Peek: Democrats contront the unthinkable: Trump’s reelection

Palm Beach Post (FL)

Democrats and their liberal media pals are in full panic mode as it dawns on them: Donald Trump could actually win reelection.

Despite fielding an unprecedented number of would-be candidates, Democrats have so far failed to find a standard-bearer likely to unify their party. As the recent debates showed, the party has moved left, and further left still, leaving the majority of Americans behind as they try to placate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes and other noisy progressives.

At the same time, the better-than-expected June jobs report confirms the economy remains strong, dampening ceaseless speculation (and left-wing hope) about a pending recession. Meanwhile, relentless hounding of the president by his political foes has had zero impact on his popularity among Republicans. If anything, the unimaginable vitriol has further hardened his support.

Maybe the intelligentsia is not so intelligent after all.

The liberal media is working feverishly to undermine the president, critical of his every move. They tell us that his venturing into North Korea to shake hands with Kim Jong Un delivered a "propaganda win" to the Korean dictator. To whom? To the oppressed citizens of that miserable country who have been told their noble leader's father was so pure that he never needed to defecate? Or that he scored 11 holes-in-one in his first round of golf? We're worried about feeding that absurd propaganda machine?

Most Americans likely saw Trump's move as characteristically gutsy and unconventional, but also a gesture that might someday bear fruit. Moreover, many saw it as a refreshing departure from the uber-cautious foreign policy of the Obama years.

Democrats and their media pals were also churlish about the president's Fourth of July celebration in Washington. The New York Times described it as a "made-for-television production starring America's military weaponry" and Democrats said parading tanks in the nation's capital was the hallmark of a tyrant. Please don't tell President Emmanuel Macron; it was the Bastille Day parade in democratic France, complete with military hardware, that inspired Trump's celebration.

It says something that the press was rhapsodic about the Pride Parade in New York but could not find anything good to say about a parade celebrating our nation's military.

Here's the bitter truth for Democrats: the unending slamming of the president is not working. It was announced last week that President Trump and the Republican National Committee have raised $105 million for his reelection bid, far surpassing the amounts raised by any predecessor or by any Democrat hoping to unseat him.

Not only was Trump's overall fundraising impressive, he received 725,000 individual contributions which averaged $48. That kind of online small-donor haul is unprecedented for a Republican politician. The RNC attracted "a larger share of donations under $200 than the Democratic National Committee," reported the New York Times. As the Times noted, Trump will have far more money to boost his run than he did in 2016.

Gallup tells us that only 32 percent of the country is satisfied with "the way things are going in the United States at this time." That is hardly cause for celebration, but at the same point during President Obama's tenure, only 16 percent of the nation thought we were on the right track.

Meanwhile, President Trump's personal polling has gradually improved. A recent Washington Post-ABC poll put the president's approval rating at 47 percent, with 50 percent disapproving. Among registered voters that survey showed the president beating a Democrat candidate identified as a socialist 49 percent to 43 percent. Notably, 66 percent of respondents in that poll self-identified as Democrats or Independents. Trust me, any Democrat now running will be branded a socialist by Mr. Trump.

And why not? The Democrat candidates showed their "free-for-all" stripes during the first round of debates. Every single candidate on the stage for the second night's forum raised their hand in support of giving free health care to people in the country illegally, a slap in the face to millions of Americans struggling to pay for their own health care.

That show of hands should not have surprised anyone. Democrats eager to bludgeon the Trump White House over its treatment of people detained at the border (and hopeful of winning Hispanic voters) have adopted ever more idiotic positions on immigration. Though only a few years ago Democrats favored controlled borders but lenient immigration guidelines, now Julian Castro, Elizabeth Warren and others want to repeal Section 1325 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, the law that outlaws entering the country illegally. They want that action to no longer be a federal crime, but rather a civil offense, like parking in front of a fire hydrant. That is not where American voters are.

Several candidates said in the debates they wanted to abolish private health insurance, a shocker to those 140 million people who have such insurance. The private health insurance industry earns revenues of hundreds of billions of dollars and employs 600,000 Americans; Medicare-for-all amounts to a federal takeover of the means of production, which meets the definition of socialism.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress will soon continue their investigations into every aspect of President Trump's finances, pushing to get hold of his tax returns in order to find...what exactly? That he has done something wrong that the IRS has failed to uncover? No, simply to embarrass him. The hints of impeachment and theatrical do-over of the Mueller probe will continue.

Maybe it's the perspective gained from taking a much-needed week away from the political scrum, but to this observer the Democrats look increasingly small, while President Trump looks big. While the president is attempting to reset our trade relations with China, trying to reach some understanding with nuclear-armed North Korea, searching for a means to rein in Iran and to solve our dysfunctional immigration policies, Democrats needle and prod and pick, carping at the White House and at each other.

If Trump is reelected, Democrats will have only themselves to blame.

Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor and former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company.

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