Live Free Or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink (8 page)

Conservatives also generally believe it's morally corrupting and biblically forbidden for people to dwell on other people's possessions. Thus, the left's obsession with class conflict is detrimental not only to our economy but to our moral and spiritual health. The American dream involves the freedom to work hard and prosper—it is not about coveting your neighbor's property and having the government seize it for you.

I have highlighted Beinart's piece because I think it's revealing about the left and the Democratic Party—written by a progressive connected to their thinking and inner workings. It's one thing for us conservatives to speculate about the motives and future intentions of the left and the Democratic Party. It's another to let the words of their thought leaders illuminate their mind-set.

I believe it's important we take seriously his view that leftist radicals are more mobilized than they've been since the 1960s and that they are exerting enormous influence over the Democratic Party. Now we face a double threat from activists mobilizing their fellow leftists outside the party structure and from those inside the party itself. Even when these radicals get blowback, they are undeterred and do whatever it takes to advance their agenda. For the left, the end justifies the means, and that's even more true of leftists today, because the greater their ideological intensity, the less their respect for democratic norms, the Constitution, and the rule of law.

Beinart defends the activists against Republican claims that they act like a “mob,” such as during the Kavanaugh hearings. He suggests it is Trump who has encouraged his crowds to commit violence. It's been
a common ploy of Democrats and Never Trumpers to paint Trump and his supporters as violent, but Trump supporters are overwhelmingly law-abiding, Constitution-respecting patriots. In fact, a sting video by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas showed that fights at Trump rallies, which were breathlessly hyped by the media during the 2016 elections, were being deliberately provoked by left-wing provocateurs who were running a dirty tricks operation for the Hilary Clinton campaign.
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We are not the ones hounding people out of public places or denying youths a dissenting voice on college campuses. We are not the ones dressed in black beating our political opponents in the streets. That is the province of the left—today, just as it was in the 1960s.

We have watched endless bullying from our political opponents and their malcontent community organizers and activists. We have witnessed their unwillingness to live and let live. We have seen their vilification of all who don't kowtow to their agenda and demands. They no longer fool us with their simulated anguish over President Trump's threats to our system. They are the ones who threaten the system. They are the ones who interfere with elections. They are the ones who disrespect the Constitution and undermine the checks and balances that hold it in place. They are the ones whose political candidates are dedicated to overthrowing American values, traditions, and institutions.

And we are the ones who must stand in their way. That not only requires our ongoing vigilance but our studied awareness of precisely how they intend to achieve their goals. We must not only promote “informed patriotism”—fully understanding what is so wonderfully unique about America and why it is worth preserving. We must also fully inform ourselves of the ideas and policies that threaten it—meaning the particulars of the leftist agenda this current crop of Democratic leaders intends to advance. We must do a better job convincing our fellow Americans that Democrats mean business and must be defeated.

To be honest, it's laughable to suggest that the Democratic Party isn't radical and out of control. It's undeniable if you look at their policy proposals—a true horror show in the making. So let's do that now.

It's important that the American people understand exactly what the Democrats are offering them: radical changes to our economic system and a severe disruption of the American social fabric. Their outlandish plans are not the result of careful consideration of their costs and benefits to the nation. Instead, they stem from a mix of the Democrats' extreme leftist ideology, their maniacal hatred of President Trump, and a neurotic angst that has robbed them of all reason and fairness. These qualities have diverted them from pursuing any constructive agenda and rendered them generally unfit to lead this nation—which is ironic considering their constant harping on Trump's alleged unfitness for office.

Just about everything the Democrats do and say today stems from their animosity toward Trump. They refused to stand or applaud for great American achievements during either of Trump's State of the Union addresses—it was more important to display their contempt for the president than, for example, to celebrate rising wages for the middle class, historic lows in black unemployment, or even a schoolgirl who earned an opportunity scholarship. Even their approach to the coronavirus pandemic was focused on undermining Trump. Trump Derangement Syndrome is an amazingly powerful force that has completely overwhelmed the Democratic Party. Out of this toxic stew of
rage and resentment, the Democrats have produced a preposterous agenda that would transform our country beyond all recognition.

You can bank on one thing: I, for one, won't let the Democrats divert attention from Trump's policy successes, which I highlight in Chapter Nine and which are not diminished by the economic slowdown resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The amazing Trump economy stands on its own merit, making it clear that it is Trump—not the whining leftists—who is best suited to lead our post-coronavirus recovery.

Seriously, how will the Democrats find an audience for their utopian schemes when Trump had already proved, before the pandemic, his ability to raise America to new heights of prosperity? Minorities were doing better than ever under the Trump economy, which made the left palpably nervous.
¹
As I pointed out on my show, Obama official turned commentator Van Jones warned that Trump's 2020 State of Union speech was a “wake-up call” for Democrats because Trump was helping African American communities “in real life.”

It's easy to forget that Trump's election victory sparked catastrophic economic predictions from the left. Remember when economist Paul Krugman warned in the
New York Times
that Trump's election would cause a global recession and the stock market would “never” recover?
²
Yeah, with both the stock market and the economy breaking new records seemingly every day before the virus, it's safe to say that one didn't quite pan out. But in an effort to sell their grandiose economic reprogramming plans, the Democrats tried to convince the American people that the economy at its pinnacle was actually terrible for everyone except the villainous 1 percent, even if the American people somehow failed to notice it. But it's horrifying to consider how devastated the economy would be today if Trump
hadn't put it in the best possible position to withstand the economic dislocations caused by the virus.

During the first Democratic presidential primary debate on June 26, 2019, Beto O'Rourke lamely scrambled to explain away Trump's successes. “This economy has got to work for everyone and right now we know that it isn't and it's going to take all of us coming together to make sure that it does,” O'Rourke said. “Right now, we have a system that favors those that can pay for access and outcomes, that is how you explain an economy that is rigged to corporations and to the wealthiest.”
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How can this message resonate when it glaringly contradicted reality? Unemployment rates were at record lows and wages were rising for people at all income levels, not just the wealthy. So O'Rourke was relegated to complaining that some people have more than others.

We heard some version of this class warfare appeal from nearly all the Democratic presidential candidates. During one presidential debate, Senator Warren at least five times accused American businesses of wanting to “suck” profits from consumers and boasted about her plans to eliminate private health insurance providers because they too have “sucked billions of dollars out of our health-care system.”
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In Warren's grim world, our economy comprises countless greedy, immoral companies whose primary activity is exploiting the American people, who in turn can be saved only by the government—with Warren at the helm.

Similarly, Bernie Sanders accused the fossil fuel industry of intentionally wrecking the environment to line their pockets. “What do you do with an industry that knowingly, for billions of dollars in short-term profits, is destroying this planet?” asked Sanders. “I say that is criminal activity that cannot be allowed to continue.”
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Earth to Bernie: oil is the lifeblood of the world's economy, and it creates the highest potential for high-paying career jobs for Americans. Without fossil fuels, the entire American economy would grind to a halt, and the nation would largely deindustrialize—not to mention that alternative energy sources can't power a modern economy. Yet according to Bernie, the
entire industry is a criminal enterprise. “So legally drilling for oil and gas, employing millions of people, and providing cheaper energy for hundreds of millions is now criminal?” asked the
Wall Street Journal
editors. “And they say Donald Trump is demagogic.”
⁶

The Democrats' gloom and despair were so at odds with our economic reality that occasionally they'd wander off script and argue the opposite of what they were supposed to be saying. For example, on February 17, 2020, former president Obama tweeted, “Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history.”
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Oops—instead of harping on the rank injustices that permeate our economy, Obama jumped off the sidelines to
claim credit
for Trump's economic achievements. The Democrats' doom-mongering also contradicted the rekindled patriotism stoked by President Trump's “America First” agenda.
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They were so confounded by Trump's “winning” and so bankrupt of positive ideas, they had no believable answer for Trump's brilliant economic record. The pandemic, politically speaking, fell into their laps as they seek to directly blame Trump for the damage done by a pernicious virus originating in China.

Prior to the outbreak, my friend Bill O'Reilly predicted on my radio show that President Trump would win reelection handily if he uses the stature of his office to communicate his message to voters. Why? Well, because he's got a strong record and the “Democrats don't have anybody.” Bill was right, but he didn't go far enough. It's not just that they don't have
anybody
—unless you count Sleepy Joe Biden, which I don't; the problem is they don't have
anything
. They have no credible policy agenda. What they have is rage, extremism, and the bogus claim that Trump botched the response to the virus, which I detail later.

The indignant Democrats have become the joyless party, characterized more by anger than a loving spirit, which is also ironic, since they hold themselves out as loving and compassionate. They never get off their moralistic high horses, always pointing their fingers of
judgment while basking in their false sense of superior compassion and humanity. Everyone is evil but them. No one cares about their fellow man but them.

The leftist-controlled Democratic Party isn't interested in improving people's lives. It wants to
control
them, through the instrument of government. Democrats believe they know better than the people do what's in the people's best interests. They want to pick the winners and losers among businesses and entire industries. For them, it's a class struggle, which is what socialism and communism have always been. They must demonize and punish the rich. As we'll see in the next chapter, they are willfully blind to the failed record of socialism.

The discontent and rage of the sixties radicals now dominate the Democratic Party and the millions of people indoctrinated by leftist propaganda since that turbulent decade. You saw their anger in the presidential debates. You see it in their late-night “comedians.” You see it in their radical foot soldiers, from Occupy Wall Street to Antifa. You see it in their demand for intellectual conformity—their refusal to permit dissenting opinions in their ranks. And you see it course through their entire agenda, which is more geared toward singling out and punishing scapegoats than it is helping anyone achieve a better life for themselves.

Democrats and Never Trump Republicans sometimes argue that even if you believe Trump's policies have improved people's lives, it's not worth sullying the presidential office with such a vile man. But we're not going to let them get away with that, either. No president in the modern era has had to take these unprecedented sustained attacks by both liberal Democratic socialists and the media mob in an attempt to destroy him and tear him down. As I've outlined on my programs, and as we'll see in the myriad examples below,
they
are primarily
responsible for the partisan rancor and for coarsening our political debate with their never-ending stream of personal attacks against the president. Democrats and the media have so ruthlessly derided Trump that people seem to overlook the astoundingly unpresidential behavior of the Democrats who campaigned to replace him. They denounce him for his alleged rudeness and vulgarity, hoping we'll overlook the enormous planks in their own eyes. Their outrage rings hollow when they constantly attack Trump, his family, and even his everyday supporters in the most crude and vicious ways.

Trump Derangement Syndrome permeated the entire Democratic presidential field. They could say anything they want about him without the liberal media batting an eye. At the CNN Democratic debate on July 30, 2019, the candidates seemed to be competing with each other to hurl the most over-the-top invectives at Trump. Senator Warren declared, “We live in a country now where the President is advancing environmental racism, economic racism, criminal-justice racism, health-care racism.”
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She claimed Trump “is a part of a corrupt, rigged system that has helped the wealthy and the well-documented and kicked dirt in the faces of everyone else.” Bernie Sanders jumped in the fray, calling Trump “a pathological liar” and declaring, “We have got to take on Trump's racism, his sexism, [and] xenophobia.”
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The second-tier candidates chimed in as well. Senator Michael Bennett called Trump a “bully” who “doesn't give a damn about your kids or mine.” Representative Tulsi Gabbard said that “Donald Trump is not behaving like a patriot,” “is continuing to betray us,” and “is supporting al-Qaida.” Washington governor Jay Inslee called Trump a “white nationalist.” Julian Castro called him “a racist.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said, “The first thing that I'm going to do when I'm president is I'm going to Clorox the Oval Office. Donald Trump has really torn apart the moral fabric of this country, dividing us on every racial line, every religious line, every socioeconomic line he can find.”
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Hypocritical senator Kamala Harris said Trump “has a predatory nature and predatory instincts…. And predators are cowards.”
¹²
Nonsense. Harris herself, however, has engaged in predatory behavior. She calls herself a “progressive prosecutor.” But as law professor Lara Bazelon noted, she “fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”
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The overwrought accusations continued to flow unabated. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio accused Trump of committing “crimes worthy of impeachment,” adding that Trump is “the real socialist. The problem is, it's socialism for the rich.”
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Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper said that Trump “is malpractice personified.” Beto O'Rourke claimed that Trump “uses fear to try to drive us further apart.” Mayor Pete Buttigieg said, “When [former Ku Klux Klan leader] David Duke ran for Congress, ran for governor, the Republican Party 20 years ago ran away from him. Today, they are supporting naked racism in the White House or are, at best, silent about it.” And Marianne Williamson added her trademark cosmic take on Trump, declaring, “The racism, the bigotry and the entire conversation that we're having here tonight, if you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I'm afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days.”
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Former Maryland congressman John Delaney made a particularly noteworthy remark: “Donald Trump is the symptom of a disease and the disease is divisiveness.”
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Delaney's jab says it all, does it not? After participating in a debate that involved more personal attacks against Trump in a few hours than he could level against his opponents in a month, Delaney blamed Trump for divisiveness. Are these Democrats, even the allegedly mild-mannered and less radical among them, incapable of recognizing they've become consumed with hatred? Trump is no wallflower, but he usually doesn't start these skirmishes. Legions of Democratic opponents, haters, and detractors have blasted him without provocation since the moment he announced for the presidency.
Neither they nor their media co-conspirators have any standing to accuse him of polarizing behavior.