Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Quick quiz:

• Who is Jaime Harrison?

Answer:

• Harrison is the former chair of the Democratic National Committee. He was in that position from January 21, 2021 until February 1, 2025. Which means he was head of the DNC when Trump beat Harris. Harrison ran for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina in 2020. He was hammered by Lindsay Graham.

Second question:

• Who is Ken Martin?

Answer:

• Martin is the current chair of the DNC, having succeeded Harrison in February. Prior to heading up the DNC, Martin was the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. That party was formed in 1944. One of the supporters of the formation of the DFL was Hubert H. Humphrey. Humphrey was hammered by Richard Nixon in the 1968 Presidential Electoral College: 191 votes versus Nixon’s 301.

Third question:

• Who is the current visible leader of the Democratic Party?

Answer:

• I don’t know.

There had been the thought that somehow when Martin took the role at the DNC he would be out there, leading the Democrat response to whatever Trump is doing. That would be more than a full-time job.

Like him or not, you’ve got to acknowledge that Trump is certainly an active senior citizen by nearly any measure.

But maybe Martin is doing lots of things out of the broadcast, and more importantly, social media eyes. That is not good.

An argument could be made that the Lewis-Martin-like combo of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the visible face of the Democratic Party. Which is fine, assuming that the party imagines it can give up on the center and right electorate.

This is also the case with, say, Gavin Newsom. Not only do plenty of Americans look at California with more than a modicum of suspicion, but Newsom is undoubtedly a bit too slick for the majority of the voters.

James Carville had suggested that the Democrats just let Trump collapse on his own. But were that to happen (and arguably, if the markets continue to fall and the counter-tariffs take a big bite out of things like soybean sales from the great state of Louisiana (yes, we’re looking at you, Mike Johnson), then this may happen), remember:

Nature abhors a vacuum.

And the Dems would have no one in place to take the mantle of leadership. . .which would leave things in the hands of JD Vance.

Not exactly the kind of alternative that the Democrats have in mind.

But given what they haven’t done, it seems they’re not all that keen on winning.

And on that subject, remember that in 2016 Trump said:

“We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ 

And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’”

Even when he isn’t winning he’s still winning vis-à-vis today’s Democratic Party.