The year was 2008. Barack Obama had just been elected the first black president of the United States. Democrats were in total control in Washington, with majorities in the House and Senate. 

At the time, the Republican Party appeared to be irreparable. George W. Bush had a 25% approval rating on Election Day. Republican nominee John McCain won just 22 states and was trounced by Obama by more than seven points in the popular vote. With the backdrop of thousands of U.S. deaths in the Iraq War and an economy in the deepest recession seen since the Great Depression, nothing was going right for the Red Team.  

Seventeen years later, the shoe is now on the other foot, with Democrats completely on the outside looking in. They lost the White House to President Donald Trump (again) and lost control of the Senate while failing to win back the House. Twenty-seven states are governed by Republicans. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 Republican majority, at least in theory.  

So, how bad is it for Democrats? Just 31% of voters view the Democratic Party favorably, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll, marking its lowest approval ever in the history of this survey. Meanwhile, 43% view the Republican Party favorably, the highest mark the party has ever received in the same poll. 

The big question is, who is the leader of the Democratic Party right now? 

Is it former Vice President Kamala Harris, who just ran what was arguably the worst campaign of our lifetimes? 

Is it Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Harris’s patently awkward, stolen valor, China-loving running mate who actually dragged the ticket down in his home state of Minnesota? 

Is it 84-year-old Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former House Speaker who helped oust former President Joe Biden as the nominee? 

Is it the aforementioned 82-year-old Biden, who has gone completely off the grid since Trump took office?

How about Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), whose possible campaign sticker of “Make America Like California” is a nonstarter given the horrific way the state is run, especially when it comes to having the highest taxes in the country, rampant crime, homeless cities, and wildfire management, or lack thereof. As far as Newsom’s prospects, another recent Quinnipiac poll shows 70% of California voters oppose him running for president. 

Then there’s social media’s darling, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who is being touted as a 2028 nominee despite failing to sponsor or co-sponsor any bill that has actually been passed into law. 

The only viable option is arguably Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who is polling at around 50%, some of the highest approvals for any governor in the country. He has the oratory skills that have some likening him to Obama, and he governs his purple state as a centrist compared to most of the rest of the party. 

However, no Jewish politician has ever won the party nomination. Only Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came somewhat close after challenging Hillary Clinton in a fight nearly to the end in 2016. However, devastating Wikileaks dumps throughout that election year showed that the Democratic National Committee machine worked against him to ensure she was the candidate. 

One can’t help but wonder why Harris didn’t choose Shapiro, a popular governor from a state that was crucial to her chances. Was the antisemitic wing of the party a factor in that decision? Will that play a role again in 2028? 

Speaking of leadership, the DNC elected its new chairman and vice chairman this past weekend at National Harbor, Maryland. The winners were millionaire Ken Martin as chairman, a close ally of Walz, who is regarded as the most radical governor in the country. 

If you’re wondering how this is going to go, Martin, for his part, called for Trump to be tried for treason. Because lawfare has been so effective against Trump to this point, hasn’t it? 

“The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country,” Martin said without a hint of self-awareness.

For vice chairman, the party turned to 24-year-old David Hogg, who called for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, eliminating the National Rifle Association, and defunding the police. 

So much for moving to the center. 

Overall, eight candidates ran for the DNC chairship. The process included a forum fittingly moderated by MSNBC “journalist” Jonathan Capehart, who asked people onstage if racism and misogyny played a major role in Harris’s crushing defeat by Trump.

All eight people raised their hands.

“That’s good. You all passed,” chuckled the non-partisan Capehart.

That’s right, it wasn’t inflation or crime or the open border or the endless wars or woke ideology or the fact that Harris was a profoundly horrible candidate with no coherent message that caused the shellacking that happened on Nov. 5 … it was racism and misogyny.

In a related story, Harris also ran for president in 2020 but dropped out in 2019, well before Iowa, because Democratic voters roundly rejected her. Was that because of racism and misogyny, too?

The post-election world has also seen many Democrats voting against commonsense bills in a mindless reflex to play the role of blind resistance to all things Trump. 

Take the Laken Riley Act, which requires federal law enforcement to detain illegal immigrants who are arrested after committing crimes, including shoplifting and assault. Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was brutally murdered while jogging on the University of Georgia campus last year by a Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally. Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested and released previously for child endangerment yet was not deported under the Biden-Harris administration. 

Voting against this bill is political suicide when considering that an overwhelming number of people support the deportation of criminals in the U.S. illegally. A recent Siena College poll of New York residents, for example, shows nearly 80% of voters in one of the most blue states in the country support deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a violent crime, including 69% of Democrats. 

However, somehow, 148 Democrats voted against the Laken Riley Act. Try explaining that thought process to constituents.

We also saw this happen with another bill that passed the House called the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act, which says biological men cannot compete against biological women. Again, it’s a matter of numbers and voter sentiment. A New York Times/Ipsos poll found that 79% of people said men should not compete in women’s sports.

Again, this is another bill that 203 Democrats voted against. Why? To appease the other 21% of voters on the far left who support it? 

This is commonsense stuff. It’s no different from athletes using steroids and human growth hormones to gain a clear advantage. The party billing itself as the party of women is hemorrhaging this bloc, especially suburban mothers. 

The most effective political ad that ran during the 2024 campaign was Harris, in her own words, making the case during her first presidential run that she supported U.S. taxpayer funds to pay for sex changes for people not only in the U.S. illegally but also in prison. It was a message of basic pragmatism that had cross-party appeal.  

“Twenty big cities, Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard — that’s what’s left of the Democratic Party. And I’m not exactly sure those 20 big cities are getting the best version of the Democratic Party,” explained defeated congressman Adam Frisch in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. 

He’s dead on in this assessment. The party of working men and women is the party of blue cities, coastal elites, and ritzy resorts. Here’s a stat: of the top 10 richest U.S. congressional districts, nine are represented by Democrats.

If the party wants to start winning elections again, especially in Midwest and Sun Belt swing states, it needs to resist those leading a resistance full of sound and fury, which signifies nothing.

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“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised, and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly,” Obama warned Democrats in 2019, when the woke movement was taking off to a cheering media.

Six years later, it appears very few on his side of the aisle have taken that advice.