The Price of Democrats’ Extremism | The American Spectator

In less than a week, Democrats went from elation’s heights to dejection’s depths. On Nov. 4, Democrats celebrated gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey; on Nov. 9, eight senators threw in the towel on a losing government shutdown strategy. Democrats ran this gamut of emotions because they insist on running the gauntlet of extremism — and making everyone follow.

Democrats’ November election victories were less than meets the eye. History and polls indicated Democrats would win both states. Neither state had voted for a Republican presidential candidate in over 20 years — approaching 40, in New Jersey’s case. The result: Democrats’ gubernatorial candidates won off-year elections with a Republican in the White House in states they routinely win. (RELATED: The GOP Loss Is Not a Big Deal)

Democrats celebrated so heartily because they also beat expectations that 2024’s presidential debacle had lowered when they lost every swing state and ground in every state except Utah. They also celebrated their victories in lighter-blue states to draw attention away from yet another Democrat extremist’s victory in New York City’s mayoral race.

For the rest of the week, Democrats exulted, while their left became even more intransigent in the party’s shutdown fight. Then on Sunday night, Democrats came crashing back to earth as eight senators from their side joined with Republicans to end the longest government shutdown in American history. (RELATED: Trump and the GOP Won the Shutdown. Let’s Make Sure Trophies Are Taken.)

Democrats had demanded a high price for reopening the government: repealing Republicans’ reforms to Medicaid, restoring money that Republicans and the administration had clawed back, and, at the center, making permanent the “emergency” subsidies Democrats had extended to the wealthy for Obamacare. In the end, Democrats came away with next to nothing for their shutdown extortion effort.

It is all too easy to gloss over — and the establishment media have and will continue to do so — the pain that Democrats consciously inflicted on the nation. Essential federal workers continued to work without pay — something Democrats deliberately blocked. Nonessential federal workers were furloughed and not paid. Air traffic delays were already mounting and won’t be quickly reversed. And SNAP benefits were being curtailed.

It is also all too easy to miss how carefully crafted the Democrats’ capitulation to sanity finally was. Eight Democrats voted to end their party’s filibuster. Eight was the exact number needed to end the filibuster. None of the eight are up for reelection in 2026, so they will not have to face their party radicals’ wrath for several years. Virginia’s Senator Tim Kaine voted to end the filibuster, sparing his Democratic colleague Senator Mark Warner from having to do so: Warner is up for reelection in 2026 and could face current Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin in what would be a tough general election. None of these things is a coincidence.

Even more telling is where the eight votes to end the Democrats’ government shutdown came from. Except for Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), who is also retiring and won’t have to face angry Democrat radicals again, the other seven came from states that President Trump either won (Nevada and Pennsylvania) or lost by less than seven percentage points (Virginia, Maine, and New Hampshire) in 2024.

In other words, Democrats’ less extreme senators were left to solve the problem that their radical colleagues created and insisted on continuing indefinitely.

Of Democrats’ 47 senators, 21 represent states that President Trump either won or only lost by less than seven percentage points in 2024. These 21 senators were forced into an extremist shutdown strategy, made to support its continuation, and faced the dual prospect of being primaried by radicals if they capitulated and, if they survived a primary from a radical challenger, tough general elections in states where Republicans have significant strength.

If you want to understand the callous, self-serving disregard that Democrats’ extremists treat anyone who stands in the way of their goals, just look at how they treated the country in the nation’s longest federal government shutdown. Or look at how they treated their own colleagues.

No one is exempt from Democratic extremists’ scorched-earth politics. Already, there are howls against the apostates. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faces a crescendo of calls for his ouster. The rest of the 21 less-extreme Senate Democrats, who needed the shutdown to end but dared not say so, had better lie low before their extremist credentials are questioned.

The longest federal government shutdown in history demonstrates from inception to execution to resolution and now, to recrimination, the “we break it, you fix it” mindset of today’s Democrat extremists. It is meted out to the nation, to their own, and to their leaders. These Democrat extremists had no qualms about stoking their radicals’ expectations, shutting down the government, inflicting suffering, and achieving nothing. And they will do it all over again, given the chance.

READ MORE from J.T. Young:

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A Time for War and a Time for Peace

Democrats Decry Another ‘Crisis’ They Caused

J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left, from RealClear Publishing, and has over three decades’ experience working in Congress, the Department of Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, and representing a Fortune 20 company.