After suffering a hard defeat, Democrats are now intent on taking a hard left. If history is any indication, expect them to continue. Simply put, Democrats no longer have enough non-extremists to stop their stampede by the lemmings of the left.
The depth of Democrats’ debacle is easily measured but still difficult to fathom. Trump gained popular vote share — for a third straight presidential election. He became the first Republican to beat a Democrat in the presidential popular vote in 20 years.
In contrast, Harris lost ground to Biden’s 2020 percentage-vote performance in all states but one (Utah) and even in the District of Columbia. As a result, Trump trounced Harris in the Electoral College, 312-226.
Yet staring into this canyon, according to a recent Emerson poll, Harris still leads 2028 Democratic presidential contenders. California Gov. Gavin Newsom placed second. It is tempting to chalk this up to a popularity contest — though Harris’ disastrous campaign makes her popularity hard to imagine — until you look at the other numerous examples of Democrats’ leftward lunge.
Democratic officials in blue states are also lining up to oppose a Trump administration 46 days away from assuming office. Willing to sacrifice their jurisdictions for their political ambitions, officials in Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, New York and California have come forward promising to pick fights with Trump over illegal immigration, electric vehicle subsidies, and transgender surgeries.
What gives? Apparently, the party whose symbol is the donkey does not believe the adage that there is no education in a mule’s second kick.
Mystifying as Democratic stubbornness may be, history argues that their leftward stampede won’t stop.
After Hillary Clinton’s stunning 2016 defeat, Democrats became unhinged, and their radical left was unleashed. Liberals were only too ready to channel their temper tantrums through their leftist extremists. The results were embodied in The Squad’s 2018 election.
With their takeover of the House, Democrats, led by their left-wing, initiated massive investigations into Trump and his administration — culminating in not one, but two impeachments.
Democrats’ 2020 presidential nomination contest confirmed the party’s subservience to their leftists. The crowded field was so far left, that Joe Biden appeared comparatively less extreme. But he didn’t — and couldn’t — for long.
While the far-left field winnowed itself, and supporters to Biden, the process also radicalized him. Democrats’ crowded far-left field gave Biden the nomination by default; it also converted him de facto.
Because Democrats refused to have a contested nomination in 2024, their leftward drift over the last four was not readily measurable. However, it is no less apparent. In fact, Democrats’ desire to not have a real 2024 contest was because they feared how far their left’s extremist demands would drive Biden ahead of the general election.
Still, the evidence of Democratic leftward movement is clear from what didn’t take place this year. First, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) didn’t contest the nomination for the first time in eight years. Second, when the Democratic elite pushed for Biden’s removal, the party’s far left was conspicuously silent — neither Sanders nor Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) pushed for it.
Why did both non-events occur? Because the far left had gotten virtually everything they wanted from the Biden administration, giving them their greatest access to government power in American history.
All evidence points to Democrats’ left lunge being even more extreme in 2028. First, Trump Derangement Syndrome will have had four more years to infect them. Second, there are no non-extremists with political power remaining to stop it.
Look at the Democratic diaspora already: Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr. There is no one in the party for non-extremists to rally around. More importantly, there are no Democratic non-extremists left to do the rallying.
The 2028 Democratic presidential nomination will be nothing but a bidding war for their far left.
The Democratic Party is sacrificing its middle. Its far-left infestation drives out the non-extremists it encounters. The far left doesn’t care because they win regardless. Either they win absolutely and their policies advance, or they win relatively, because it is the less-extreme members of the Democratic Party who disproportionately absorb the losses.
That the Democrats are thus infected cannot be doubted. In 2020, Newsweek reported the results of a Gallup poll showing that 76 percent of Democrats would support a socialist for president if nominated by their party.
The lemmings of the left are intent on stampeding the Democratic Party into the sea. And they are likely to be successful because there is no one — and no ones — left to stop them.
J.T. Young is the author of the new book, “Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left” from RealClear Publishing and has over three decades’ experience working in Congress, the Department of Treasury, and the White House Office of Management and Budget, and representing a Fortune 20 company.
