If I were a Democrat strategist, I'd be very worried.
Then again, I'd also be telling the Democratic Party to take things in a radically different direction. The Democrats, however, seem to be operating on one collective thought -- 'Orange Man Bad' -- to their detriment. It's plain that the house of cards Dems built around being the Resistance to President Trump is on the brink of collapse, and with it, the entire Democratic Party.
A recent Gallup poll showed Democratic Party favorability at a record low of 34%, and that's before pollsters get to fully experience voter blowback over the Democrats' screeching about President Trump's D.C. crime crackdown. What happens when -- like the southern border -- President Trump's approach to crime in the nation's capital works?
It's going to work. All it takes is the intestinal fortitude to enforce the law. Unlike Democrats (and many Republicans, frankly), President Trump has the spine to see it through.
Greg Gutfeld had the same thought:
🚨 Fox News’ @greggutfeld on D.C. clean up: “What’s scary to the Dems is not the military, it’s the fact that they know this is going to work. And if it works, think about all the other cities: Chicago, Baltimore…” pic.twitter.com/zmxBiMn0pm
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) August 12, 2025
Some in the media are realizing this is a trap. MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski and Chris Matthews were sounding the alarm on this today. But it's too late to warn off Democrats now. So what will the media do? They will, of course, ignore the reduced crime rates for as long as they can, and then they'll try to figure out a way to give Democrats the credit for it. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's one of theirs, after all.
But that will require some journalistic gymnastics that won't hold up to even the slightest scrutiny. They've just spent the last 72 hours telling us D.C. crime is at a 30-year low (ignoring the falsified stats); how can they expect to take credit for reducing a crime wave they swore didn't exist in the first place?
And I doubt they'll do that, anyway. When the Trump administration started enforcing our immigration laws, Democrats started sharing sob stories of illegal immigrants while hysterically warning Americans we'd have no one to clean our hotel rooms or pick our crops. In the same vein, when the administration proposed cutting SNAP for illegals, Democrats had the worst possible 'victim' of Trump's policies testify before Congress.
There isn't a doubt in my mind they'll look for the sympathy angle on this, and it's already started, with 'homeless advocacy' groups sounding the alarm (that they're about to be made obsolete, that is). They might even try to make criminals seem sympathetic, like the guy who hurled his Subway sandwich at federal law enforcement officers.
What the Democrats won't do is admit that President Trump has a point and that crime is a problem. They can't do that for a variety of reasons. For starters, the chaos that comes with unchecked crime helps them politically. They can use gun crimes -- crimes often committed by career criminals or those known to law enforcement -- as a cudgel with which to abolish the Second Amendment. There's also a segment of Leftists who truly believe being soft on crime is some form of social justice, racial equity, and makes them morally superior to those of us who prefer to enforce our laws.
Democrats have also spent the last decade telling their base that President Trump is literally Hitler, and a fascist threat to democracy and our fundamental freedoms. Many of their supporters have taken this to heart, with two different Leftists attempting to assassinate President Trump in the last 13 months, and with guys like Robert Reich demanding Democrats stop 'chasing the center.' Anything that can be interpreted as acquiescence to President Trump will inflame the base and cause the Democrats to lose what little support they have left. Democrats know this.
What do you do if you're a Democrat? How do you even begin to salvage your party? It doesn't seem like the party has any clue how to do this. Even anti-Trump 'Republican' Adam Kinzinger is noticing the Democrats have a problem:
With everything going on, I must say, I still have not a clue what the Democratic message is.
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@AdamKinzinger) August 13, 2025
They are lost and out of their league I’m afraid. And democratic voters know it
The problem, however, is not the message. The Democratic message has been loud and clear for years: they are the we-hate-Donald-Trump, anti-American, pro-illegal immigration, gun-control-loving, soft-on-crime party. They, and their media allies, repeat this message daily.
The problem for the Democrats is that this message does not resonate with Americans. Quite the opposite: it repels most of us. That's why Democrats are losing in all demographics except women ages 30-49, and seniors ages 65+ (and they only have single-digit leads in those groups). It's why 77 million of us voted for the 'convicted felon' with 'six bankruptcies' instead of Kamala Harris.
Now, President Trump is poised to send another shockwave through the Democratic Party by tackling an issue they could easily have won: reducing crime in the cities they run. When his plan works in D.C., and voter demand for similar reforms in Chicago, Baltimore, L.A., and the like grows, what will Democrats do? Continue to oppose him? Continue to tell the Black and Hispanic voters who most often live in the crime-ridden parts of cities (and comprise the majority of crime victims) to suck it up and deal because President Trump is the bad guy here?
Yeah, that's a winning strategy.
Not.
