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The Democratic Party just might spend the next 20 years in the wilderness, and it has only itself to blame.

Things have never been this bad for the party of hope and change. They hope they can change, but they’re face-to-face with a three-headed beast that threatens to push them off a cliff: Millions of voters are abandoning the party, approval ratings have hit a 30-year low and fundraising is in the dumper.

Let’s break down those three. Between the 2020 and 2024 elections, Democrats lost ground to Republicans in all 30 states that track voter registration by political party, as reported by The New York Times last week. The exodus represents a staggering 4.5-million-voter swing toward Republicans, and the political chasm could take years, even decades, to bridge.

Democrats lost more than 2 million registered voters during the period, while Republicans gained 2.4 million, according to the paper’s analysis. Last year, for the first time since 2018, more new voters nationwide chose to register as Republicans than Democrats. The voter flight occurred across the political spectrum: in battleground states, deep-blue strongholds and red states alike.

The party’s struggles extend beyond voter registration. A recent CNBC survey shows the Democratic Party’s net favorability has plummeted to a near three-decade low of -32 among registered voters. The party now holds just a 24% positive rating, compared with a 56% negative rating. “The -32 rating appeared to be the lowest rating for either party going back to at least 1996,” CNBC reported.

The party’s financial situation mirrors its other serious troubles. After its devastating 2024 elections, the Democratic National Committee trails the Republican National Committee by nearly every fundraising metric. By June’s end, the RNC held $80 million; the Democrats, just $15 million.

Major Democratic donors have withheld contributions amid uncertainty about the party’s direction, while small-dollar donations, traditionally a Democratic strength, have failed to compensate for the shortfall, Politico reports. The party has quickly burned through available funds, including more than $15 million spent this year to settle remaining expenses from Vice President Kamala Harris’ disastrous presidential campaign.

Internal tensions over the party’s direction are percolating just under the surface. Some Democrats continue to advocate for far-left positions (think AOC as presidential nominee) despite electoral setbacks, while others are pushing for moderation (think, well, no one; the bench is just that weak).

The center-left think tank Third Way has one simple suggestion: Lose the woke. The group urges Democrats to ban 42 words and phrases that just don’t go over well with average Americans, among them “privilege,” “microaggression,” “body shaming,” “systems of oppression,” “the unhoused,” “birthing person,” “deadnaming” and “incarcerated people.”

In a memorandum addressed to “All Who Wish to Stop Donald Trump and MAGA,” Third Way says that “much of the language above is a red flag for a sizable segment of the American public.”

So what did the Democrats do in the summer meeting this week in Minneapolis, the first since President Trump beat the snot out of them? You guessed it: They doubled down on the woke and then made a hard-left turn.

The Democratic National Committee’s meeting opened with a “land acknowledgment” statement. “In many ways, we still live in a system built to suppress Indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual history,” said an Indigenous woman who took the podium, wearing what appeared to be a Pride scarf.

The group meeting then moved on to a presentation from the Vera Institute, a think tank that supports defunding the police, the Daily Caller reported. The presenter told the crowd that being “tough on crime” is “authoritarian” and said, “Migrant crime and carjackings are things that don’t matter to many Americans.”

Where next? Transgender teens, of course. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison boasted about filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration for prohibiting minors from getting sex change operations. Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee then bragged about how her city’s law enforcement is refusing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

To show just how out of touch the Democrats are right now, DNC Chair Ken Martin took the podium and tried to describe the situation the Democrats find themselves in right now, but he botched the metaphor.

“I’m sick and tired of this Democratic Party bringing a pencil to a knife fight,” Mr. Martin said.

Not even close. The saying is “bringing a knife to a gunfight.” They’re both good weapons; you’re just outgunned if you’re the one holding the knife.

But a pencil? Well, then, you’re not even really in the fight, are you? And that’s just where the Democrats find themselves right now: not in the fight.

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