The Great Capitulation continues as Trump’s enemies bend at the knee like he was BLM. The Associated Press reported, “Democratic activists fueled anti-Trump protests at GOP town halls but also rage at their own party.”
Ah. I see. AP openly admits the protests were not a grassroots effort but lefty kabuki theater with paid actors.
Before Trump kicked AP out of the Oval Office and off Air Force One, the Hamas-shielding outlet would not have bothered reporting that the crowds at townhall meetings were Democrat actors. Access is everything in journalism. AP wants its back.
The news channels have ditched some of Trump’s biggest nuisances in the quest for returning ratings to the levels of Trump’s first term. Joy Reid, Woodchuck Todd and Jimmy the Geek Acosta have departed either voluntarily or by the collar and belt by management throwing them out the door.
This reflects a disinterest in four more years of on-air tantrums over Trump.
The media bias against Trump also is bad for business. Oliver Darcy was shocked to report, “As Paramount’s merger with Skydance nears the finish line, CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and 60 Minutes boss Bill Owens have faced escalating pressure to settle Donald Trump’s lawsuit—including from incoming president Jeff Shell.”
Earth to reporters: 60 Minutes screwed up and must pay the price. That’s called accountability. McMahon and Owens will be lucky to keep their jobs once the merger gains approval.
Democrats meanwhile face an existential threat from Trump. If he’s successful, they are staring at they very real possibility of eight years of President Vance.
The 2017 strategy of opposing everything Trump does everywhere all the time has resulted, this time, in 20 consecutive losses in confirmation battles over his nominees to the Cabinet and other high-powered offices. Court battles have been iffy with even some Democrat district judges following the law instead of partisanship.
Pete Hegseth was the only nominee who came close to losing but Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in his favor. Hegseth expanded his popularity by becoming a soldier’s soldier who does PT with the troops.
He has restored the names of Fort Bragg and now Fort Benning by naming them after heroic enlisted men with the same surname as those Confederate generals we originally honored. Those names mean a lot to soldiers who learned and honed their craft there.
Likewise, Marco Rubio’s star rose on Friday when Trump tossed Slithering Zelensky from the Oval Office and ate his lunch.
Vance looks like Trump’s oldest two sons and acts like the backup Trump, which he is. He is Coolidge to Harding (a president who reduced government and brought in the Roaring Twenties) and not Bush to Reagan.
The disloyal opposition is having an identity crisis because Trump siphoned support from several voting blocs that Democrats relied on for decades: black men, young men of all races and Hispanics.
The radicalism of open borders, tranny rights and war, war, war have turned off the electorate. Sure, Democrats will continue getting the majority of the single Baby Mama vote by supporting abortion and using welfare to make Uncle Sam their de facto husband, but are there enough single women to return the country into Democrat hands?
NYT reported, “Representative Ro Khanna of California, who was a co-chair of the 2020 Sanders campaign, framed the party’s choice in terms of its ambitions: settle for simply being the opposition, and hope that is enough to win the House narrowly in 2026, or boldly reinvent the party altogether.”
Nobody likes losers. Democrats are making the 1962 New York Mets look like winners, for the story also said, “A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed favorable views of the Democrat Party at their lowest level ever, and favorable views of the Republican Party at their highest.”
What did I say about the popularity of losers? It doesn’t exist.
NYT also said, “The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, has emerged as a surprising flashpoint, after he said, days before his Feb. 1 election, that ‘anyone saying we need to start over with a new message is wrong.’
“The line has ricocheted through the party, leaving many Democrats shaking their heads in dismay and concluding that Mr. Martin will defend the status quo.”
So Democrats are going back to the future by reviving the Third Way movement that brought in Clinton from Little Rock. The strategy isn’t to change the message but to keep the goals hidden like a pirate’s treasure chest.
The Third Way announced, “In early February 2025, Third Way gathered a group of highly experienced and passionate political professionals over 1.5 days to begin to chart the Democratic comeback. As part of this retreat, attendees participated in breakout sessions to deliberate on why Democrats are struggling with working-class voters around cultural issues, the nature of the economic trust gap with this critical group, and ideas for how to address both problems.”
The problem as they see it is the Democrats have disconnected with working-class voters. Shuttering factories in the name of free markets and environmental protection will do that, as well as bringing in 30 million illegal aliens to compete for jobs by being paid under the table.
The Third Way acknowledged that Democrats overdid identity politics, acted judgmental and out-of-touch, ignored economic concerns, allowed no dissent in the party, and “defended elite institutions (academia, media, government bureaucracy) while being critical of institutions working-class people value (churches, small businesses, police).”
Politico cited 5 items in the Third Way recommendations that stood out:
The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery”
Democrats should “ban far-left candidate questionnaires and refuse to participate in forums that create ideological purity tests” and “move away from the dominance of small-dollar donors whose preferences may not align with the broader electorate”
They should “push back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging”
Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches)”
The party needs to “own the failures of Democrat governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.”
Embrace patriotism? Oh no, it is the return of Elton John’s Whippoorwill of Freedom, where you mock America by feigning patriotism.
But how does the call for banning far-left candidate questionnaires square with being a party that claims to be democratic? I mean it is not as if far-left candidates are not running the party. Democrats dumped Joe Manchin but kept AOC and the rest of the Odd Squad.
Times are so desperate for Democrats that they must pretend to be moderate. How easy it was for them back in the day. Eight years ago, when Democrats kneecapped President Trump’s nascent presidency, they installed moles in his cabinet, owned the media and had the backing of the deep state.
His cabinet today is loyal to him (and he to them), the media is crumbling and Elon Musk has taken a chainsaw to the deep state. The battle is far from over. We’ve only just begun.
However, this time the playing field is level.
Democrats are desperate. Under Obama, they followed the money and worked for the elitists. This made Obama rich but cost the party its traditional base of the middle-class. I don’t think the people they sneered at want them back.
I expect they'll try to find another unknown dem who will campaign towards the middle to capture the independent voters like both Clinton and Obama did. After winning they move leftwards. That's where the big grift lays. Tampon Tim, Kamala and those like them are Kryptonite right now.
"Vance looks like Trump’s oldest two sons and acts like the backup Trump, which he is. "
Vance is our hope because we must get his eight years following Trump's four to build the foundation for change in government. Maintaining the support we have so far through the next four years is the single most important thing Trump can deliver. He will deliver it by doing all the amazing tactical changes he is making, but also staying connected to the broader constituency.
Before Trump exits office, we have some very difficult battles to survive, not the least of which is a likely major recession or depression. The financial arrows are aimed and ready to deflate this economy. Then, there is the severing of many ties with our European allies. Europe is like the 30 year old adult child that is still living in the basement on mom and dad's dime while the kid plans the next 6-week 'holiday'.
Radical change is risky and difficult but the cabinet that is in place now is our best shot. They need to pull off some real magic in reforming government. Hopefully, we'll all be here reading this Substack - and high-fiving - in four years when JD becomes president.