A spot-on and must-read column from Townhalls Justin Haskins is out today. The Democrat Party was once the party of the working men and women of American.
Not anymore.
image: https://earloftaint.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/dems-messengers-of-hope.jpg?w=679&h=482
Via Townhall:
I grew up in a small town in rural New England, which has long been a stronghold for Democrats. My grandfather was a carpenter, and for many years as a boy, my father was, too. Several of my family members are or used to be members of labor unions, and many of them have for years consistently and exclusively voted for Democratic candidates.
For much of my young life, their commitment to the Democratic Party had puzzled me. The values I grew up in my small town were the same American values that have made this country exceptional for more than two centuries: self-reliance, hard work, and individual liberty. Yet, come Election Day, much of my family and many of my neighbors would march off to the polls and pull the lever for candidates who seemed to embrace policies that are in complete contradiction to these ideals. And the older I get, the greater the divide grows between what Democratic voters in small towns and cities across the country think theyre getting from the politicians they vote for and the actual policies being proposed and implemented by Democrats.
The Democratic Party long ago ceased to be the party of John F. Kennedy and has instead mutated into the party of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Democrats used to say they support organized labor. Now, they are openly calling for open borders, driving down wages for millions of workers across the country. They used to say they support free expression on college campuses. Now, they do everything possible to silence students and speakers who disagree with their views. Many Democrats used to say socialism was a danger to America, but now they embrace radicals like Bernie Sanders and openly call for the creation of far-left socialist programs.
President Kennedy cut the top marginal tax rate for individuals by 20 percentage points, and he lowered corporate tax rates, too. Today, Democrats arent only opposed to tax cuts, they have pledged to raise taxes by reversing the Republicans tax reform law passed in 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Moderate Democrats are no longer welcome in their own party. In many cases, they are ostracized. And moderate established Democratic politicians are increasingly being primaried for taking positions the party used to champion, like common-sense border security measures.
My grandparents Democratic Party was far from perfect, but it was still a far cry from the quasi-socialist party it has become in the twenty-first century. Its time for moderate Democrats to face the facts: Your party has abandoned you. Perhaps its time for you to abandon it.
