Over the last decade, though, the Democratic Party has effectively declared jihad on our gun rights. Yet a new playbook for Democrats offers a hint that such an agenda might be past its "best by" date.

It's not explicit, of course, because that'll never fly in the modern Democratic Party, but the playbook does offer a pretty important hint.

Democrats spent one-and-a-half days cooking up a game plan for a comeback after a devastating loss against President Donald Trump last November -- and it includes moving away from left-wing figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the "small-dollar donors" that fueled their rise to the national stage.

A large group of Democrats -- consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials, and party leaders -- gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia for a brief retreat in early February to identify the party's weaknesses and chart a path forward, according to Politico.

The gathering was organized by centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. Matt Bennett, the organization's executive vice president for public affairs, told Politico that after November it became "so evident that the things that the left was doing and saying deeply hurt Harris and down-ballot Democrats."

"A lot of people are looking to us, not just Third Way, but the moderates in the party, and saying, 'We got to do it your way, because the other way ain't working,'" he said.

...

The document also advocated for embracing populism "thoughtfully" by critiquing corporate excess and corruption but "avoid[ing] an anti-capitalist stance."

"Democrats need to stop demonizing wealth and corporations broadly," it read, urging the party to "be pro-aspiration & pro-capitalism in a smart way."

At the same time, the summary recommended getting "out of elite circles and into real communities" like tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, and churches as part of a bid to spotlight working-class voices.

Now, I get the overall message, and basically it calls for Democrats to tone down everything most of us despise about them. Obviously, I think that's probably a good thing, and the fact that many are lashing out over these suggestions is pretty telling in and of itself, but let's focus on the idea of Democrats going into gun shows to just talk to the people.

That's...interesting.

A gun show isn't exactly the ideal venue to step in and start talking about gun control, especially the much-dreaded "gun show loophole" many anti-gunners seem fixated on. Bring it up there and the candidate is likely to be asked to show them exactly where that loophole is to be found. Spoiler: It's not there because it doesn't exist.

So there seems to be an implication here that Democrats will need to soften their anti-gun rhetoric.

As it is, we know it wasn't exactly a winning strategy in 2024. Despite their insistence on running on gun control and their belief that most of America vehemently wanted it, they were curb stomped in just about every part of the country.

Backing down from that would potentially do them some good.

I just don't think most Democrats are ready to hear that pretty much everything they're doing alienates the entirety of the American populace.