Why Do Democrats Get Lackluster Support from Their own Party Members?

From the Jacobin …

With President Donald Trump’s approval rating deep under water, and Americans’ views of his handling of the economy over 20 points more negative than they were on inauguration day, a naive observer of US politics might expect the Democrats’ fortunes to be rising.

Nothing of the sort. A recent CNN/SSRS poll from March 2025 found that just 29 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party. That is the lowest number since SSRS began asking the question in 2002.

This overwhelmingly negative public sentiment toward the Democrats was confirmed by a new study of voters in four Rust Belt states (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) conducted by the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP), the Labor Institute, and Rutgers University. It found that over 70 percent of Rust Belt voters hold a negative view of the party….

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So, the CWCP/Labor Institute/Rutgers poll did something different. We asked Rust Belt voters a single open-ended prompt: “When you think about the Democratic Party, what comes to mind?” Then we used text analysis to summarize thousands of unprompted answers.

Contrary to many analyses that have blamed Democrats for holding extreme positions on social and cultural issues that alienated swing voters, the dominant theme we observed was voters’ anger at the Democratic Party for failing to deliver. Among Democratic and independent respondents, the most common critique of the Democratic Party was its perceived inability to carry out policies that help ordinary people.

One Democratic respondent felt that the party was “well intended, [but] poor [in] execution.” Another believed that “the Democratic Party talks a lot but has accomplished little in recent years.” A third put it succinctly: “Some good ideas, but very ineffective at enacting them.” Many independents voiced similar frustrations, describing Democrats as “People who offer lip service but aren’t interested in changing the status quo,” lamenting that Democrats don’t do “what they were elected to do,” or saying, “I am so disappointed with the Democratic Party and feel they haven’t represented their constituents in a long time.”…

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The upshot is that while some voters were turned off by what they viewed as the Democrats’ overly progressive positions on social and cultural issues, these were not the dominant concerns of Rust Belt voters. This finding runs counter to high-profile postelection polling from groups like Blueprint, which suggested that majorities of 2024 swing voters believe that Democrats “have extreme ideas about race and gender” and are generally “too focused on identity politics.”

To reach persuadable swing-state voters, then, Democrats don’t need to mimic Trump on divisive issues; they need to show they’re aligned with working people, willing to confront powerful interests, and capable of producing concrete gains. None of this eliminates the party’s cultural vulnerabilities — especially around the perception that Democrats are elitist and condescending — but the evidence suggests most voters who hold negative views of the Democratic Party are motivated less by the culture war than by a broader judgment that the party is captured by elites and not delivering tangible gains for working people.

If Democrats have any hope of capitalizing on Republicans’ increasing political vulnerabilities, they need to work tirelessly to show skeptical voters — who feel burned by decades of false promises — that they are serious about reclaiming the mantle of America’s party of the working class…

More…

Note….

This IS a good piece about what some feel about their party….

(Not everybody may agree)

A party that seems to have lost it way….

Catering to ‘idea’s’ instead of getting results….

In this vein?

Props to Schumer and Senate Democrat’s in FINALLY standing UP to Trump ….

Gloated on by California Gov Newsom’s actions?

The parties leaders seem to be finally be jettison’s the ‘tired Joe Biden’  efforts to get along and seem to be fighting back on Healthcare, Jobs and the Economy….

All they have to do is grow some ‘balls’ as they watch Trump , a criminal, steal the bacon and kick people out of work with no regard for ‘the rules’ to get what HE wants….