We’re approaching another presidential campaign year, and once again I am reminded of what the great sage Will Rogers said back in 1933:

“I am not a member of any organized political party,” he said. “I am a Democrat.”

Yes, I know that Rogers quote is old enough to have whiskers on it.

Yet, compared to the comparatively regimented style of the Republicans, particularly the MAGA faction that runs the party, the Democrats seem to specialize in finding new ways to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, especially since the two successful terms of Barack Obama.

Doom and gloom might in fact be the default state of the Democrats.

When Republicans and a large number of swing voters rallied around Donald Trump in 2024, he was a convicted felon, a sore-loser ex-president dishonored by his failed attempt to nullify the 2020 election, a man hounded by the Justice Department for misdeeds in office.

And yet the Democrats lost to him in what could only be termed a self-inflicted debacle.

The party was left with a debilitating crisis of self-confidence. To many it still feels disorganized and leaderless, in addition to being in debt.

Meanwhile, President Trump carries on, relentlessly finding new norms to violate, shielded by his presidential pardoning power and his party’s majority control of Congress and, in effect, even the Supreme Court.

The result: strongman-style governance, gross self-enrichment by the Trump family, rampant pay-to-play corruption, a reign of terror by sparsely trained immigration agents, a fawning Cabinet and a neutered Congress, all under the watchful eyes of MAGA bureaucrats, influencers and operatives.

I’ve asked........

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