The Democrats Just Made a Huge Mistake

The Democratic Party has never been less popular – and that isn’t hyperbole.

A CNN national survey released over the weekend found that the party’s standing among Americans is at an all-time low. Even self-identified Democrats are losing faith in a party that is clearly struggling for direction after November’s electoral drubbing.

Of course, voters don’t need a poll to see that the Democratic Party’s brand is in tatters. All they needed to do was watch the very public recriminations after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday voted to avert a government shutdown. He brought enough Democratic senators with him to pass the GOP’s funding priorities even though all but one House Democrat opposed the measure and dozens had penned a letter to Schumer urging him to block it.

To millions of Americans, it felt like a betrayal of Democrats’ post-election promise to fight Trump at every turn: Passing the new funding bill wasn’t just an embarrassing capitulation, it undercut Democrats’ attempts to protect government services from Trump’s hatchet. Schumer’s effort tied Democrats to $13 billion in non-defense cuts while rejecting efforts to enforce accountability on billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Blocking the budget bill was one of the few ways the minority party could have exercised power in a government dominated by Republicans.