Democrats Lost an Election. Then They Lost Their Way.

on Apr 29, 2025

SAN DIEGO -- Losing a presidential election is bad enough. But still not understanding why you lost several months later? Well, that's even worse. You don't want to end up there.

In politics, a little introspection can go a long way. After all, if you don't know what's broken, how can you fix it? And if you can't identify mistakes, how will you keep from repeating them?

The problem is that after a loss, most political parties don't like to look in the rearview mirror. They prefer to look forward. Unfortunately, there are no lessons to be found there.

That's the predicament facing the Democratic Party. Almost six months after losing to Donald Trump in the November election, the party is still lost deep in the wilderness without a map or compass. Listening to Democrats, it's clear that they don't know what to stand for, or who to be, or how to rebrand themselves. They're not sure what their message is, or even who their audience should be. Most of all, they don't know what to do next as they battle Trump and his radioactive agenda fueled by pettiness, cruelty and vengeance.

On second thought, maybe the Democrats aren't lost. They could just be hiding. I mean, when you really think about it, they've got plenty of reasons to be embarrassed. Before Trump was a chaotic second-term president, he was a flawed presidential candidate. Forty percent of the electorate was against him, according to polls. He faced four criminal indictments and had been convicted -- in a New York case -- of 34 counts of falsifying business records. He had divided the country, and he had alienated one group of Americans after another. He was often abrasive, frequently insulting and sometimes unlikable. And yet Democrats couldn't beat him?

Imagine having to carry that around as a portion of your party's legacy. Trump limped into that election. But Democrats were so feckless that he still managed to stomp all over them.

Now that he is president again, Trump is moving fast, breaking things and kicking up dust. That creates lots of chaos, which leads to fear, uncertainty and insecurity. Americans are most worried about the economy, which Trump promised to improve but wound up making worse. He did this by creating more anxiety when he threatened to impose tariffs on 60 nations including allies and friends such as Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

This week, to mark the president's 100th day in office, a slew of polls was released. They all had the same message: Trump is in trouble.

A CBS/YouGov Poll found that just 45% of Americans approve of the job that Trump has done in office. A Fox News poll puts Trump's approval rating at 44%. A CNN poll put the figure at just 41%.

A poll by Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos had the worst showing for Trump -- with an approval rating of just 39%. If accurate, it would be the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president in 80 years.

In that poll, the respondents were asked if they approved or disapproved of how Trump was handling seven different issues. Trump got failing marks on each one.

-- On immigration, 53% disapproved of the job he has done.

-- On managing the federal government, 57% disapproved.

-- On whether he looks out for average Americans, 58% disapproved.

-- On the economy, 61% disapproved.

-- On the issue of relations with other countries, 61% disapproved.

-- On tariffs, 64% disapproved.

-- Finally, on how he is handling the turmoil in the stock market, 67% disapproved.

But the poll also had a warning for Democrats. A staggering 69% of respondents said that the Democratic Party is "out of touch" with "most people's concerns" in the United States.

So, in other words, voters are disappointed in Trump. But they're also in no hurry to run into the waiting arms of a Democratic Party that doesn't seem to care about them.

Some will see all this as evidence that Americans need a third party. Perhaps. Personally, I would certainly welcome that development.

Yet, I don't think we have to go far. It could be that what the polling tells us is simply that Americans need for the two existing parties to up their game and provide better service to those voters who -- for some inexplicable reason -- continue to put their faith in them.

For now, Trump can take some degree of comfort in the fact that -- for all his failures thus far -- he still has one thing working in his favor. It's called the Democratic Party.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.