Six months into the Trump administration, with the president transforming every area of politics and policy, it’s astonishing to me how bad the Democrats are.

Now, I say this as someone who was a Democrat a long time ago.

Yet I also say this as someone who grew up politically in the Reagan 1980s and the Clinton 1990s, when the art of talking to Democrats on an issue-by-issue basis was in full swing.

A lot of Democrats didn’t like President Reagan, but a lot of Democrats did.

I’m thinking about tax cuts, for example, when full-scale tax reform and simplification sponsored by Reagan passed 97-to-3 in the Senate. Vice President Gore voted for it, so did President Biden, Senator John Kerry, and Senator Ted Kennedy. 

Way back when, Kennedy was a leader in deregulation. Mr. Gore, who of course ran with Clinton in 1992 and 1996, was a moderate Democrat, a defense hawk, and a strong anti-communist. A Georgia Democrat, Senator Nunn, pushed for a lower capital gains tax and a strong defense budget.

Over in the House, the bill passed by voice vote. Didn’t even bother running a tally.

President Clinton worked with Speaker Gingrich’s Congress to pass welfare reform, lower the capital gains tax, curb excess spending, and — yes — the budget got balanced.

Of course, there were big disagreements between the political parties.

Yet the Democrats were still in touch with blue-collar working folks, there was no crazy woke cultural rebellion, and the art of  persuasion and respectful political discourse was alive and well.

With the greatest of regret, we all know: those days are over.

What’s so astonishing to me is how today’s Democrats, suffering from a rapidly progressing disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome, care only about attacking President Trump — not the issues he’s discussing.

Now, there are some exceptions like Senator Fetterman and a couple of House members. But not many.

On all these 80-20 issues — closing the border, deporting criminals, law and order and crime, biological males in women’s sports, denuclearizing Iran, antisemitism and DEI at the elite colleges, and even cutting waste, fraud, and abuse — it’s astonishing to me that Democrats line up at the short end of the stick, every time.

Democrats used to be the party of Catholic working-class voters. Today, they oppose religious faith at every turn and seem to have nothing in common with the men and women who work with their hands on a daily basis.

Even now, Democrats are popping up everywhere trying to stop Mr. Trump from ending Iran’s uranium enrichment nuclear programs — which has been a steady promise of both political parties down through the decades. 

Yet, because Mr. Trump is doing it, Democrats are mouthing off about the War Powers Act — which has nothing to do with anything.

I’m watching smart Democrats that I worked with in government, who were senior members of the Intelligence committees, appear in front of cameras and go completely incoherent.

Of course, it’s the Democrats who were always aligned with Israel, going all the way back to Vice President Humphrey and President Truman.

Why are they doing this? Because they want to attack Mr. Trump.

There’s no issues analysis — it’s just all about attacking Mr. Trump.

No constructive solutions — only calling Mr. Trump one name after another.

And you can be sure that the public is getting very fed up with the Democratic Party’s performance.

Ironically, they’re not even opposing Mr. Trump the “far-out right winger” — it’s the president who is actually bringing politics and policy back to the center. But the Democrats are so far out to the left, they cannot see how well Mr. Trump has regained the middle ground in American politics.

The Democratic Party today is a sad tale. But you already knew that.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.