It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the current discomfiture of the Democratic National Committee. The New York Times reports on its party’s difficult straits:
Just months into the tenure of a new party leader, Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee’s financial situation has grown so bleak that top officials have discussed whether they might need to borrow money this year to keep paying the bills.
For a party that represents America’s rich, that is remarkable.
A protracted and public fight with David Hogg, the 25-year-old activist turned D.N.C. vice chair who blindsided party officials with a plan to challenge incumbent Democrats, made things worse. The clash included the leak of embarrassing audio of Mr. Martin questioning his own role and ended in Mr. Hogg’s unceremonious exit this month.
That was soon followed by the news that two of the country’s most influential labor leaders, who represent a combined 3.2 million workers, were also leaving the D.N.C. Both questioned the party’s direction under Mr. Martin.
Those “labor leaders” are the heads of a national teachers’ union and the leader of AFSCME, the government employees’ union. The “labor movement” in the U.S. consists of public employees trying to grab a bigger piece of the pie. The authentic workers’ movement in the U.S. is MAGA.
The David Hogg affair was a fiasco, in which it was impossible to pick a side:
The Hogg episode also consumed and exasperated party leaders for close to two months.
“This is worse than some high school student council drama,” said Representative Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat.
Heh. I think the Democrats are almost guaranteed to take the House in the midterms, and they have plenty of time to get organized and raise money between now and then. But the current numbers are pretty bleak:
[T]he party’s total cash reserves shrank by $4 million from January through April, according to the most recent federal records, while the Republican National Committee’s coffers swelled by roughly $29 million. A new report is due this week.
The party out of power often falls behind the one holding the White House. Still, the current financial gap is large: $18 million on hand for the D.N.C. entering May, compared with $67.4 million for the R.N.C.
The DNC’s communications efforts have been lame:
Another early Martin project is a new streaming show on YouTube, “The Daily Blueprint,” which is filmed in a studio with high-end production.
The show has drawn a minuscule audience so far, with some episodes scoring fewer than 1,000 views.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch. But the Democrats’ rich donors will get out of their funk at some point, and when 2026 rolls around, the Democrats’ problems won’t be financial.
