In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.
It was the summer of 1986. America’s economy was booming. President Ronald Reagan’s approval sat at 63%, according to Gallup. Patriotism was on display, especially in our movies, with Tom Cruise’s Top Gun being the runaway No. 1 hit of the year.
Recommended Stories
That year, Roper asked a simple question on a survey: Compared with the past, is the American dream easier or harder to attain? Just 45% said harder, with a majority believing that they could have a life that was as good or better than their parents’.
Forty years later, NBC News asked the same question, but the result is decidedly, and disturbingly, different: A record-high 78% feel the American dream is out of reach, with just 5% saying it is within reach and 16% saying the bar is about the same.
These numbers may explain another NBC News poll result, which found just 12% of those who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 said they are extremely proud to be American, while 90% of Republicans say they’re proud or extremely proud. Most of this is likely driven by hatred of President Donald Trump.
It’s important to note that during the eight years of Barack Obama in the Oval, Republicans stayed around that 90% mark of being proud to be an American. They disagreed with Obama and Democrats in power, but their faith in American exceptionalism never wavered.
The Democratic Party used to support working-class families in creating a level playing field, an economy that lifts all boats, or as the slogan of the 1996 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton said: “Opportunity. Responsibility. Community.”
But things have changed. The party has abandoned any premise of talking about the issues and has become more about playing on voters’ emotions and victimhood and less about proposals to solve the issues impacting their constituents.
Exhibit A is the myopic focus on the reflecting pool on the National Mall, which Trump pledged to clean up ahead of America’s 250th birthday celebration and the World Cup. At first, the draining and refilling of the pool was a success, with blue water, instead of algae-infested water, shining between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. But algae returned days later, sparking a media cycle dominated by mocking Trump for his effort to clean the reflecting pool.
“In many cases, visitors appeared to gaze with more interest at the contents of the murky pool than toward the historic monuments reflected in its waters,” reports the New York Times.
Pro-algae liberals have also been recorded speaking directly to the water.
“Green Algae. Everybody’s proud of you. You are single-handedly doing more to fight fascism than any American has,” one woman with pink hair said to the fountain.
“We’re seeing the slippery slope to authoritarianism, but this is what it looks like,” MS Now political analyst Cornell Belcher said on the network recently. “Something you played in, something I splashed around in, all of a sudden, that’s a crime. And so we’re going to have a kid, splashing around in a pool in Washington DC, like thousands of kids do all of the time. Are we going to put them in handcuffs? Like that to me is the ultimate symbol of how this country has fallen into disrepair and authoritarianism.”
Great argument, except that swimming or even dipping your feet into the Reflecting Pool has been illegal dating back to its completion in 1922. And here we have a “political analyst” on national television insisting to three hosts that “thousands of kids do it all the time.” And not one host could be bothered to challenge such an insane narrative, seemingly because Trump was the target.
As of Tuesday afternoon, six people have been arrested for vandalism, and 14 police reports have been filed.
“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our nation’s magnificent Reflecting Pool,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.”
Overall, an analysis by the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, found that between June 14 and Monday, the reflecting pool story received 411 minutes of coverage across the major broadcast networks and cable news networks, or an average of more than 45 minutes per day. CNN, which is a distant third in the cable news ratings race, predictably leads the way, dedicating 215 minutes of coverage to the pool.
TUCKER’S ANTI-ISRAEL OBSESSION HAS BECOME DANGEROUS
“There is an actual logical scientific reason why painting the pool blue has resulted in this growth of algae, and it is ridiculous that in America, nobody’s gone to jail because of being in the Epstein files,” said former Republican strategist Ana Navarro in an unhinged rant on CNN Newsnight recently.
“Algae, that’s all anybody talked about at home this weekend. They were outraged,” claimed Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) on Monday.
The outrage, of course, is laughably selective. In 2012, then-President Obama spent $34 million on fixing and cleaning the Reflective Pool over a two-year period, only for algae to also become a recurring problem. And not one politician or member of the media took any issue with that.
As the outrage over Trump and reflecting pools and algae continues, socialists continue to take over large cities in America. In New York, socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed three socialist candidates, and they all won comfortably over their establishment opponents. In Washington, D.C., socialist Janeese Lewis George cruised to a 17-point victory over Kenyan McDuffie. Seattle also has a socialist mayor in Katie Wilson, while Los Angeles may have one in the form of Nithya Raman, who has a decent chance to unseat unpopular incumbent Karen Bass.
Per Gallup, two-thirds of Democratic voters now view socialism favorably, compared to 42% who view capitalism favorably. That is a stunning number.
Bottom line: It’s not good to be seen as establishment-anything on the Democrat side these days. Socialists have the energy, the momentum, and the organization, while the Democratic National Committee is rudderless and millions in debt.
Outrage and victimhood. That’s their brand these days.
Democrats are facing a watershed moment: Go further to the left and embrace socialism? Or pivot back to the center, the way Bill Clinton did after a shellacking in the 1994 midterm elections that led to a landslide victory in the 1996 presidential race?
Their answer appears to be the former.
The result will be disaster.
