Democrats’ Dysfunction

What has happened to the Democratic Party? In my opinion, the broad “new deal” coalition of labor, ethnics, minorities, other disadvantaged persons, liberals and even some moderates forged by FDR during the 1930s in the depths of the Great Depression is transforming before our very eyes. Today, the Party of FDR, JFK and LBJ is virtually unrecognizable.

For example:

The party has moved so far to the “left” that it is alienating many moderates and independent voters. This was evidenced in the 2016 election by Mr. Trump’s victories in states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

Some of the Party’s most visible spokespersons are politicians such as Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, who, although very popular, is not really even a Democrat, but an out and out socialist. They and others have been pulling the Party’s leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to the left with them.

Some of the policies they have been espousing, such as open borders, universally free healthcare, cradle to grave government assistance, and free college education for everyone may sound appealing to some, but they are ill-advised and irresponsible on many levels, have not worked in other countries, would destroy the middle class and bankrupt the country.

Many of the Dems still refuse to believe that they lost in 2016 legitimately. Even 18 months later they are still focused on Russian election tampering and collusion with the Trump campaign. They refuse to admit they lost because the GOP had a better candidate and most Americans were just fed up with the same old, same old in Washington. Their primary campaign issue for 2018 is negativity: Trump is a bad guy. He is a racist, a misogynist. We hate him. We want to impeach him. They will need more than that to win back Congress in 2018 and the presidency in 2020.

This month is the one-year anniversary of the commencement of the Mueller investigation. Whether you love or hate President Trump you have to admit that the Mueller investigation has not turned up even a smidgeon of collusion or obstruction on the part of Mr. Trump or his campaign. And, this is despite having spent millions of dollars, conducting over 100 interviews, examining millions of documents and diverting the country’s attention away from more important matters. In addition, the objectivity of the investigators and the investigation, itself, has been, to say the least, highly questionable. Instead, we have found evidence of improper, if not illegal, acts by Democrats and their supporters, for instance, leaking confidential information and entrapment on the part of FBI agents (Stroh, Comey and others), compiling and pushing an unverified, if not downright false, dossier on Mr. Trump that was compiled by the Clinton campaign, “trumping up” phony evidence to obtain a FISA warrant, engaging in illegal wiretapping, and placing an undercover agent within the Trump campaign. One could legitimately make the case that Messrs. Trump, Jr., Papadopoulos and Carter were “set up” with respect to their infamous meetings and information provided. This week, even the NY Times was forced to concur, opining that “a year and a half later, no public evidence has surfaced connecting Mr. Trump’s advisors to the hacking or linking Mr. Trump, himself, to the Russian government ‘s disruptive efforts.” You know it must have killed them to admit and publish that.

Somehow, the Party has been maneuvered into defending the heinous MS-13 gang as well as other criminal illegal aliens. In addition, their open border stance and support of sanctuary cities have given many people the distinct impression that they prefer the rights of illegal aliens to those of US citizens. I and many others believe their preference for the rights of illegal aliens is designed to develop a new constituency of voters, prospectively.

MS-13 is one of, if not the, most vicious gangs in the world. They don’t just kill people. They chop them up with machetes. They dismember them. They torture. They gang rape. And, they do it to the victims’ extended family members as well. They are the worst of the worst. And they have been increasingly active in the US.

Surprise! Surprise! Some members sneak in hidden among other refugees and asylum seekers. Kids, no more than ten or eleven are recruited or coerced to join. Mr. Trump’s border security policy attempts to keep them out. The Dems’ open border policy makes it easy for them to enter. The crowning blow came this week when Mr. Trump specifically referred to MS-13 members as “animals.” Based on their abovementioned acts this is hard to dispute. I think most Americans would agree with that characterization.

But, not the NY Times and Washington Post, which either carelessly or deliberately misquoted Mr. Trump to make it appear that he characterized all immigrants as “animals.” Also, various Dem politicians and supporters piled on. For example, Anna Navarro compared Mr. Trump to Nazis and former slave owners. Nancy Pelosi defended MS-13 members , lecturing us that “we are all God’s children,” and we should “respect the dignity of every person.” Incidentally, it was the same Anna Navarro who during the 2016 campaign referred to candidate Trump as “an animal. Apologies to animals.” Regardless of one’s opinion of President Trump or his choice of words, the Dems are definitely on the wrong side of this issue.

Congressman Al Green (D-TX) is still aggressively pushing impeachment, like a modern-day Don Quixote. Mr. Green should review the constitution. Its definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is fairly flexible (Gerald Ford once famously said it is whatever the Congress decides it to be at a particular point in time.), but it definitely does not include personal dislike or disagreement.

CONCLUSION

The sad irony is that if the Dems were so inclined there are legitimate issues they could exploit and campaign on. For example, many Americans are concerned about healthcare and gun violence.

Historically, the party in power normally loses seats in the off-year midterm elections. The question is how many seats will the GOP lose and will they still retain a majority. The GOP has several accomplishments it could campaign on, such as the improving economy, low unemployment (historically low in the case of AAs), tax cut, defeating ISIS, NOKO talks, but they have to articulate them effectively.

The mainstream media would have us believe that a “blue wave” will sweep the country in November. I have my doubts. Let’s not forget that some of the Dems running for re-election are in “red” states that Mr. Trump won handily in 2016. Personally, I think the results will be closer than most people think, and if the Dems don’t change their strategy they could be in for a big disappointment.