Democrats have become so unpopular that more Americans believe that aliens are among us than agree with the Democratic Party.
Dems are now held in lower esteem than lawyers, undertakers, and car salesmen.
Two punishing new polls released Sunday show that the party has hit historic new lows in approval ratings nationwide — with just 27% of Americans saying they like the job Democrats are doing, according to NBC News.
A CNN poll put favorability at 29% — the lowest rating in the 33-year history of the survey; 54% have an unfavorable view.
And neither of those polls take into account the party’s latest meltdown.
Democrats are now mired in back-biting strife over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision not to block a Republican budget bill to avert a partial government shutdown.
Even a lot of Democrats don’t like the Democrats these days — just 63% of Dems reported having a favorable view of the party, down 18 points from 81% four years ago, during the start of the Biden administration, according to CNN.
The tough poll numbers for Dems come as Trump’s approval rating hit an all-time high of 47%, per the NBC News poll. Republicans in general, are faring much better, with a 36% favorability rating, the CNN poll found.
Most Dem voters believe that top party brass is steering Democrats in the wrong direction, CNN found.
And now it’s spilling over — with congressional Democrats openly sniping at Schumer over his decision.
“The idea that Chuck Schumer is the only one that’s got a brain in the room and the only one that can think through all of the pros and cons is absolutely ridiculous,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) fumed on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
Moderate and progressive Democratic lawmakers alike felt that the government shutdown fight was the only major leverage against Republicans that they would have for months.
President Trump, who enjoys unprecedented executive power along with majorities in both chambers of Congress, has run roughshod over the Democrats with a flurry of executive activity in his first 50 days in office.
Critics of Schumer’s decision wanted to use that fight to extract concessions from the GOP on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the spending cuts that Republicans are planning.
Schumer, however — along with nine other Democrats — declined to block the GOP bill, saying they believed that allowing the government to shut down would be a loser for the party.
Progressive activists erupted in outrage, and groups such as Indivisible promptly called on Senate Dems to oust the New Yorker from his longtime post.
A Change.org petition to cease donations to the Dems until Schumer steps down quickly garnered over 21,000 signatures.
“They blew it! The Democratic Tea Party was born the same day that Chuck Schumer took to that podium to read that very well-crafted statement that told us he folded like a paper napkin,” Symone Sanders-Townsend, a former Harris-aide, turned MSNBC host chided Saturday.
Democratic leadership appears to be splintering over the party’s direction as well.
In a stunning rebuke from a fellow Brooklyn native, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) refused to say whether he had confidence in his Senate counterpart or whether Schumer should be replaced, illustrating the palpable level of frustration among Dems.
“Next question,” Jeffries said during a press conference when asked about Schumer’s future as leader of the Senate Dems.
So far, Democratic lawmakers have steered clear of publicly calling for Schumer to be booted as the No. 1 Senate Dem, though murmurs about his future have spread in private, according to Politico.
“I think it is a huge slap in the face, and I think that there’s a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has been pressured by some progressives to mount a primary challenge against Schumer, told NewsNation last week
Other Senate Democrats have not been shy about ripping into Schumer’s approach to the shutdown scrum, either.
“Americans want the Democratic Party to stand up and fight and to take risks,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press ” on Sunday. “If we continue to work with Republicans, if we continue to hand Donald Trump more power, we are going to lose our democracy.”
Polling echoes Murphy’s point, with some 57% of Democrats and aligned Independents wanting the party to focus on countering the GOP agenda instead of partnering with Republicans on bipartisan proposals, according to the CNN survey.
That’s a sharp turnaround from eight years ago, when 74% of Democratic-leaning voters wanted the party to focus on bipartisanship with Republicans rather than focus on fighting the GOP, per the CNN poll.
Significantly, that poll came before Schumer and nine other Democrats refrained from blocking the GOP bill to forestall a partial government shutdown.
Schumer has shrugged off the backlash. Having spent over a quarter century in the Senate and nearly two decades in the House, he’s lived through multiple government shutdowns and did not feel his party was positioned to win this one.
“It would be a disaster,” Schumer had warned about a partial shutdown. “And we have to alert everyone how much pain it would cause the American people.”
Trump and Republicans have sought to put salt in Schumer’s wounds by publicly lauding his efforts to avert a shutdown, knowing full well how progressives will interpret that.
“AOC has a lot to learn from Chuck Schumer. He did the right thing for America and New York,” White House spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer needled about the Democratic infighting.
Consternation about Democratic leadership goes deeper than the shutdown row.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats have struggled to navigate his return, with disputes between moderates and progressives over how to calibrate messaging and whether the party should lurch towards the center.
This past month, for example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) stoked controversy by suggesting that transgender competition in women’s sports is unfair, rankling elements of his base.
The CNN poll sampled 1,206 adults between March 6–9 and was taken by SSRS with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. The poll included a subsample of 504 Democratic-leaning voters, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
