If you have had difficulty finding some reason to support the Democratic Party and its increasingly bizarre policy positions, you are not alone. Two national polls released on Sunday reveal that the party’s favorability ratings have plunged to catastrophic lows. According to a new NBC News survey, just 27 percent of registered voters hold a positive view of the Democratic Party — its lowest rating since 1990. Likewise, a new CNN poll indicates that only 29 percent of U.S. adults regard the party favorably — a low not seen since 1992. These two polls confirm an equally ominous Quinnipiac survey conducted last month.

Both surveys clearly illuminate why the public harbors such a low opinion of the Democrats, and why this is very unlikely to change. The NBC poll, for example, found the following:  “Democratic voters say they want their party to hold the line on their positions even if it leads to gridlock, rather than focus on finding areas of compromise with the president.” The CNN survey suggests that a similarly suicidal perspective pervades the party: “Democrats and Democratic-aligned independents say, 57 percent to 42 percent, that Democrats should mainly work to stop the Republican agenda, rather than working with the GOP majority.”

This is stunning. It means that, for all intents and purposes, the Democratic Party exists for no other reason than to oppose President Trump, the GOP and the 77.4 million Americans who voted for them last November. If that seems like hyperbole, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) explicitly said just that Sunday morning on NBC’s Meet the Press,” when Kristen Welker asked him, “Our new NBC News poll, as you just saw, shows the Democratic Party at an all time low approval rating. Why do you think Democrats are failing to connect with Americans at this critical moment of urgency which you describe?” In response to Welker’s question Murphy brayed,

I think Americans want the Democratic Party to stand up and fight and to take risks. Listen, I understand that, had we gone into a shut down, even for a handful of days, it would have been difficult. But it would have sent a message that the Democratic Party is not going to be bullied by Donald Trump … That is the conversation that has to happen inside of the Democratic Party, inside our caucus. And if we don’t get that right, if we continue to work with Republicans, if we continue to hand Donald Trump more power, we are going to lose our democracy.