Wherefore art thou Democrats?

July 24, 2026

T. Keith Gurnee

OPINION by T. KEITH GURNEE

“…ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” by President John F. Kennedy

As a young emerging voter in the 1960s, those words spoken by President John F. Kennedy at his 1961 inaugural address captivated me as many Americans. Hearing that statement and the sincerity with which it was delivered gave me a future to believe in.

While JFK made me a loyal Democrat lasting well into my middle age, the passage of time (with the mistakes of LBJ, Vietnam, and Jimmy Carter) began to erode my belief in the party.

Fast forward to today’s Democratic Party, it seems to have lost its way. Now that it is plunging into Socialism, the party is consuming itself – profoundly, utterly, and completely.

The Democratic Party is no longer recognizable to its former self. While there’s still a few moderates trying to wrest back its party’s past relevance, it’s gone too far already. Even Senator John Fetterman, one of the rare and last true national Democrats, has been considering leaving the party should it move to abandon its support for Israel.

What’s happened to the Democratic Party?

Simply stated, the Democratic Party is no longer democratic. The one time “party of hope” has devolved into the “party of hate.” How the Dems have morphed themselves into such a tangled mess just 103 short days before the midterm elections defies understanding.

That today’s Dems would dismantle the U.S. Constitution when we’ve just celebrated our nation’s 250th anniversary is ironic and deeply disturbing. Taking positions like abolishing the Senate (bye bye Bernie), packing the Supreme Court, closing prisons, defunding the police, eliminating ICE, and protecting criminal illegal aliens are policies that are beyond the pale.

That the Dems would undo what they have advocated in the past, such as scuttling our long relationship with Israel, pushing for more illegal immigration, welcoming the rampant fraud of taxpayer’s revenues, packing ballot boxes, and taxing us into the Stone Age in the face of the affordability crisis are more than dangerous. They are suicidal.

How did we get here?  How can the party recapture what it used to be? Let’s look at what the Dems once stood for and contrast them with the positions they stand for today:

Democrats then and now:

1. World War II: From 1941-1945, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt led our nation and its allies to a hard-fought victory over the axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Near the end of that war, it was revealed that Germany had murdered upwards of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, thus prompting a movement by Jewish survivors to create a homeland for their people, a notion that had been championed by the Democratic Party since the end of the war.

Dems Today: The party has now lurched to the left, all but abandoning their historic support for the Jewish homeland. With its recent surge of Democratic Socialism, the party has begun to embrace antisemitism against those of the Jewish faith.

2. Creation of Israel: On the morning of May 14,1948, Jewish leader David Ben Gurion announced the creation of the State of Israel. Just 11 short minutes later, Democratic President Harry Truman formally recognized the creation of the Jewish state.

Ever since, the United States has embraced Israel as one of its most important allies. Dems Today: Today’s Dems are doing everything they can to prevent US assistance to allow Israel to defend itself in the wake of the deadly October 7,2023 massacre of over 1200 Jews at the hands of militant Hamas insurgents based in Gaza. Recently, the Dems in Congress had 103 of its members vote against funding to help Israel defend itself face Islamic terrorism.

3. Overthrow of Iran: In 1979, a revolution by Islamic insurgents overthrew the Shah of Iran and attacked the American Embassy in Tehran, capturing scores of Americans and holding them as hostages for more than a year.

In 1980, Democratic President Jimmy Carter tried to rescue the American hostages but failed.

After 47 years, Iran has become the main source of murder and terrorism in the Middle East. Iran has been determined to create nuclear weapons while serving as the primary sponsors of terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis while becoming the sworn enemy of the United States and Israel.

Dems today  have become the arch opponents of Operation Epic Fury and any other U.S. attempts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and spreading of terrorism throughout the Middle East. President Barack Obama even provided billions of U.S. funding to Iran only to have that funding devoted to their quest to develop nuclear weapons.

Yet the Dems have fiercely opposed the U.S. military sanctions against the murderous leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps {IRGC}.

4. Adoption of Title IX: In 1972, it was the Democrats who championed the landmark legislation amending the Civil Rights Act to prohibit sex-based discrimination in any sports sponsored by universities and schools that receive funding from the federal government.

Such Dems as Indiana Senator Birch Bayh, Oregon Congresswoman Edith Green, Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, and Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink authored the legislation that has had a profound and beneficial impact on women’s rights in sports for more than 50 years. Dems Today: Some states and Democratic leaders have supported the intrusion of biological males to compete in women’s sports in direct violation of Title IX.

Allowing biological males to compete against women in competitive sports would undo Title IX. Yet many Dems still advocate allowing men to compete in women’s sports in direct violation of a law once written by Democrats.

5. Illegal Immigration: After President Joe Biden took office in 2020, the borders of the United States were thrown open to the indiscriminate invasion of illegal aliens into our country. Many of those immigrants were criminals, murderers, and rapists who have wrought havoc in the cities and towns of our country.

Too many Democratic states and cities have declared themselves as sanctuaries — jurisdictions that welcome and protect illegal immigration while resisting the laws of the United States.

Dems today: Despite the loss of innocent lives of young women who have been raped and murdered and with the chaos that has come from open borders, many Dems continue to defend and advocate for illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.

They clearly want to create more Democrats out of those coming into the country illegally. But what does it say to the thousands and millions of legitimate immigrants who have worked hard to become naturalized citizens of the United States?

Where do Democrats go now?

It looks like nowhere. As a once proud member of the Democratic Party, I’m done with it. It is  no longer the paragon of true democracy.

Just look at the Dems’ bench of candidates running for office. It’s a sad list of rogue o rascals. Adam (Russia, Russia, Russia) Schiff is a lying embarrassment. Chuck Schumer is a traitor to his faith.

Gavin Newsom is the face of California’s political and economic disaster. Ro Khanna is going nowhere. Kamala Harris is the Queen of word salads.

Senate candidate Eric Swalwell had to drop out of his race in shame. Last, but not least, Joe Biden will finally be recognized as the worst President in American history.

As for the other Democratic denizens, Graham Platner almost won the Maine Senate seat with a Nazi tattoo before having to withdraw. New York Mayor Mamdani and the City of New York have no idea what they are getting into. LA Mayor Karen Bass can’t escape her shameful performance during the disastrous Palisades fires of January 7,2025.

Then there is Senator Bernie Sanders who’s been taking over the Democrats, when he isn’t even a member of  the Democratic Party.

With this bench of Dems, and with this November a little more than three months away, who would dare vote Democratic?