US Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: Democrats Go to Extremes

Democrats Go to Extremes
By Sen. John Thune

At the start of last year, a New York Times poll offered a warning to Democrats. The headline read, “Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities.” Just weeks after Democrats were rejected at the ballot box, the Times poll suggested that one of the reasons for their loss was that Americans thought that Democrats weren’t concerned about the things that matter most to them.

A year and a half after that poll was taken, Democrats have had numerous opportunities to demonstrate some moderation to voters. But the record shows that they have not evolved a bit. Take for example the fact that radical transgender ideology remains an article of faith among Democrats and that they have repeatedly opposed efforts to keep biological men out of women’s sports. One Democrat even called the recent unanimous Supreme Court decision upholding state laws protecting women’s sports “unjust,” as if making women compete against biological men is somehow just.

Of course, Democrats are still proudly pro-abortion, too. Democrats won’t even support legislation to provide medical care to a baby born alive during a failed abortion or a bill to ensure a pregnant college student knows there are resources available to help her finish her degree and have her baby. Democrats directed small-business COVID relief funds to Planned Parenthood, even though that organization was not legally eligible to receive funding. And they are doing everything in their power to eliminate pregnancy resource centers simply because they won’t recommend abortion.

It’s not just on these issues. Far-left activists seem to be the audience for almost everything Democrats do these days. Twice in the last year, Democrats have caused a record-long government shutdown. While TSA lines snaked outside of airports and Americans were visiting food banks because they had to work without pay, the Democrat leader was quoted saying, “Every day gets better for us.”

Then at the start of this year, Democrats shut down the U.S. Department of Homeland Security because they didn’t want to fund law enforcement. A few years ago, defunding law enforcement was a fringe position. This year, it became the official position of Democrats as they tried to completely defund immigration enforcement and Border Patrol. Once again, it didn’t matter to Democrats that Americans would be less safe with open borders, their audience was far-left activists.

Democrats have had numerous opportunities to work with Republicans on things that matter to the American people, but they have repeatedly chosen to follow members of their far-left base instead. Now it seems Democrats are poised to follow the far-left directly into socialism. Self-identified democratic socialists have been winning elections across the country. How long before there’s no distinguishing between Democrats and democratic socialists?

Last year, many Americans said they didn’t think Democrats share their priorities. Since then, Democrats have given them more reason to think so, and instead of moving toward the middle, Democrats are just getting more extreme.

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