Greg Gutfeld laid out a simple equation on Friday's The Five that the Democrat Party is turning a blind eye to: welcoming radicals in gains you a handful of true believers, but it costs you a much larger group of people who just wanted a normal party to vote for. Run that equation long enough, and you don't get a bigger tent. You get an empty one.
Gutfeld built the case by looking back at what actually worked for Donald Trump. "He had a lot of weird and odd people who backed him, and we called it a pirate ship," Gutfeld said. "Because even though everybody was different, they all rode in the same direction." Democrats, he argued, have the opposite problem. "They aren't rowing in the same direction at all because they don't have ideas. They just have identities."
That distinction is the whole ballgame. A coalition built around ideas can absorb a lot of different personalities and still move forward together. A coalition built around identity groups eventually runs out of room, because every new identity welcomed in has to be balanced against the people who feel replaced by it.
Gutfeld walked through the actual arithmetic. "You got a small group of super far-left fanatics who want to tear down everything, but there's a much bigger group of regular Democrats who don't," he said. "So if you welcome the radicals into your tent, some will join, but then some normies, they're going to leave." The net change, as he put it, is the radicals who join minus the normies who leave, and normies vastly outnumber radicals. "Even a small percentage who leave, the party's going to end up smaller," he said. "And it will end up smaller. Trust me."
ICYMI: Bill Maher Admits Democrat Party Is Antisemitic
"It's like somebody deciding to add Ex-Lax to the office candy bowl," he said. "Pretty soon, everybody's going to start bringing their own snacks from home."
A key example, of course, is women's sports, where fair competition based on biological sex gave way to policies that pushed female athletes out. He also mentioned churches that traded tradition for far-left positions and watched membership dwindle as a result, all while traditional congregations grew.
The pattern holds because mainstream institutions survive on boundaries. Erase the boundaries to please the fringe, and the mainstream stops showing up.
Nobody has proven that point better than the Democrat Party's own leadership. Party leaders have spent the past few months dismissing concerns about the rise of socialists inside their coalition, arguing that it is evidence the party is big enough for everybody. At the same time, plenty of the same leaders have spent those months working to sideline Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a man who votes with his own party 95% of the time. His real offense was refusing to fall in line on Israel, Iran, the border, and socialism, the handful of issues on which the activist wing has decided disagreement is disqualifying.
"The Big Tent pretends to be this enrichment when it's actually an erosion,” Gutfeld added. “The inclusion benefits only the outliers, but in the end, it destroys the institutions."
The Democrats' "big tent" is actually pushing out the normies.pic.twitter.com/oSsVcCSP4R
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) August 23, 2026
The worst part is that the signs that this a problem for their party have been there, but Democrat leaders just refuse to acknowledge them.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
Help PJ Media continue to report on the Democrats’ radicalism and inform voters as our nation faces a crossroads. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member