Having suffered its most devastating defeat in modern history in November, the Democratic Party post-mortems have begun. According to Politico, multiple focus groups held after the election have left party leaders panicking, with no easy way out.
Specifically, participants described the far-left political party as “complacent and lazy” and “not a friend of the working class.” Others complained Democrats are too married to their radical ideas “even when they’re failing.”
Democrats conducting post-mortems on their sweeping losses in 2024 are finding more reason for alarm. And the problem isn’t just Kamala Harris or Joe Biden.
In a trio of focus groups, even voters who previously backed Democrats cast the party as weak and overly focused on diversity and elites, according to research by the progressive group Navigator Research.
When asked to compare the Democratic Party to an animal, one participant compared the party to an ostrich because “they’ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing.” Another likened them to koalas, who “are complacent and lazy about getting policy wins that we really need.” Democrats, another said, are “not a friend of the working class anymore.”
The focus groups were not just filled with random Democrat voters. Instead, they were made up of a variety of people who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 but then voted for incoming President Donald Trump in 2024. Given those people were the difference in the election, that approach makes sense. Does it really matter what some left-winger from Boulder thinks when trying to come up with a plan to rescue the Democratic Party?
One man from Georgia who switched his vote to Trump called out “Democratic elites,” saying they are “obsessed” with “far-left social progressivism” often pushed on college campuses.
“I think what the Democratic elites and their politicians believe is often very different from what the average Democratic voter is,” said a Georgia man who voted for Biden in 2020 but Trump in 2024. “The elites that run the Democratic Party — I think they’re way too obsessed with appealing to these very far-left social progressivism that’s very popular on college campuses.”
All of this is good information, but Democrats face an issue without an easy solution. In a vacuum, could the party change its stripes and appear more sane? Perhaps, but the Democratic Party doesn’t exist in a vacuum. One only had to watch MSNBC in the days after the 2024 election to understand that.
SEE: MSNBC Reacts to Trump Win, and Zero Lessons Have Been Learned
Much of the problem started with former President Barack Obama. He ushered in a wave of racial grievance and division that created the insanely woke social progressivism that is now at the heart of the Democratic party. That means it can’t just be removed. If party leaders attempt to move to the middle on things like DEI, social justice, and transgenderism to appeal more to normal Americans, they will have betrayed an increasingly militant base, and if the pro-Hamas lunatics have taught us anything, its that the Democrat base will burn everything down for nothing more than spite.
So what do Democrats do? I have no idea. If House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is still mumbling about “extreme MAGA Republicans,” is any indication, they are going to keep doubling down. The rumblings of a third Kamala Harris presidential run offer no sign of a shift either. This is what happens when you indulge in insane left-wing ideology for short-term political gain. It’s a one-way street, and Democrats are stuck.
