Prominent pundit wonders if left wing 'nuttiness' has damaged Democratic Party beyond repair

Fox News

08-02-2025

Prominent mainstream media journalist and author Joe Klein savaged the Democratic Party, claiming that its recent Democratic National Committee meeting proves the party's "intellectual corrosion is comprehensive."
In a new article for his "Sanity Clause" Substack series, Klein pointed out the various gender rules that the DNC rolled out during its meeting last week as proof that the party may be damaged beyond anything he's ever seen.
"Yes, friends, still crazy after all these years…and the encroaching dementia is not benign. Can this party be saved? I have my doubts," Klein wrote after quoting multiple articles detailing the complex gender rules established at the meeting.
He began with The Atlantic staff writer Jonathan Chait's account of the proceedings. In his article, headlined, The Democrats Show Why They Lost," Chait wrote that "outgoing chair, Jaime Harrison, attempted to explain a point about its rules concerning gender balance for its vice-chair race. 'The rules specify that when we have a gender-nonbinary candidate or officer, the nonbinary individual is counted as neither male nor female, and the remaining six officers must be gender balanced,' Harrison announced."
As Chait's account said, Harrison "labored" over explaining the committee's efforts to provide inclusion to "male, female, and nonbinary candidates."
Klein followed up by quoting Wall Street Journal reporter Molly Ball's account,"Later in the program, an audience member stood up to lament that there was only one at-large seat set aside for a transgender person, and called on the candidates to add another seat and for 'making sure those appointments reflect the gender and ethnic diversity of the transgender community.'"
Klein is best well known for writing for Time magazine and as the author of "Primary Colors," which he wrote anonymously back in 1996.
After sharing these accounts, Klein remarked on how he saw the party as out of touch.
"The intellectual corrosion is comprehensive; it is only matched by the self-righteous arrogance. But what's the alternative?" he said. "I've been through Dems in Disarray syndrome multiple times in the past: in 1972, in 1980, in 1988, in 2016…but, gotta say, this is the worst I've ever seen it."
Further on, the commentator bashed the Democratic Party's descent into its current state for enabling President Trump's rise to power.
"The Democrats have twice now enabled a World-Historic Demagogue to be elected President of the United States. One wonders if Trump's reelection will stand with Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon," Klein stated, adding that former President Biden's policy alignment with Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Ver., progressive wing of the party ahead of Biden's election brought in "left-nuttiness below the radar throughout the government."
"Every so often, the nuttiness would surface—as with the chaos at the Southern border—and Biden would do nothing about it," he wrote.
Elsewhere in the column, Klein advocated for a major shakeup to the Democratic Party. He began citing The Free Press' Ruy Teixeira's points for fixing the party, which include, avoiding calling Trump a "fascist," moderating on the border issue, helping Trump with stuff he's "right" about, and embracing "energy abundance."
Klein added his own two cents, stating, "The Democratic Party needs to be challenged—from the outside, by like-minded people, as it was in the early 1990s by the Democratic Leadership Conference." He noted that a similar revival needs to be driven by competent reform movement that is backed by "big-time financial support" as well as "And big-time courage from Dem politicians."
Still, he concluded by admitting such reform seems like a long shot, remarking, "But, yeah, I'm dreaming…."