The polls suggest that President Trump is significantly upside down on several issues, including trade, inflation and most importantly, the economy. The one issue Americans essentially approve of is immigration. It has long been a winning issue with the American people, but typically never a top issue until Biden opened the floodgates. 

Most of the time, the top issue remains some form of: It is the economy, stupid.

And yet, Democrats continue to plague themselves with inane stunts in opposition to deporting illegal aliens, including violent ones. From making a cause celebre out of wife-beating, likely human trafficking gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia and even trekking down to El Salvador like it's a shrine, to most recently members of Congress and the Mayor of Newark storming an ICE detention facility in New Jersey and now facing possible assault charges based on bodycam footage, Democrats continue to engage in ugly publicity stunts against an issue that Americans generally favor.

Perhaps in their fever, they thought that trying to get into the ICE facility and using force on ICE officers would earn them cred and lots of clicks among their radicalized, anti-American base. And the very real problem for the Democratic Party, is that it probably will. The Newark mayor, who was arrested for trying to enter illegally, is shooting up in the polls from last place in the Democratic primary for New Jersey governor. He is being hailed as a hero. And that’s the condition of the Democratic Party.

But it's a terrible look to the American people. These are supposed to be our hallowed Congressional leaders, creating laws for all of us to live under, acting like Antifa street thugs? And oh the hypocrisy! These were the same people stating with self-righteous grandeur over and over that “no one is above the law,” while you can bet none of them actually expected repercussions under the law.

And this, all while the golden boy of all issues — the economy — is sitting right in front of them, ready to be used as a weapon to undermine Trump and Republicans leading up to next year’s midterms.

I’ve been involved in politics for nearly 40 years, covering them at local, state and national levels as a newspaper reporter on one side for 25 years, and as a political comms consultant on the other for the last 13 years. And I’ve never seen a political party act so completely against their obvious political interests as the Democratic Party is today. 

Like immigration, DEI is another issue that Americans increasingly oppose and side with Republicans on and the other primary issue that Democrats cannot let go of, fighting for it on university campuses, corporate boardrooms, and launching lawfare over it in the federal government. 

Cheering them on in their political suicide pact seems almost too easy.

But the reality is that the Democratic Party is far beyond distressed. As a functioning political entity, it has no reason for existing beyond opposing Trump, and secondarily Republicans. It is completely devoid of any issues, policies or even philosophies relevant to the majority of Americans. Their top issues are protecting violent illegal aliens and drag queen story hour for kiddos while trashing Martin Luther King’s dream by insisting on hiring people based on skin color. The economy is right there! (It won’t be by the end of the year or before, but it is right now.)

Meanwhile, President Trump remains steadfast in his efforts on all fronts. ICE is so overwhelmed trying to remove Biden’s unknown millions of illegals that Trump is doubling down on deportation efforts. On Friday, he ordered the Department of Homeland Security to increase the deportation force of the United States by 20,000 officers. It would be an enormous and needed expansion of immigration enforcement. Details to be ironed out, but also expect him to seek creative ways to house the illegals in various facilities on their way out, because the existing ones are also overwhelmed.

Politically speaking, Democrats have ripe targets of opportunity. But with a base of radicals and extremists they insist on playing to, they are resolutely avoiding them. The question is: Can they recover any purpose on behalf of the American people or will they continue to slide into political second class citizenship?

Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].