If progressives have a politics that says all white people are racist, all men are toxic, and all billionaires are evil it’s kinda hard to keep them on your side. If you’re chasing people out of the party, you can’t be mad when they leave.”
Van Jones (Democrat pundit on CNN)
CNBC’s latest poll found only 24% voter approval of the Democrat Party, a three-decade low that aligns with sixteen years of Gallup polls (see chart above). Most blame Obama for this liberal demise that actually began in 1964. That’s when Lyndon Johnson won 44 states, 486 electoral votes and 61.1% of the popular vote. 60 years later, what LBJ started ended with Kamala Harris winning just 19 states, 226 electoral votes and 48.3% of the popular vote. Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.
LBJ’s Great Society programs doomed Democrats, and Biden-Harris’s incompetence/dishonesty drove the final nail in the party’s coffin.
In March 1968, with 36% voter approval, LBJ told the nation, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.” That begat Democrat primaries that begat Vice President Humphrey’s close loss to Nixon that begat his gracious Election Night address to his supporters: “I have done my best. I have lost. Mr. Nixon has won. The democratic process has worked its will, so now let’s get on with the urgent task of uniting our country.”
In February 2024, with 36% voter approval, Biden told reporters, “I beat Trump before and I’ll beat him again.” That begat a debate disaster that begat his clandestine ouster that begat Vice President Harris’s loss to Trump – the worst Democrat loss since 1988 – that begat her two-days-late address to her supporters: “I concede this election. I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time. I hope that is not the case. This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and fight for themselves.”
And there you have it. Humphrey loved his country too much to urge anti-war and civil-rights activists to “organize, mobilize and fight” for themselves. Harris hated Trump so much that she willfully evoked an out-party rebellion that’s turned violent.
I have no love for LBJ’s Great Society programs, but at least Blacks (Civil Rights Act of 1964) and low-income voters (Food Stamp Act of 1964) knew WHY they were voting for Johnson-Humphrey. No joke, and Humphrey told voters in 1968 WHY he was not LBJ by opposing the deeply unpopular Vietnam War (he almost won). In contrast, Kamala Harris said in 2024 “nothing comes to mind” that she’d do differently than Biden (she won only 19 states).
Any neuro-marketer – like the wizards at Apple – knows buying and voting decisions turn on WHY. To wit, 155 million Americans can tell you WHY they bought their iPhone, don’t care HOW it works, and Apple won 58.3% of the US smartphone market as a result (source: Statista). Until Trump arrived, Republicans were stuck in HOW mode; warning of “welfare queens” and “budget deficits” to a disinterested electorate…and then Donald Trump rode down that golden escalator in 2015.
Because Trump rode WHY to the White House in 2016. He wrested the GOP nomination from Jeb Bush, who focused on telling voters HOW Trump’s immigration policies would not work; the wall was “unrealistic” because Mexico would not pay for it, and deportations would “inflame and incite” anxiety. Then, Hillary Clinton told voters HOW Trump’s temporary ban on Muslims was “un-American” and his border wall would be “difficult to build in certain terrains.” To this day, RINOs and Democrats have yet to explain WHY Trump’s wrong on key issues.
Take crime, where the GOP holds a 22-point advantage with voters over Democrats (source: CNN). Under Biden, Americans saw TV news footage of LA’s homeless encampments, San Francisco’s smash-and-grab mobs, and New York’s subway murders. As a result, 95% of Americans now worry about crime, with 75% worrying a “fair amount” or a “great deal” (source: Gallup).
No question, those folks know WHY the President ordered “historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse” (Trump’s words) and don’t care HOW Democrats opposed the National Guard in DC and LA. Democrat mayors called it “a political charade” and “misuse of military resources.” Democrat governors called the deployment “unconstitutional” and laced with “bigotry and racism.” The NAACP president said Trump was trying to “distract the public” from the Epstein files. Really?
Republicans also hold a 13-point lead over Democrats on illegal immigration, because 80% of Americans want criminal illegal aliens deported and no illegal alien to receive tax-payer-funded welfare. The moral majority knows DHS and ICE agents are just enforcing the law, and that ICE arrests took place under Obama (2.7 million deportations) and Biden (500,000 arrests). The Trump administration explains WHY almost daily: deport drug dealers, human traffickers, murderers, non-citizen voters, and unauthorized welfare recipients.
In contrast, Democrats focus on HOW deportations are bad. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the arrest of a pro-Hamas Syrian was “tyrannical and un-American.” Reps. Balint (D-VT) and Pelosi (D-CA) said Trump’s immigration policy meant we’re “not going to have anybody around to wipe our asses” or “to pick the crops.” Democrat support for alleged human-trafficker Abrego Garcia has focused on HOW he’ll be treated (rival gangs in his native El Salvador, and “deep concerns over inadequate medical care and insufficient food” in a US prison – – proven untrue by honest reporters).
The point here is that today’s Democrats don’t know WHY they are in Washington. I just can’t see the late Sam Rayburn (D-TX) trying to force his way into federal buildings to protest a DOGE audit, or the late Tip O’Neill (D-MA) bull-rushing security at an ICE detention center. But I can see Chuck Schumer forcing a shutdown of the federal government.
There is a correlation today between Democrats’ perverse antics and voters fleeing their party. 80% of voters know WHY they support deporting criminal illegal aliens and sending the National Guard into DC and LA to help local law enforcement, but they don’t know HOW a sitting member of Congress can think it’s OK to bull-rush prison guards or engage in violent speech.
Re-visit Democrat Van Jones’ words (quote up top) because he’s right. Left-liberals keep demonizing everyday folks, everyday folks keep leaving the party, and Democrat leaders don’t tell everyday folks WHY they should come back to the party.