The shutdown exposes 3 critical weaknesses for Democrats 

Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer says that there’s only one party that wants to shut the government down. He’s right: it’s only Democrats who won’t allow the Senate a few more weeks at current spending levels to agree on a new budget. 

The shutdown highlights three weaknesses undermining the Democrat Party as we head toward next year’s midterm elections. 

First, the left wing of the party is running the show. Schumer is terrified of being primaried by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC); his obstinance is a matter of survival, not conscience.   

Second, President Trump has pushed Democrats to burrow into their far-left rabbit holes by occupying the all-powerful center.   

Third, Democrats are pushing endlessly to spend more money; voters think that’s a mistake. 

Schumer, battered by angry Democrats after he worked with the Republicans in March to keep the government running, learned his lesson. He was accused of “surrendering” to Republicans by Democrats furious at the impotence of their party. After he cast that fateful vote, many on the left pushed for progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to challenge Schumer in the 2028 Senate primary.

This is not an idle threat. In the fury that followed the March face-off over spending, polling by left-leaning Data for Progress found that “Democratic voters nationwide want him to fight harder against President Donald Trump and the Republican agenda.” It also found that Schumer had the “lowest favorability of all New York Democrats” among primary voters, and that he trails Ocasio-Cortez by 19 points in a hypothetical primary. 

Schumer is playing defense. Formerly an adamant opponent of shutdowns, he could not possibly agree to the most recent funding measure. Hence the current government shutdown.  

Schumer is not the only moderate Democrat looking over his shoulder. In an August interview with Fox News, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, “The only Democrats out there that are resonating and getting money are the socialists.”

He is right. All of the funding, excitement and energy in the Democratic Party is behind progressives. That may work in New York or other deep-blue states, but it’s unlikely to work in swing states like Pennsylvania or Ohio.

Right now, it isn’t even working in Minneapolis, where democratic socialist candidate Omar Fateh is trying to oust incumbent Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey. In a major slap in the face, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the official Democrat organization in Minnesota, rescinded the city party endorsement of Fateh. As in New York, it is the young, urban voter driving the leftward push. Minnesota went for Kamala Harris last November by only 4 points, even though her running mate, Tim Walz, is governor of the state. Currently, polls show Fateh trailing Frey by about 13 points.

It is young people who are especially enthralled by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who is running for mayor in solidly blue New York. His youth, opposition to Israel and unrealistic promises to make life more affordable have pushed him into the pole position in the race, easily topping former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. He has raised significantly more money than Cuomo and is backed by billionaire donors like Elizabeth Simons, daughter of legendary hedge fund titan James Simons, as well as groups funded by organization linked to George Soros. 

Democrats’ leftward lunge may have endeared the party to progressive billionaires, but it’s unlikely to improve the party’s image or win back the White House in 2028. Progressives are notoriously anti-police and anti-ICE; they favor open borders and extending benefits to non-citizens.  

That is not where the country is. Trump was elected to close the border, crack down on crime, boost domestic energy production, strengthen our military and reverse woke measures that undermine traditional American values like meritocracy and individualism. He has been doing all of those things, causing hysteria on the left. 

A recent New York Times-Siena poll of registered voters split evenly between Trump and Kamala Harris backers and gave Trump only a mediocre 43 percent approval rating. Yet it also showed a solid majority in favor of “deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally back to their home countries.”

In addition, asked to rank their biggest concerns, respondents put the economy first, an issue on which voters usually favor Republicans. Some 7 percent thought immigration was a major problem and 4 percent cited crime. In contrast, healthcare — the issue over which Democrats are shutting down the federal government — garnered only 2 percent of respondents. Fewer than 1 percent cited abortion or climate change as their top issue.

Finally, although the survey showed that many were concerned about Trump’s actions, a higher percentage (36 percent) thought the country was on the “right track” than at any time since 2016.

We are likely in for more bruising battles over government spending. Democrats appear indifferent to our bloated deficit and rising debt. They have fought every effort to rein in federal spending, even though the government’s budget soared from $4 trillion pre-COVID to $7 trillion post-COVID.

Democrats resisted efforts by the Department of Energy to cut waste and fraud, and they oppose taking able-bodied men off Medicaid. They are out of step.  

A survey from the right-leaning CATO Institute earlier this year showed Americans estimate that 59 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government is wasted. That’s why 89 percent “support an audit and evaluation of all federal government spending to identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.” Additionally, CATO reported that “62 percent support cutting the number of federal employees to reduce spending.”  

Those common-sense Americans may get their wish. Trump has warned Democrats that he may take advantage of the current shutdown to terminate a sizeable number of federal employees. Just think: Ocasio-Cortez may have set in motion the biggest downsizing of the federal government in history. Now that would be a reason to cheer the shutdown.  

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