Democrats, it’s time to step away from the mule.

There’s an old saying down South that there’s no lesson in a second kick from a mule. But from Concord to Washington, D.C., Democrats appear intent on continuing the equine education that began in November.

Here’s the Democrats’ word problem: How did an incumbent vice president with a gazillion dollars and the loyal support of the legacy media just lose every swing state to a guy who, until five minutes earlier, was the most hated man in American politics?

In New Hampshire, Democrats have gone from winning nine out of 10 gubernatorial races to losing the last five in a row. How?

For even a below-average student, the answer is pretty obvious. Voters have gone right, while Democrats have gone too far left. Americans want stronger borders, safer streets, and less cultural craziness at work and at their kids’ schools. And they really, really don’t like what happened under Joe Biden.

And what is the Democrats’ solution?

 

New DNC Chair Ken Martin (center) and the DNC leadership team

 

Well, on Thursday, every New Hampshire state Senate Democrat voted against a ban on sanctuary cities — and then against mandatory sentences for big-time fentanyl dealers for good (?) measure.

Thursday night, all eight candidates for Democratic National Committee chair were asked by MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart if they “believe that racism and misogyny played a role in VP Harris’s defeat?”

When they all agreed that American voters are women-hating bigots, Capehart purred. “That’s good, you all pass.”

One of those eight is incoming DNC chair Ken Martin, who currently runs the Democratic Party in Minnesota. Asked if he thinks his party needs to pursue a new direction after the Biden years, he demurred. The former president’s near-record unpopularity wasn’t enough to move Martin. In fact, the entire DNC chair debate pointed avoided critiques of the former president.

Not to be outdone, outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said Friday that his party should have stuck with Biden, even after the incumbent’s excruciating debate performance.

Anyone who’s still, as Harrison put it, “ridin’ with Biden” — particularly after what we’ve seen the past six months — is impervious to data.

Believe it or not, that wasn’t the DNC chair’s lowest moment of the weekend. No, that came when his party’s rules forced him to guide the voting members through an election of officers that had to meet their gender quota.

“Our rules specify that when we have a non-binary candidate or officer, the non-binary individual is counted as neither male nor female, and the remaining six offices must be gender balanced,” Harrison told committee members. “In order to be gender balanced… we must elect one male, one female, and one person of any gender.”

Video of Harrison’s identity-politics bean-counting went viral, at the same time President Trump was issuing executive orders ending government DEI programs and pronoun declarations. Polls show voters hate the DEI policies Democrats embrace.

It was yet another reminder that “Democrats are for ‘they/them,’ Trump is for you,” as the GOP ad put it.

The ad worked. Voters got the message. But Democrats still haven’t.

But some are starting to.

All four Democrats in New Hampshire’s federal delegation voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act signed into law by President Donald Trump last week. Two of them, Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, voted against it just last year. What happened?

One might say they’ve “grown while in office,” or they have “reconsidered the evidence.” But the truth is they did what smart politicians do all the time: They flip flopped.

They saw the mule was ready to kick again, and they ducked.

Granite State progressives didn’t like it.

“It is shameful and cruel that our federal delegation would so willingly hand over our communities to Trump’s racist deportation agenda. Granite Staters deserve better,” said Grace Kindeke, New Hampshire program coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee.

But Kindeke doesn’t have to run for reelection in a purple state whose voters support tougher immigration enforcement by a two-to-one margin.

Is the next Democratic candidate for governor going to support sanctuary city bans and letting guys in girls’ locker rooms? If she does — and it will likely be a “she” — she’ll deserve to lose.

If House Democrats, already down 221-177, choose to follow their Senate colleagues’ example, if they listen to progressives like Kindeke instead of the people, they won’t be able to claim ignorance or feign surprise when they go down to defeat yet again.

The mule is going to kick, Democrats. Where you choose to stand is up to you.