Four times Democrats have backed something that may come back to bite them

Recent initiatives from Democrats to strengthen their policies and weaken the GOP could yield unintended consequences and further divide the two major parties.

This year, Democrats supported efforts to stop former President Donald Trump’s momentum, questioning his ballot eligibility and hitting the Republican front-runner with four indictments. At the same time, tables have turned on President Joe Biden after he failed to achieve major student debt cancellation and received heavy backlash on progressive issues.

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE BLOWS PAST EXPECTATIONS, SURGES BY MOST SINCE EARLY 2021

Striking Trump from Colorado’s ballot

In a historic decision on Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump is not eligible to hold office again, citing the Constitution’s insurrection clause — setting up an appeal from the former president before the highest court in the nation.

Democratic lawmakers voiced their support for the ruling based on the claim that Trump engaged in insurrection when his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while protesting Biden’s election victory. However, Trump’s campaign was quick to characterize Colorado’s decision as another attempt from Democrats to halt his political strength, similar to the numerous legal battles that have yet to hurt his popularity.

“Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November.”

Colorado has also voted with the Democrats in the last four presidential elections and will likely not go to Trump in 2024 if the Supreme Court overturns Colorado’s ruling.

Trump uses his indictments to his advantage 

Trump was indicted for a fourth time in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in August, but the former president and his political allies have used his criminal cases to bolster his voice base and provoke anger by calling the slew of lawsuits a weaponization of the justice system. His campaign has fundraised off each of his indictments.

Trump’s federal trials have not yet started, but the Republican front-runner claims he has watched his popularity with voters rise in the polls with each new indictment.

“People are getting it; I can tell you voters are getting it because every time they give me a fake indictment, I go up in the polls, and that has never happened before,” Trump said in October outside a New York courthouse where he appeared for his civil fraud case.

Trump was indicted for the first time on business fraud charges by a Manhattan grand jury on March 25. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was closing in on Trump a month before his first indictment, with the former president holding 45% to the Florida governor’s 41%, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov survey. However, in a post-indictment poll published in April, Trump widened the gap in a one-on-one contest by 57% to 31%.

Biden snubs voter base over student loans 

Biden’s student debt relief plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in June, a huge blow to campaign promises he made while running in 2020. He pledged to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt per person and last year unveiled a plan to relieve $20,000 to people who made below a certain income.

The conservative majority court hexed those plans, and Democrats are growing restless as his first term nears its final year, and that promise has fallen flat.

Without the blessing of the court, Biden is looking for alternative ways to deliver on a key plank of his 2020 campaign, opting for smaller measures such as opening the Saving on a Valuable Education program in August. And, through an older initiative called Public Service Loan Forgiveness, the Biden administration says it has erased $12.7 billion in student debt, easing payments for 600,000 borrowers.

The backlash against DEI and ESG 

Republicans have hit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across college campuses with sharp criticism, especially with the rise of antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

“I think DEI is a fraud, and what we’re seeing now on campuses is proof of that,” Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) said last month when the House heard from a panel of antisemitism experts.

While Democrats defend DEI practices, Republican leaders such as DeSantis and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) have worked to eliminate DEI practices in higher education.

The Biden administration has also pushed public companies to adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards as part of their progressive agenda.

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Earlier this year, an effort led by Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Rick Scott (R-FL) challenged the president’s rules, claiming he’s “risking Americans’ retirement savings by propping up ESG-focused funds.”

Biden was also once defined as soft on crime as large Democratic cities with progressive policies have been attacked for rampant drug use and a homelessness crisis. After years of Republicans blasting Democrats’ crime policies, Biden took a stand and struck down a reformed District of Columbia criminal code that would have reduced sentences for certain crimes in March.