If a person didn’t know any better, he or she might be under the impression that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) flew to El Salvador earlier this month to demand the release of an imprisoned political dissident fighting for democracy. No, he was just checking in on alleged MS-13 gang member and former illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

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This, as a political matter, is puzzling.

There’s a stark difference between standing up for the domestic rule of law and schmoozing with a criminal over salted margarita glasses in a foreign country. Yet, to my count, five Democratic House members have taken the trip to Central America to advocate Abrego Garcia. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also said he intends to go soon.

It won’t take much effort for a voter to contrast Van Hollen’s trip with his lack of concern for Marylander Rachel Morin, who was raped and killed by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador in 2023. Who knows? Voters might recall that neither Van Hollen nor virtually any Democrat showed much concern for the American hostages kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza. Or even the ones in nearby Venezuela.

You may argue that bringing up unrelated cases is a red herring, but a politician’s priorities tell us plenty. And modern Democrats’ priorities are incomprehensible.

Now, I’m sympathetic to the argument that the Trump administration needs to be more judicious in following court orders regarding the Alien Enemies Act. Honestly, I don’t even comprehend how such a law can be constitutional. The administration admitted that Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in El Salvador was an “administrative error.” A judge’s order from 2019 barred him from being sent to El Salvador. Shipping human beings, in the country illegally or not, to Third World megaprisons shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The White House refuses to procure the release of Abrego Garcia, as was ordered by the court. The excuses for not doing so are progressively silly. “Are you proposing that we invade El Salvador to retrieve a gang member with no legal right to be in our country?” Vice President JD Vance wrote in response to an X user. Setting aside the obvious straw man, the notion that President Donald Trump is unable to convince the unctuous Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to release a prisoner is implausible. 

The reason these frivolous arguments might land with voters is that Democrats have transformed Abrego Garcia into a heroic figure and victim. Every time a new court document emerges with evidence that Abrego Garcia was likely in a gang, Democrats look increasingly out of touch for making him the face of their cause rather than arguing for the neutral dispensation of law.

Indeed, that’s the case Democrats should be rigorously making. Though, admittedly, it’s going to be a heavy lift, considering they spent the past decade corroding precedents, weakening courts, and attacking the separation of powers.

“Maryland man,” as the media incessantly refer to Abrego Garcia, has no right to be in the United States. Even James Carville, allegedly a voice of temperance on the Left, contends that bringing Abrego Garcia back should be the “top agenda” for Democrats. Does he know a removal order was in place against the man? Abrego Garcia is being deported. He should be deported. The only question is where.

Besides, the Abrego Garcia case also speaks to a broader political issue. Every illegal immigrant is deportable somewhere, yet Democrats act as if sending anyone back home is a form of fascism. The Left rarely, if ever, makes a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. Until they do so, Democrats are only satisfying their activist base.

The recent lawlessness at the border was surely one of the reasons Democrats found themselves out of power. And it is increasingly difficult to dismiss the accusation that they intentionally created this mess by allowing a massive influx of unlawful newcomers to overwhelm the system.

As soon as former President Joe Biden took power, Democrats overturned the “zero tolerance” policy and “Remain in Mexico,” which compelled migrants to wait in that country while their claims were adjudicated in court. Under Biden, large numbers of foreigners walked over the border, said the right words, got a court date, skipped it, and disappeared into the U.S.

It was less than a year ago when Democrats unconvincingly attempted to shift blame for the crisis to Republicans for failing to pass another worthless border and immigration bill. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) argued that “extreme MAGA Republicans” — is there any other kind? — “are not serious about addressing the challenges that clearly exist at the border, which is why they detonated their own legislation.”

If this were true, how is it that Trump effectively shut the border in only a few months without any new laws or funding? Just as border crossings spiked at the start of Biden’s term, they have steeply fallen since Trump took power in 2025. By March, there was a 95% reduction in daily crossings compared to a year earlier.

Trust me, Republicans would be happy to debate how it was possible for someone like Abrego Garcia to stay here illegally for 13 years as long as Democrats like.

Then again, contemporary Democrats have a penchant for championing the absolute worst people imaginable. The attention Abrego Garcia is receiving is reminiscent of the Democrats’ recent call to “Free Mahmoud Khalil.” It is, needless to say, odd for a politician to spend his or her time defending a bigoted foreigner whose raison d’être is generating insurrections on campus while breaking the terms of his green card. Voters, many of whom dole out tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, have seen once-elite campuses turn into pits of anti-American extremism, which not only damages the reputation of higher education but also hurts the many excellent programs that do exist. For years now, the Left treats the keffiyeh-donning agitator who occupies buildings as the hero rather than the student trying to get to the library to study.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), in fact, argues that Khalil’s deportation is a “brazen attack on our fundamental freedoms.” Though, admittedly, I’m not a constitutional scholar, I’m fairly certain that foreigners have no fundamental right to a student visa, a green card, or citizenship. While you can make the case that the administration messed up on Abrego Garcia, Khalil is being afforded due process rights. As we speak, a team of progressive lawyers is trying to keep a pro-Hamas activist in the U.S.

Which leads me to this question: What on earth are Democrats doing?

It is difficult to think of a major political party in modern times that has been as aimless, feckless, and hapless. Democrats spent the past four years boiling every policy debate down to a referendum on the future of “democracy.” The Left has been calling the Right “fascists” for so long that it seems to have forgotten how to make any other argument. Perfunctory hysteria didn’t work in 2024, and it is unlikely to work going forward. 

What do Democrats stand for — I mean, other than stopping Trump? They seem animated about biological males playing in women’s sports. They are passionate about stopping across-the-board tax cuts. They’ll take to the streets to protest cuts to the funding of nongovernmental organizations that waste millions in taxpayer dollars on foreign social science projects.

Even when Trump hands Democrats a huge issue, they can barely take advantage of it. Trump’s “Liberation Day” was one of the most amateurish and confused policy rollouts in modern history, not only tanking markets but possibly spiraling us into a recession. Trump’s fans like to pretend the president’s negotiating expertise is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. Yet the administration couldn’t even settle on whether it wanted to transform the country into a self-sufficient isolationist paradise or break down international trade barriers to bring the golden age of globalism. It took only a few days for Trump to walk back the plan. Polls show that most people are unhappy about protectionist policies.

You’d think Democrats would have taken advantage of it, yet they were completely ineffectual.

Sure, Trump might sink himself with tariffs, but Democrats haven’t articulated any coherent case against protectionism because they have long been fans of technocratic economic policies themselves. In some ways, Trump has stolen their issue. There’s a reason why the International Brotherhood of Teamsters endorsed the tariff plan and why most progressive Democrats were muted on the rollout. “Tariffs are an important tool in our economic toolbox,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said before criticizing the “chaos” of the rollout. During a visit to the White House, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), a possible 2028 presidential contender, said virtually the same thing.

“We can implement this bad policy better” has never been a winning message.

There will always be a large minority of Americans who reflexively vote for their preferred party. And political obsessives are always looking for people who “fight” and “resist,” as if we are engaged in a hot war. Average voters typically want normalcy, and Democrats don’t seem capable of being normal.  

The perception of the modern Democrat is that of a woke-ridden, out-of-touch urban elite, for good reason. And those who adopt a more centrist positioning — Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) comes to mind — have a history of hard-left policies that undermine any credible move to the center. On the other side, the most popular Democrats among hardcore political activists are increasingly progressive.

Sure, for a fleeting moment there, Booker, who engaged in the longest fake filibuster in American history, was being primed by the media as the next hope. But rank-and-file Democrats have different ideas. They elected anti-gun fanatic David Hogg as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and now he promises to primary safe, non-progressive incumbents across the country. Socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) attract tens of thousands of people to their “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies. One YouGov poll found Ocasio-Cortez, whose most celebrated policy idea was overturning modernity to stop climate change, sports a plus-61 approval rating among Democrats, the highest among anyone who hasn’t been on a presidential ticket.

Is turning further toward progressivism the answer? Seems unlikely.

REST IN PEACE, MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

None of this is to contend that Democrats can’t turn things around. The GOP looked like it was kaput in 2008. By the end of 2010, then-President Barack Obama’s legacy-building was over. The reality of modern politics is that you don’t have to be popular. You merely have to be more popular than the opposition. And right now, a new Gallup poll finds that Trump’s first quarter had an average 45% job approval rating. Though higher than the 41% he earned in his first term, it is well below the average of modern presidents, which is about 60%. So, you’d think this would be an ideal environment for Democrats to take advantage of. According to the same Gallup poll, however, confidence in Democratic leadership is at an all-time low of 25%, 9 points below its former low mark of 34% in 2023.

It is often said that Trump’s greatest gift has been his enemies. That has probably never been truer than today.

David Harsanyi is a senior writer for the Washington Examiner.