Following defeat in the presidential election, Democratic Party leadership is doing much needed soul searching.

Those not in denial know there is something wrong.

Per Gallup, in the 10 months in 2024 prior to the election, January to October, the Democrat partisan advantage — the percentage identifying as Democrat or lean Democrat minus the percentage identifying as Republican or lean Republican — was in negative territory 5 of the 10 months. This is more Democrat negatives than in any presidential election year since Gallup started reporting this in 1992.

The percentage of the electorate not happy with either party is growing. In 2004, per Gallup, 31% identified as Independent. Twenty years later, in 2024, this was up to 43%.

More general measures show a displeased American public.

In December, Gallup shows just 19% satisfied with the direction of the country.

Gallup has been polling annually since 2001 asking, “How proud are you to be an American?” In 2001, 55% said they are “extremely proud.” In 2023, this was down to 39%.

To summarize, the 2024 presidential election plus polling data tells us that Americans are not happy with the status quo, almost half of Americans are not happy with either party, but between the two major parties, they are less happy with Democrats.

The late Peter Drucker, who pioneered the field of management consulting, wrote that when a firm hired him for advice, the first question he would ask management was to define the business they are in.

Drucker observed that a common characteristic of companies that are in trouble is that management cannot clearly define their business.

We can apply Drucker’s rule to our country. What business is the United States of America in?

Although there were many debates in the founding of the country, the principles that define it, which show up in our founding documents — the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution — are very clear. It is a country about individual freedom, with a limited federal government, whose responsibilities are enumerated in the Constitution, but all with the objective of protecting the individual freedom of our citizens.

Democratic Party leaders can focus here to understand what the problem is with their party. Democrats fail the Drucker rule. They have completely detached from what our country is about.

We are completing four years of a Biden administration that paid zero attention to anything but spending money, expanding an already bloated government, and financing it all with mindboggling new debt and deficits. The principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility, as a national ideal, is and has been totally lost to the Democratic Party.

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign promised only a new chapter of the same. She had not one idea or proposal that did not involve more government.

With individual freedom comes personal responsibility. This implies standards of right and wrong. In our nation, the Bible has always been the source for these standards.

George Washington said it in his farewell address. Abraham Lincoln said it in his second inaugural speech. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it in his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Anyone that viewed President Joe Biden’s Christmas video message from the White House heard him say, “Too often we see each other as enemies, not as neighbors, not as fellow Americans.”

It is, sadly, true. But responsibility for this destructive mindset lies at the doorstep of Biden and his party. It is the Democratic Party that has fostered a culture, the antithesis of what America is about, that says that some do not have enough because others have too much. And that government should decide who has what and should use its political power to redistribute wealth.

The eternal truths that define our nation are the rules of the game that give all better lives.

Everyone seems to grasp this these days, except those leading the Democratic Party.

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