years of peddling hollow messaging on niche gender identities and sewing racial discord, Democrats can’t seem to appeal to or appease anyone. Moderates and the self-preserving among the left have been calling for a tempered Democratic Party and a return to a “moderate economic message” since Kamala Harris’ divisive, identity politics heavy campaign failed to appeal to a majority of voters. Those who are not die-hard leftists are calling for the party to refocus on issues the average Democrat and swing voter cares about, issues like healthcare, jobs, and inflation. For a moment there, it appeared some in the party might be interested in tempering down the vehement rhetoric and attempting to work with Republicans and the President.
That possible juncture is in the rear-view mirror, it seems. An increasingly irate segment of the Democratic base has had enough of Congressional Democrats failing to halt President Trump’s America First overhaul and want their leaders to use any means — even permitting violence and becoming martyrs — to stop Trump.
Last week, alarming reports from named and anonymous Democrat leaders emerged, with Democrats claiming their base is so fed up with their inability to stop President Trump that some are calling for Democrats to allow themselves to become martyrs and get shot in a stand against President Trump. As Axios reported last week, Congressional Democrats are facing an angry mob of left-wing constituents calling on Democrats to “fight dirty” and “not be afraid to get hurt” if it means stopping President Trump.
While the vocal, volatile, and increasingly unmoored radical left is urging Congressional Democrats to stoke the flames of violence in an effort to stop President Trump, polling has shown repeatedly for months that the average voter views Democrats as weak, ineffective, and focused on the entirely wrong set of priorities.
An alarming new survey from a Democratic super PAC obtained by The Hill finds Congressional Democrats facing an uphill battle ahead of the midterm elections, with Americans saying the party is “weak” and “woke”. The survey, conducted by a Democratic PAC called Unite the Country over 21 battleground counties and 10 battleground states, found that voters want a complete overhaul of the Democratic Party, viewing its current leadership as ineffective and out of control. The survey found that voters are looking for “common sense” in their leadership and straightforward communication according to the PAC’s senior advisor.
In addition, a segment of former Democrats who voted for Barack Obama’s change-based economic message switched to President Trump in 2024, according to the PAC’s CEO.
“They want us to have different leaders,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist and Unite the Country’s CEO. “There was this segment of voters … who said, ‘I voted for Barack Obama and I voted for Donald Trump because I thought they were going to stand up to Washington. … They have very different views on the world, but I … believed they would go to Washington and fight for me and not fight for Washington.’”
If this call for a complete overhaul of Democratic leadership sounds familiar, it is because the message has been reverberating through public polling for months.
A late June Reuters/Ipsos poll found a startling lack of support for the modern Democratic Party’s progressive social agenda, with Democrat voters asserting by a 38-point margin — 62 percent to 24 percent — that the party should replace Democrat leaders with new leaders. The survey also found voters are growing weary of the Democratic Party’s focus on radical gender issues while neglecting issues voters deem more important, such as paid family leave, affordable childcare, and lower Medicaid drug prices.
In early June, a CNN survey conducted by SSRS found Americans said by a broad twenty-four-point margin that they believe the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party, is the party of strong leadership. A full forty percent of Americans said the GOP is the party of strong leadership, while only 16 percent said the same for the Democratic Party. The survey found Republicans hold a double-digit advantage over Democrats on “getting things done”, with 36 percent of Americans saying that the Republican Party is the party of getting things done, while just nineteen percent said the same for the Democratic Party.
For too long, weak, ineffective Democrats were willing to cave to increasingly irate factions of the radical left, and now that mob is in control. Weak and at times even well-meaning Democrats have lost control of the narrative, surrendered their roles as public servants, and caved to woke activists set on destruction not peace. Economically-motivated moderates and swing voters — including wide swathes of the former “Obama Coalition” of young, working-class and minority voters — are distancing themselves from the increasingly unhinged and imploding Democratic Party. Fiery factions of the radical left, which have driven the Democratic Party into a downward spiral of identity politics-based chaos, are now in control, and they aren’t interested in a “moderate economic message”.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
