The Democrats have no positive legislative or social agenda. All they’ve got is not Trump.
It would appear that the Democrats are big fans of Ian Fleming’s "James Bond." The first movie, starring Sean Connery as the intrepid and debonair 007, was Dr. No. The Democrats have become the Party of No. Their entire position is to see what Donald Trump supports and then claim that they represent the opposite. Trump and Musk want to root out waste and fraud in the federal budget; they want to keep it right there. The Republicans want to close the border and eject illegal aliens; the Democrats want as many to enter a porous border as possible. Trump is pushing for a peace agreement in Ukraine; the party of no wants endless war.
The Democrats, in simply being some type of Trump anti-matter, appear not to think too much about the positions they are adopting. This is nothing new, but with the election of Donald Trump, the situation has been exponentially exacerbated. Before Trump won, Israel started a major campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah flags suddenly started to pop up at the pro-Hamas protests. Hezbollah has killed hundreds of American citizens and both it and Hamas would treat the women protesters like chattel. No worries. If it’s against the Jews and Israel, we’ll take it. And after Trump’s election, every position assumed by those opposed to the 47th president is simply whatever they determine is the 180 degree diametrically-opposed position. The latest kerfuffle is breathtaking. After demanding that the US not deport a terror supporter who whipped up Columbia students against Jews, the Democrats are demanding that a violent and dangerous Venezuelan gang be left in the US. A federal judge ordered that planes with over 200 of such criminals be turned around and brought back to the US. The Trump administration did not comply for various reasons and the last that has been seen of the gang members has been with shaved heads in a very high-security prison in El Salvador.
One of Donald Trump’s greatest feats in moving from being the 45th to the 47th president has been his ability to drive the narrative. Whereas in the past, the Democrats baited and egged on Trump, today, he is driving the truck. “Abortion” used to be the secret word that the Democrats could use to win elections. Many say that the expected 2022 “red wave” never materialized because the Democrats succeeded in frightening women to vote for them over this single issue. In approaching the 2024 election, Trump declined the suggestions from the more conservative members of the Republican Party and eschewed a federal abortion ban. “Let every state figure it out for itself,” was the president’s position, and with that abortion became a non-issue. Virtually all states allow for abortion, and women in very liberal states stood to lose nothing. Donald Trump did the same magic act with “Racism!” When he showed through his personal actions and associations that he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body and that today’s racism is directed primarily against whites, men and Jews, the other trump card that the Democrats used to take elections went up in smoke.
Without their two major pillars of election success, the Democrats actually had to come up with policy positions to present to the American public. And as Donald Trump and most Republicans running for office took “common sense” positions on policing, taxation, foreign engagements, schools, etc., the Democrats were in a real pickle. We had a few weeks in which Kamala Harris would simply take Donald Trump’s ideas—like not taxing tips—and simply present them as her own. When that approach became too obvious in her simply stealing the president’s ideas, they moved to Plan B. Plan B meant being against anything that Donald Trump was for. Donald Trump is for a very big tax cut; nothing is politically more popular than either cutting taxes or giving people the impression that they will pay less tax. The Democrats should have joined the call, but since the idea came out of Trump’s mouth, they can only reject it. They made fools of themselves at the State of the Union address, where they could not show any applause or appreciation for a kid who has fought cancer or other Americans whose life experiences merit our sympathy and respect. Donald Trump brought them to the Capitol; we can’t clap for them. We’ll hold up our silly paddles and we’ll show the president who’s boss around here.
The Democrats lack of program and their support for outlandish positions are the natural outcome for a party that has no underlying values. A person whose worldview is driven by religious belief, fidelity to the Constitution, or other fixed drivers will find the right path no matter how heavy the fog or intense the storm. Someone who loves the United States will always support the ejection of terrorists like those from Tren de Aragua; they cause havoc and death for Americans wherever they set up shop. But someone who has no foundational documents or ideas that anchor his beliefs will simply change views based on what comes off the television the night before. Where are the Democrats applauding Donald Trump, Tom Homan and Pam Bondi for getting over 200 dangerous criminals out of the country? Where are the Democrats wondering out loud if they should have turned to the courts to demand that people who have harmed American citizens be forcibly returned to the United States? I haven’t heard anyone with a D on his or her door show gratitude that the country is safer with these people in a brutal prison in El Salvador.
And the same goes for any position held by the Trump administration. People tend to say that the president comes in on the high side of “80/20” issues like keeping guys out of women’s sports. Instead of the Democrats trying to get a slice of that big, fat 80% of the populace, they have automatically bought into the 20%, losing position. Gavin Newsom is one of the few who realize that this is a losing strategy and is trying to repackage himself as being opposed to many of the Democrats’ positions. He wants to be president and destroy the other 49 states as he has done to California.
If one wanted to summarize the position of the Democratic Party on some of the current issues, it would be something like the following; they are for higher taxes, higher prices, an open border, no ejection of illegal aliens, including violent criminals; they want guys in your daughters’ sports and locker rooms, they want the Ukraine war to go on forever, and they want waste, fraud, and theft to be left alone in the federal budget. They don’t want to know a thing about Jeffrey Epstein, and they would like to leave the JFK assassination material collecting dust. There is nobody in the party, from its geriatric heads to its whippersnapper future who can scream, “Time out! Let’s take positions that will get us elected.” They are the Party of No, and I hope that the American people continue to say no to them as long as they remain as such.