Democratic political leaders prioritize cautious messaging and fear of alienating a mythic center instead of mounting forceful opposition to aggressive MAGA initiatives. Those initiatives sow fear, erode the separation of powers, and disrupt ordinary civic life, producing massive unpopularity. A second Trump administration pursued a mass-deportation regime characterized as despotic and unlawful, turning immigration into a significant polling liability. The DOGE rampage through the executive branch produced no meaningful fiscal savings and damaged core federal programs while Senate Democrats rubber-stamped destructive cabinet appointees. Political inertia, including budget concessions, enabled damaging spending and taxation outcomes that hurt presidential polling.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: As an aggressive MAGA policy initiative lurches into gear, Democrats fret over a just-so messaging response and generally dither over the prospect of alienating an increasingly mythic political center. As the initiative in question sows fear and terror, steamrolls the separation of powers, and generally disrupts whatever remains of normal life under conditions of authoritarian siege, it becomes massively unpopular.
It was the saga of the DOGE rampage through the executive branch, which created zero meaningful fiscal savings and leveled basic federal initiatives such as public health, weather forecasting, and foreign aid, while Senate Democrats continued rubber-stamping more government-shredding cabinet appointees. But the only thing approaching the ugliness of DOGE's track record is its polled public support, with the agency's approval rating at just over 40 percent and its billionaire godfather Elon Musk well below that.
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