If there’s a lesson to be learned from the collapse of Spirit Airlines, it is that today’s Democratic Party should never be in charge of anything.

Does that seem like a stretch? Not when you consider the facts.

Four years ago, Spirit and JetBlue started talking about merging operations. Spirit was struggling to stay afloat, thanks in part to the massive run-up in inflation under President Joe Biden. The merger would have been a lifeline to Spirit and would have ensured low-cost competition survived.

But Democrats — led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren — decided that they knew better. Warren pressured then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration to stop it, “expressing serious concerns about the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.”

She bragged in early 2024 that she “has led the fight to ensure antitrust laws are enforced across the economy to prevent mergers that will reduce competition, jeopardize fair markets, and harm consumers.”

Her leadership paid off. Biden’s Transportation and Justice Departments teamed up to block the merger — claiming it would cost travelers $1 billion a year. Then a district judge in Boston sided with Biden.

All of them claimed the same thing. That they were doing this on behalf of air travelers.

Buttigieg said in 2023 that “it’s important to make sure that passengers have choices” and that they “have access to low fares.”

When the companies dropped the merger plans in the face of these assaults, Warren cheered, calling it “a Biden win for flyers.”

A win? Tell that to the 17,000 employees who just lost their jobs, the travelers who have paid for Spirit flights they’ll never take, and those families faced with a huge spike in travel costs.

“Now, travelers will face higher costs, have fewer choices, and thousands of Americans are unemployed,” Michigan Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga posted on Facebook. “This is the direct result of her socialist ‘win.'”

Not surprisingly, these same Democrats are trying to pin the blame for Spirit’s collapse on President Donald Trump, saying, as Warren put it, “spiking fuel prices from Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline.”

But that’s a lie. Anyone not blinded by leftist ideology could see at the time that killing the merger was the nail in Spirit’s coffin.

Here’s how the Heritage Foundation’s EJ Antoni put it back in March 2024:

Without the merger, Spirit is all but condemned to death, and investors know it, selling off the company’s stock, which hit a record low after the plug was pulled on consolidating with JetBlue. The ratings agency Fitch downgraded Spirit’s credit rating, citing default as a real possibility, meaning the airline may soon be unable to pay its bills.

With operational losses, over $1 billion in bonds coming due soon, and the evaporation of available equity from the stock plummeting, Spirit’s collapse seems like a fait accompli.

(Besides, even if we disagreed with his plan, Trump at least tried to find a way to keep Spirit afloat.)

This can, however, be a clarifying moment for voters before the midterms — if Republicans are smart enough to seize it.

Remember, it’s been Democrats — who’d been silent while Joe Biden’s policies drove inflation to nearly double digits — who’ve been running around screaming “affordability crisis” ever since Trump took office.

But it’s the Democrats’ unquenchable desire to control our lives and their arrogant belief that they know better than individuals, companies, or the market, that is the real enemy of affordability. Spirit’s death is just the latest example.

Republicans need to run on this in every Senate and House race across the country. Tie the collapse of Spirit around Democrats’ ankles. Let every voter know that this is what always happens when leftists get control — fewer choices, higher prices, and excuses — and why Democrats simply cannot be trusted with power.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board