Politics, as the cliché goes, makes strange bedfellows. This well-worn wisdom, however, seemed lost on devasted Democrats following the 2016 presidential elections.

They heaped scorn on Donald Trump and the voters who enabled the swaggering billionaire to eke out an upset victory – the difference was around 77,000 votes in three swing states – over Hillary Clinton. Democrats decried the working-class men and women who formed the backbone of Trump’s support as deluded or hypocritical for supposing that the loud and proud New York City real estate tycoon could represent their concerns and advance their interests. Few were the progressives to whom it occurred that their signature convictions, attitudes, and policies had played a major role in driving millions of voters into Trump’s camp.

In January 2020, three years into Trump’s presidency, unemployment was low, wages were rising, and the stock market was soaring. No new wars had erupted. Both Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation and the House impeachment over a phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed to convict Trump of wrongdoing. The 45th president seemed well positioned to win a second term. But for the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic – the coronavirus likely leaked from the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Wuhan Institute of Virology – he might well have.

In November 2020, however, Trump lost to Joe Biden, but by an even narrower margin – 44,000 votes in three swing states – than lifted Trump above Clinton in 2016. Nevertheless, Trump’s working-class support remained strong and, contrary to the myth that white supremacy explained his popularity, he increased his numbers among African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. The Biden administration, however, paid little heed to these electoral facts. Despite a narrow victory, it advanced a hard progressive agenda including a porous border, inflationary federal spending, and promotion of race-, gender-, and identity-based policies.

Democrats hoped that the four criminal indictments brought by Democratic Party prosecutors in 2023 would end Donald Trump’s political career by putting him behind bars. Appointed by Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland, Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump twice on federal charges – in Washington for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and in Florida for mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice. New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump for falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to a former adult-entertainment star. And Fani Willis, district attorney of Fulton County in Georgia, indicted Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Smith dropped both........

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