By Joseph Catena
The Democrats are in a horrific conundrum. They lost the White House. They lost the Senate. They couldn’t win the House. They lost their direction. They lost their base.
Worst of all, they are leaderless – a body without limbs.
The 2024 presidential campaign was an unraveling of a major political party that built its reputation on serving the working class, standing up for civil rights, and representing freedom and peace. Democrats always had an open home for men who wore a hard hat and brought a lunch pail to work. Catholics, many of whom were legal immigrants or descendants of them, who went to church on Sunday and practiced their faith throughout the week, comfortably identified with the party. Blacks and Hispanics were staples. But in the Election of ’24, the Democratic party abandoned these factions and capitulated to the most radical, far-left elements that used to rest around the fringes of the tent. Leaders ditched their souls to satisfy the LGBTQ community, illegal aliens, DEI ideology, and Hollywood elitists.
Not only did the leadership rip out Joe Biden – their actual leader – they defiled the will of the 14 million voters who chose him to be their presidential candidate. Someone needs to step into the breach. The problem is the Democrats do not have anyone with a clear vision and the strong will necessary. Trump had that will in 2015, and he transformed the Republican party in a historic, seismic fashion. The GOP now has mass appeal to young voters and the working class in a way not seen since Ronald Reagan some four decades earlier.
The Dems need to find someone who can galvanize. The question is will they go with a centrist or will they stay woke?
It is not much different than the defeat they suffered in 1988. Liberal Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis was blown out by Vice President George H.W. Bush, who road the coattails of the Reagan Revolution. It was the Democrats’ fifth loss in six presidential elections. Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, and Dukakis were the respective nominees from 1968 onward. Only Carter squeaked out a win in 1976 over Gerald Ford in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Each candidate veered left, and the results were dismal. Twice during that period – Nixon in ’72 and Reagan in ’84 – the Democrats lost in 49-state landslides. It was obvious a change was needed.
Enter Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in 1992.
Clinton came in with a more centrist, business-friendly vision. That vision was aided with a third-party candidacy of Ross Perot and Bush, a very weak incumbent with a dismal economy on his record, allowed Clinton to score a huge electoral landslide despite winning a mere 43 percent of the popular vote. Whether Clinton governed as a centrist or not is another story, but he did serve two terms in the Oval Office.
The Democrats’ current void will certainly be sought by the far left, the AOC/Bernie Sanders wing of the party. Is there a Clintonesque candidate to challenge them? Could Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Andy Beshear of Kentucky be the one? Sadly, it is difficult to find another high-profile name remotely close to the center. If the Democrats remain the party of the elitists, radical pro-abortionists, trangenders, and the anti-Israel lot – let’s also not forget the pro-illegal alien/pro amnesty crowd – they risk falling into a fringe party abyss and a destination of obscurity.
Stewing in defeat to Donald Trump and losing the U.S. Senate will give the Democrats time to reflect. Will they become a party of unity and support common sense proposals, or will they become a party of opposition because they hate Trump so much?
Simply put, which way do they go?