David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan and avowed racist, attempted to conduct a hostile infiltration of the Republican Party in the early 1990s.
Duke won a state legislative seat as a Republican in Louisiana in 1989, and then ran for Senate in 1990 and then governor in 1991. He lost the Senate race amid Republican consternation about what he was doing, but 1991 became the real showdown. When Duke tried to become governor, and advanced to the final runoff for the seat after winning over 30% of the vote in the jungle primary, the GOP kicked into action.
Republicans across the country, and in Louisiana, disavowed Duke and urged their supporters not to vote for him. This went all the way up to President George H.W. Bush, who urged voters to reject him. Louisiana’s sitting Republican governor, who Duke defeated in the primary, told people to vote against him. Some Republicans even outright endorsed his Democratic opponent, who was renowned for being corrupt.
Duke lost by over 20 points.
You might rightly point out that this was nearly 40 years ago, during a different time in American politics, so let’s get more current. In 2016, the Republican establishment went to great lengths to stop Donald Trump from becoming their presidential nominee. (I want to be crystal clear here, I am not comparing Donald Trump to David Duke — just the two situations where an insurgent force was resisted by Party leaders.)
Major conservative institutions of the time — from National Review to Club for Growth — actively worked to stop Trump during the primary. Mitt Romney gave a speech during the race denouncing him and urging voters to get behind whoever was most likely to defeat Trump in their state. At the RNC, when Trump was already the nominee, Ted Cruz gave a speech where he went out of his way to tell people to “vote their conscience.” When the Access Hollywood tape came out, just weeks before the election, prominent Republicans again denounced their own candidate.
That takes us to today. There’s been much talk of a “Democratic Civil War” going on, but I’m just not seeing it. The war is over, and much like they often do in the Middle East, the Islamist insurgents have won.
Democrats have had some heated primary fights. Mamdani v. Cuomo, the New York DSA challengers, El-Sayed v. Stevens. But even then, prominent leaders in the party have largely stayed out. To Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s credit, she was really the only heavy hitter to outright endorse Stevens over El-Sayed.
El-Sayed proceeded to win by around 15,000 votes in an election where 1.5 million were cast. Democrats could’ve easily stopped him if they threw their whole weight behind Stevens, but they didn’t.
Now, after his victory, every top Democrat is getting in line.
Chuck Schumer, who has the survival instinct of a hen in a foxes’ den, endorsed El-Sayed at the same time El-Sayed said he wanted to see Schumer replaced as Senate minority leader.
The El-Sayed development is particularly shocking because he is not even pretending to play nice. He said he wants to put John Fetterman’s head on a pike as a warning to other Democrats. He is campaigning to overthrow Democratic leadership, and has already threatened to undermine 2028 Democratic presidential candidates if they don’t meet his demands.
Even David Duke spent years trying to soften his image before his political runs, maintaining the same racism but in a shift, obfuscating tone to try to appeal to the masses. El-Sayed hasn’t moderated an inch.
He is taking the party hostage, and rather than resist it, the party is handing him the zip ties and machine gun he’s going to do it with.
Only a few brave Democrats have spoken out. Rep. Hillary Scholten and Fetterman have said they won’t support him. But his own primary opponent, Stevens, has gotten on board like a true coward. Schumer is behind him. Kamala Harris is fundraising for him. Michigan’s other senator, Elissa Slotkin, ostensibly a moderate and definitely a presidential hopeful, is supporting him.
Where is Barack Obama? Hell, where is Joe Biden? Where is Nancy Pelosi? These people could have stopped this force in its tracks if they really tried, and they still could, but they are choosing not to.
These people are signing their own political death warrants, and I truly feel like I’m experiencing some sort of psychotic episode watching it.
What’s in this for Chuck Schumer, exactly? The man is 75 years old. He has no future. If he runs for Senate again in 2028, he will likely lose to a left-wing primary challenger, especially if that challenger is AOC. At his age, he might not run again at all.
Schumer often touts being the highest-elected Jew in America. He has been a staunch supporter of Israel his entire career, and has a role as his party’s senate leader to shepherd it in the most effective way possible, not be an activist.
There’s basically no downside to him taking his stand here and saying enough is enough, I will not go along with this. Instead he will die leaving a legacy of feckless cowardice in the face of demonic anti-Americanism.
So spare me the talk of a Democratic “civil war.” It’s not a war if one side never fires a shot back.
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