THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S DILEMMA – OVERNIGHT:  The party is in crisis.  It literally must choose between its bizarre ideology or winning elections.  So far the ideology seems to be winning.  From Glenn Reynolds at the New York Post: 

The Democrats have a problem: They have run away from their core voters. And they are beginning to notice and worry.

Lefty blogger Kevin Drum noted this recently. He observes that Republicans have moved slightly to the right, but Democrats have moved way, way to the left on social issues.

Drum says he is “personally happy” about the Democrats’ move left. But he is worried, because while the Democratic Party has moved hard left, the voters it relies on to attain power haven’t.

Thus, in the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump — despite being called a white supremacist and a Hispanic-hater by all the mainstream media — picked up black and Hispanic votes.
One reason for this is that racial polarization went down, but “education polarization” went up. The Democrats are increasingly the party of the college- and graduate-school-educated white gentry class. The Republicans are increasingly the party of the working class, which includes a lot of . . . blacks and Hispanics.

Just look at the issues the Democrats are pushing: defunding the police, which hurts mostly poor and working-class neighborhoods; critical race theory, which mostly interests woke white activists (and rich-and-guilty Dem donors) but which actually sends a message of inferiority to minority youths; gender ideology, which plays less well among the more traditional and more religious working-class minorities; environmental policies that produce higher gas prices and lower employment, while pushing food prices up; open borders that drive down wages for downscale workers; and so on.

Donors and activists love this stuff. They live in neighborhoods that are mostly insulated from urban crime and disorder. Their kids will still be privileged, regardless of what theories on race are popular. Transgender issues make them feel hip and cutting-edge. Higher gas and food prices won’t affect them. And illegal immigration makes sure they don’t have to pay too much for a nannies and gardeners.

For a long time, the Democrats were able to have it both ways, pretending solidarity with the working class while promoting policies that undercut it. But they have overdone things, and now people have noticed.

The voting shift of 2020, they fear, was just the beginning.

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  The Dems are truly in trouble, and they're a leaderless party.  Is anyone prepared to follow Joe Biden anywhere?  Is anyone prepared to follow Kamala Harris to the supermarket?

That doesn't mean 2022 or 2024 will be pushovers for our side.  First, the press is still decidedly on the left.  Second, mistakes can be made.  Third, we don't know what the role of Donald Trump will be, and whether he'll be a plus or minus for the GOP.  Fourth, the Democrats might actually come up with some attractive candidates, unlikely as that is.

Prepare for political combat ahead.

July 9,  2021