When Barack Obama took over the Democratic Party 17 years ago, he opened the door to a new generation of Democrats. His policies on government overreach, massive regulation, restructuring American public life, and circumventing the legislative process were reminiscent of the Lyndon Johnson administration. This new generation of Democrats quickly rejected Obama, however, because his chosen successors didn’t double down on his policies. Instead, they found an old communist loon to lead them — Bernie Sanders.
Since 2016, Sanders’ political ideology has taken over the Democratic Party. Knowing that they couldn’t control him if he actually became President, the Democrats colluded to deny him the nomination to the top of their ticket. In 2016, they used superdelegates to bump up Hillary Clinton. In 2020, after he won the first two primaries, they had all competitors but Joe Biden drop out. In 2024, they forewent a primary altogether and just gave it to Kamala Harris. Even left-wing commentators admit that the Democrats haven’t had a presidential primary — a real one — since 2008. While the party has denied Sanders the crown, they still use him to push forward their agenda and require his support.
This has led the Democrats to pushing extremist ideology and extremist candidates. It would be very surprising if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t run for President in 2028, and she has a good chance of becoming their nominee. The widespread acceptance of Zohran Mamdani by Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries, and many other “moderate” Democrats over Andrew Cuomo proves that the Democrats are chasing the crowd, not leading it. This should concern every Kennedy, Clinton, or even Obama Democrat, as they no longer have the party they once had.
We are starting to see this happen to the Republican Party as well. Many might say that Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party was caving to the extremist wing, but that is simply false. Trump is, by every policy metric, a moderate. His border policies mirror what every Democrat said in the 1990s and 2000s. His abortion policies are to the left of the pro-life movement. His economic policies, foreign policies, and cultural prescriptions are, by polling data, shared with the majority of Americans. Take away the visceral hatred of him personally — Trump’s policies are extremely popular.
The problem isn’t with Trump; it’s with this online libertarian isolationist pseudo-right wing. They are pseudo-right wing because they can shift between Republican and Democrat very easily if they find a kindred spirit on the left — not someone they agree with on 80% of issues, but someone they agree with on one issue: Israel.
This group of libertarian isolationists has focused all of their ire on Israel and Jews. They have existed for a while under various names — alt-right, groypers, etc. — but they have always been on the extreme fringe and never recognized by anyone with real power or influence. That has started to change.
Tucker Carlson has become the influential voice for this group. While all the other names — like Jake Shields, Evan Kilgore, Dave Smith, and Nick Fuentes — existed in an online bubble for years, feeding off each other’s audiences and never gaining true mass traction, Carlson has pulled them into the mainstream. Even when Donald Trump himself dined with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes — two Jew-hating sociopaths — they didn’t gain as much online traction as they are now.
Tucker Carlson went from mainstream conservative to extremist mouthpiece so quickly that other mainstream conservatives don’t even believe it. After platforming Nick Fuentes and giving him a softball interview (especially when compared with how Carlson interviewed Ted Cruz a few months back), Tucker was rightfully chastised and derided. The Republican Jewish Coalition this past weekend spent a lot of time and energy attacking Tucker, for good reason. Yet the President of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, defended Tucker’s decisions — and was attacked for it by his own staffers.
The reason this matters is that we see what happened to the Democrats when they allowed the passionate minority to infect and conquer their party. They have been swallowed whole by the socialists to the point where they are unrecognizable to Clinton, Gore, and Kerry voters. If Republicans do not determine what is outside of acceptable discourse within our own movement, we can be conquered as well.
One thing Republicans have going for us is the target of political ire from this extremist faction — namely Israel and Jews. Movements that exist in opposition have far less longevity than movements that have a clear directive. Socialists know what they want and will fight tooth and nail for it. These groypers know what they hate, and hopefully will grow bored. Sure, the leaders will be there (they make too much money to go away), but as the followers age, and as Israel appears less in the news, they will lose interest. This is an optimistic assessment, but should not be mistaken for complacency. We need to ensure that this ideology is rhetorically fought with facts — because when those are brought forth, we always win.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
