Democrat Extremism Underwrites Trump

Authored by J.T. Young via RealClearPolitics,

Democrats’ extremism continues to underwrite Donald Trump’s agenda. Since 2021, this has been the case, and it shows no sign of stopping. Rather than bolstering them as an alternative, Democrats are giving Trump the leverage to pursue his aggressive agenda.

President Trump remains divisive. While his job approval and favorability ratings are higher than they were eight years ago, they remain low. According to Real Clear Politics’ August 28 average of national polling, Trump’s approval rating is 45.3%-51.5% for -6.2% net; on August 28, 2017, Trump sat at -16.9%. According to RCP’s polling average of Trump’s favorability, he is 44.3%-52.1%, for -7.8%; on August 28, 2017, Trump was -17.9%.

Trump’s 2024 victory was a landslide in swing states and states between the coasts. However, Trump’s win in the popular (below 50%) and in the electoral votes (312-226) was hardly historic. Nor did he bring home large congressional majorities: Republican control of the Senate (by six votes, 53-47) and House (by five votes, 220-215) do not approach past presidents’ majorities. 

Yet Trump took office governing like FDR in his first 100 days. Now into his third “hundred days,” Trump is still doing so. And this is a president who was twice impeached and once defeated: No impeached president has ever been reelected (let alone a twice-impeached one), and the last time a defeated president was reelected occurred over 130 years ago. 

How is this continued momentum possible? Democrats’ extremism is making them even less popular. 

According to a recent WSJ poll, Democrats’ popularity is at a 35-year low. This is no outlier: Other polls show similar results. Between 2020 and 2024, Republicans gained up to 4.5 million registered voters versus Democrats, who saw net losses in all 30 states reviewed by the NYT. And Trump’s 2024 victory was attributable to an overwhelming win in “fly-over” country: The 46 states outside California, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington contain 80.5% of America’s electoral votes; Trump won 72% of them in 2024. 

The issues that the Biden-Harris ticket lost on last November are the same issues that Democrats are insistent about fighting Trump on now. 

On illegal immigration, RCP’s average of national polling showed Biden’s last job approval rating was just 33.5%. Yet Democrats continue to challenge Trump at every juncture: They have tried to make Kilmar Abrego Garcia into a martyr; they have stormed ICE detention facilities; they have tried to jeopardize ICE agents’ safety by pushing to bar them from wearing masks.   

On crime, RCP’s average of national polling showed Biden’s last job approval rating was just 38%. Yet Democrats continue to challenge Trump on his push against crime: They have objected to him deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C., despite D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser saying it has reduced the city’s crime; and they have threatened to take him to court if he tries to deploy the National Guard in crime-ridden Chicago.

The same anti-Trump intransigence has led Democrats to take similarly extremist positions on allowing biological males to compete against biological females (something Americans overwhelmingly oppose), to lock arms against Trump’s push to keep tax rates from rising to pre-2017 levels (every Democrat in the House and Senate voted against it), and for many, to object to his strike against terrorist-backing Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

Americans oppose allowing biological males to compete against girls and women. RCP’s average of national polling showed Biden’s last job approval rating on the economy – which would have been devastated by the tax hike that would have occurred if Democrats had blocked keeping 2017 tax rates in place – was just 38.8%. The RCP average showed Biden’s last job approval rating on foreign policy – to which America’s support for Israel has been foundational for decades – was a mere 35.6%. 

Time and time again, Democrats are choosing the wrong side of lopsided issues. In doing so, they are maintaining the margin between themselves and Trump, and they are not giving Americans a plausible alternative to Trump. No alternative means giving Trump all the leverage.

There is an old joke about two men encountering a lion. Terrified, the first man whispers to the other man, “What are you going to do?” “Run,” the other man whispers back. The first man responds, “Are you crazy, you can’t outrun a lion!”  “I don’t have to outrun the lion,” says the second, “I just have to outrun you.”

Right now, Trump is outrunning the Democrats, and the Democrats aren’t even making it a race.

J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left from RealClear Publishing and has over three decades’ experience working in Congress, the Department of Treasury, the Office of Management, and Budget, and representing a Fortune 20 company.