Jerry Shenk: The hills Democrats chose to die on

A recent Quinnipiac poll revealed that American voters’ approval of congressional Democrats has hit an all-time low of 21 percent, while approval for Republicans has reached a record high.

Quinnipiac is a “progressive” pollster that typically oversamples Democrats, so the results may actually be worse.

The Democrats’ 2024 presidential “nominee,” a usurper who received no primary votes, lost every swing state and the popular vote. National Democrats are out of power, lack identifiable leadership, have no cogent message, and project no fundamental identity that connects with average Americans.

There is little homogeneity among Democrats. A series of mass psychoses driven by the noisiest, most radical factions who currently control the party have overridden and/or damaged its traditional relationships with minorities and working class Americans, many of whom now identify more closely with Republicans.

President Donald Trump didn’t win them all, of course, but compared to 2020, his November 2024 election results improved in nearly every red and blue voting district in America.

The Democrat Party’s core principles are not conventional or even reassuring. Indeed, today, one struggles to identify anything resembling a set of “core principles” other than those comprehensively rejected by significant numbers of American voters.

Consider the priorities Democrats have adopted and pursued over the past four-plus years:

1. “Defund the police” – a slogan popularized by Black Lives Matter during the George Floyd riots that advocates the reallocation of public funds from police departments to “community services.” Crime has soared and public safety suffered in jurisdictions that adopted it.

2. No cash for bail – a criminal release policy that has had serious ramifications for law-abiding citizens in the communities advocates insist the policy would benefit. A Chicago Tribune column called it, “a slap in the face to victims and neighborhoods desperately seeking safety.”

3. Illegal immigration/open borders – According to certain Democrats, “No Human Being Is Illegal.”

4. Sanctuary cities – Cities with policies that limit cooperation with immigration enforcement to protect the “rights” of illegal aliens at the costs of citizens’ job opportunities, housing, public health and safety.

5. Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – Opponents call ICE  a “deportation force” or “an abusive police force,” while most Americans consider enforcement and deportation appropriate responses to aliens who have violated America’s immigration laws.

6. No voter ID – Free, fair and secure elections are essential for maintaining a functioning society, nonetheless, Democrats oppose ensuring election integrity and reserving voting rights for American citizens by requiring and enforcing photo ID and documentary proof of citizenship.

7. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) – a dogma encouraging “equitable” and “inclusive” policies that are clear examples of illegal discrimination. Rather than tolerance, DEI has fostered racial and group animosity, set back America’s racial progress, and frayed our social fabric.

8. Reparations for slavery – a scheme in which people who never owned slaves would be forced to “repay” others who were never enslaved.

9. Student loan forgiveness – rewarding people who took out loans to acquire worthless degrees by forcing repayment on people who took on no debt or already repaid theirs.

10. Men in women’s sports – a practice that is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to biological women and girls, denies them an equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports, and deprives them of recognition and, sometimes, prize money.

11. Transgender children – a disturbing trend that destroys the innocence of childhood in attempts to validate the fantasies of insecure, susceptible, and genuinely sick adults.

12. Abortion on demand – a liberal perversion of the term “health care” that awards inconvenienced adults the “right” to decide if an innocent other will die, up to and even beyond childbirth.

13. Finally, Democrats are foolishly crusading against canceling fraud, waste and abuse in government programs, the primary focus of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their opposition to the government reforms of which most Americans approve raises public suspicions that Democrats have benefitted from all three. Early DOGE revelations show that some have.

If Democrats are counting on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s hopeful assurances that “Trump will screw up” to fuel their renaissance, they are only kidding themselves. President Trump and his cabinet are on the popular side of every one of those issues.

Democrats have chosen some very strange hills to die on, and, absent reform, die they surely will.

Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com