The Patriot Post® · Democrats Seek to Rebuild Brand by Turning Harder Left

Last year Donald Trump hit upon the growing anti-establishment zeitgeist and rode it all the way into the White House. His election victory sent tremors through the political elites of both major parties. Trump’s anti-establishment populist message resonated with an electorate that had grown tired of being pandered to and lied to by politicians who more often than not treated their constituents as the problem to which the only solution was the imposition of ever growing government control.

Prior to the election, establishment Democrats believed that they had avoided the chaos that had disrupted the Republican Party and saddled it with Trump. The DNC had successfully suppressed their own anti-establishment uprising (a.k.a. Bernie Sanders) and had seemingly maneuvered Hillary Clinton into the position of a “sure bet winner.” Of course, in the aftermath of arguably the most surprising election victory in modern American history, those establishment Democrats were slow to admit fault and instead sought to foist blame onto a ridiculous Trump/Russia collusion conspiracy. They still weren’t listening to the people.

To be fair, the DNC’s anti-establishment problem is unlike that faced by the Republicans. The DNC was correct in recognizing that the extreme leftist policy issues promoted by Sanders were simply not election-winning positions. When the majority of the American people are sick and tired of Big Government failure, campaigning on a leftist political platform offering only more extreme Big Government programs was simply not a winning solution.

However, because the DNC essentially rigged its nomination process to ensure that Clinton, the establishment candidate, won the nomination, Democrats only stoked fires of the party’s extreme leftists. These leftist grassroots groups that were once only seen as the far fringe elements of the party have increasingly moved the mainstream of the party’s policy positions farther to the Left, in part by branding themselves as the ultimate anti-Trump “resistance” force. And they have now begun to attract the big donors who formally were a mainstay of financial support for the Democrat establishment.

“Indivisible” is one of these new leftist anti-Trump resistance groups that has received increased funding from the likes of none other than billionaire George Soros. Indivisible official Sarah Dohl clearly expressed the group’s aim, saying, “It’s not a secret that we would like to move the Democratic Party further left. The party will only get to where it needs to go if it has groups like ours pushing them to do the right thing.”

After Clinton’s stinging loss to Trump, have the Democrats learned their lesson, rejected those extremist elements within their party and sought to find more common ground with everyday Americans? It would appear that just the opposite is occurring. The question is, will Republicans take advantage of the opportunity and promote conservative principles or continue to squabble over territory they ceded a long time ago.