Last week, Democrats came to Chicago to erect a cenotaph to their past. In the words of Shakespeare’s Mark Antony, they did not come to praise Obama as much as to bury him. They did so because they had already buried the party that nominated him twice.
In Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection victory, he received the votes of 17 percent of conservatives. Just twelve years later, in 2024, Kamala Harris received nine percent of conservative voters. And of that nine percent, a good many were undoubtedly not voting for Harris but were “never Trumpers” voting against Donald Trump.
The point is: Obama once had a significant appeal to conservatives. That no longer holds for Democrats.
The reason is that Democrats are not what they once were—or at least the moderates they were able to successfully pose as being. According to Gallup polling, only 42 percent of Democrats have a positive view of capitalism; 66 percent view socialism positively.
The Democratic Socialists of America increasingly lead the Democrat Party. Via the Democrat Party, democratic socialists have been elected mayors of New York City (Zohran Mamdani) and Seattle (Katie Wilson). Washington, D.C., is poised to do so (Janeese Lewis George).
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) long claimed the “democratic socialist” label as he declared himself an “independent” while caucusing and voting with Democrats and running for the Democratic presidential nomination twice (nearly winning in 2016). He has been joined by growing numbers taking the socialist label since. The Squad had U.S. Democrat Reps. AOC (NY-14) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12). Others, such as U.S. Democrat Reps Greg Casar (TX-35) and Summer Lee (PA-12), have since arrived. More, such as Nazi-tattooed (“Nazi” was the shortened form of Germany’s National Socialists) Graham Platner of Maine, is seeking to do so this November.
Virtually no one in the Democrat Party is willing to raise an alarm against the DSA’s penetration of their party. They won’t because “socialism” is now their party’s energy; “democratic” is merely its legacy.
So far from where they were when Obama led their party, Democrats had to erect a mega building to see his legacy across the vast ideological distance existing between now and then.
It was widely reported that Obama had to evolve on gay issues. Today’s Democrat leadership opposes blocking biological boys from competing against girls, despite the American people—and a majority within their party—overwhelmingly supporting it.
When Obama first ran in 2008, the central part of his agenda was expanding health insurance and promising that you could keep your plan. The mantra of today’s far-left Democrat vanguard is “Medicare for All.”
As President, Obama ordered the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in a third-party country (Pakistan). Today’s Democrats opposed the capture of Nicolas Maduro (alive) in his home country and bringing him to the US to stand trial. They also oppose the conflict with Iran, a country that supported bin Laden.
Obama supported deporting illegal aliens. Just four years after Obama left office, his former VP Joe Biden would open the border—and keep it open throughout his term. Of course, Biden owed little to Obama. This is because Obama had passed over his Vice President in favor of Hillary Clinton for the 2016 nomination.
While in office, Obama supported extending the Bush tax cuts. Today’s Democrats want a wealth tax. They pursue it in every jurisdiction where they have significant numbers—in Congress, in California, and in a growing number of states.
Obama saw Israel as a staunch U.S. ally, calling America “your strongest ally and your greatest friend.” Today’s Democrats see Israel as perhaps the world’s most oppressive state. Within their party, only one in four supports Israel now.
“Moderate” was the word used to describe Obama. In fact, Joe Biden once (in)famously gushed over him for Obama’s ability to project that image to America. Moderate was then a selling point. Then, too, it was believable to many—even 17 percent of conservatives in 2012.
For today’s Democrats, “moderate” is only a transparent codeword for “electable.” Abigail Spanberger successfully employed it in Virginia in 2025. Democrats rewarded her with the rebuttal to President Trump’s SOTU this year. Just months later, Spanberger and her fellow Democrats would attempt to implement America’s most partisan gerrymander in Virginia.
While “moderate” can still move the electorate for Democrats, it is “socialist” that increasingly moves Democrats themselves. The fact is that Obama (much less any of his Democratic presidential predecessors) could never run and win a primary in the party that now pretends to lionize him. What today’s Democrats want is to keep Obama’s image but entomb all that he supported—as well as any pretext of being moderates.
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.