The Democrat Party is controlled by the woke Left and one seismic election loss isn’t going to change that.

Right now, they are in chaos and looking for answers about how to wiggle their way back into power.

On one hand, you have congressional Democrats making fools of themselves by using the absurd protest tactics of the college campus Left and embracing cringing TikTok-style social media campaigns that were only briefly trendy three years ago.

On the other hand, you have a few clever politicians with national aspirations—like California Gov. Gavin Newsom—who are attempting to suddenly, rhetorically recalibrate on issues they know are deeply unpopular with the American people, like men in women’s sports.

Note that Newsom hasn’t actually proposed changing California law on the transgender sports issue. This is a theme.

Democrat politicians with any kind of common sense at all right now are publicly calibrating for the obvious “vibe shift” away from their views, but don’t mistake that for a genuine mea culpa.

The tantrums are almost certainly counterproductive, a sop to the party base. Think of it as a primal scream from the Left’s id.

But I’d argue that Bill Clinton-style “third way” calibrations embraced by some Democrat Party leaders—who would rather talk about the economy rather than culture war issues right now—are ultimately hollow.

The issue for the Left isn’t optics. The problem is their policies, their worldview. It’s the fact that in the last four years when the Left reached a crescendo of political and institutional power the American people received a raw, unfiltered version of their aims for the country.

For a moment the mask was off and what the American people saw was horrifying. The madness only stopped when the Left began to lose power.

At the core of the modern Left is social revolution, is “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” is gender ideology. They have a vast, well-funded apparatus and legacy media establishment that has until very recently ensured that the revolution continues no matter its popularity.

The Trump administration is currently taking a DOGE-shaped hatchet to that network, but the core ideology has not at all been ejected by the Left or the Democrat Party.

Take, for instance, the recent federal legislation to prohibit transgender men from competing in women’s sports. By some measures this is an 80-20 issue, with 80% of Americans in some polls saying that they want to keep transgender men out of women’s sports.

If Democrats were really conceding to reality—both biological and political—you would think the bill would pass easily.

Yet, not a single Senate Democrat voted in favor of the legislation. Even so-called moderates like Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., voted against the bill. When push came to shove, not a single one would deviate from the ideology.

Some Democrats have suddenly tried to argue that this should really be a local issue, which is laughable coming from them. When they controlled the White House, the Biden administration tried to force men into women’s sports in every state in the country by reinterpreting Title IX law.

When the Left’s leaders are in power, they will always try to force their social engineering projects onto the American people or any people.

Speaking of localities, it’s clear that in the states and especially the cities where the Left holds power, its leaders are mostly doubling down on open borders policies and other lawless lunacies.

A Wednesday hearing on sanctuary cities illustrated this reality.

Several Democrat city mayors were brought before Congress to explain their insistence on thwarting federal immigration laws and their general inability to cut crime.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, had this to say when asked how she would make her city safer from criminal illegal aliens: “If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms. Stop cutting Medicaid. Stop cutting cancer research. Stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our cities safe.”

Nothing about providing more resources for the police or arresting criminals or getting dangerous people off the streets. Just left-wing claptrap about Medicaid and cancer research, as if that had any bearing on the criminality in her city.

When Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, pressed Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, he of 6% favorable approval ratings, if he supported driver’s licenses, free health care, free college, voting rights, and free abortions for illegal aliens, Johnson effectively said “yes.”

The only Democrat mayor who had any qualms about the Left’s open border policies was New York’s Eric Adams.

And isn’t it interesting that the moment Adams shifted on the immigration issue, back when former President Joe Biden was in office, the Department of Justice immediately hit him with corruption charges? Democrat leaders in New York City and state are clearly trying to get rid of him for his real crime: working with Republicans.

The vibe shift is real. The Left’s ideas truly have become loathed by most Americans. We are in a time of Glasnost where even some liberals and Democrats feel free to talk about the Left’s most insane ideas in negative terms.

But for the Democrat Party and left-wing political machinery, the cause continues until they can claw their way back into power and do it all over again.

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.”

Reproduced with permission.  Original here:  The Vibe Shift Is Real But the Left Remains Unhinged

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