HORIST: Democrats do have a ‘platform’

Larry Horist

8 years ago

&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;The common refrain across the political spectrum is that the Democratic Party has no platform, no policies, no proposals&period;&nbsp&semi; This is a criticism advanced by Republicans as well as many Democrats&period;&nbsp&semi; However, it may be an unfair and inaccurate assessment&period;&nbsp&semi; &NewLine;One might argue that the Democratic Party that is currently controlled by the radical left has a &ldquo&semi;platform&rdquo&semi; with specific policies and positions&period;&nbsp&semi; So, let&rsquo&semi;s look at policies from the Democrat point-of-view&period;&nbsp&semi; Let&rsquo&semi;s see what America might look like if left-wing Democrats should assume power in the coming years&period;&NewLine;In terms of the federal government, Democrats favor a more powerful and influential federal government with an ever-increasing number of regulations&period;&nbsp&semi; They predicate this need on a belief that the average American lacks the knowledge and moral standards to self-govern&period; &nbsp&semi;The Democrat&rsquo&semi;s left-wing doctrine declares themselves to be a self-appointed elite class that, in an arrogant spirit of noblesse oblige, needs to rule over and provide for the less able masses&period;&NewLine;Democrats favor a shift in programs and power away from state and local governments, where we the people can exert our greatest influence&period;&nbsp&semi; They prefer to amass more and more power in the central government in Washington that can be managed by an establishment ruling class&period;&NewLine;Contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution, Democrats believe that sovereignty rests with government &ndash&semi; not in the soul of the people&period;&nbsp&semi; They do not see rights as inalienable, but rather to be granted or not granted by government&period;&NewLine;Consistent with this philosophy, Democrats favor a massive, unaccountable and powerful bureaucracy that promulgates extensive laws in the form of regulations &ndash&semi; actually legislating far more than the Congress&period;&NewLine;Democrats believe that bureaucrats, who are beyond the view and the reach of the people, should have more authority than elected officials and more privilege than the common citizen&period;&nbsp&semi; Democrats believe that bureaucrats deserve higher pay, better benefits and extraordinary multiple retirement programs&period;&nbsp&semi; It is the reason why the vast majority of bureaucrats are Democrats &ndash&semi; as evidenced in the voting patterns of those wealthy communities that abut on the nation&rsquo&semi;s capital&period;&NewLine;To sustain a federal bureaucracy of unrestrained growth and spending, Democrats believe that their government must confiscate and redistribute more and more of the working classes&rsquo&semi; productivity &ndash&semi; meaning money&period;&nbsp&semi; For this reason, Democrats have long been known as the Party of &ldquo&semi;tax and spend&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;According to the Democrat &ldquo&semi;platform,&rdquo&semi; the right to vote needs to be extended to non-citizens, illegal aliens and convicted felons&period;&nbsp&semi; Maybe folks on visitors&rsquo&semi; visas will be next&period;&nbsp&semi; Citizenship should not have special meaning or special rights in the Democratic Party playbook&period;&NewLine;To ensure that anyone who happens to pass by a polling place on Election Day can cast a ballot, Democrats oppose any strict regulations that would guarantee that the would-be voter is legitimate and properly registered &ndash&semi; such as presenting an official photo-ID of some sort&period;&NewLine;At times, it even seems that Democrats believe the dearly departed should still retain the right to vote by not deleting the deceased from the voting rolls&period;&nbsp&semi; Such names on the rolls can also be used by otherwise ineligible voters&period;&nbsp&semi; These provisions are particularly favored by the Democrat political machines in the major American cities&period;&NewLine;To ensure a steady stream of ineligible voters, Democrats believe in an open border policy &ndash&semi; essentially a no border policy&period;&nbsp&semi; They believe that there should be no distinction between those who enter the United States legally and those who enter illegally&period; &nbsp&semi;They believe that should a border security guard capture a person entering the country illegally, the individual should be informed of the dubious rights and released into the general population&period;&NewLine;To further ensure that Illegal aliens have unfettered access to America, Democrats want to abolish the Immigration Control and Enforcement Agency (ICE) &ndash&semi; the organization that tracks down criminal illegal aliens, and fights drug and human trafficking&period;&NewLine;In addition to voting rights, Democrats believe that being in the country illegally should not be a barrier to access to free education, welfare, healthcare and driving licenses &ndash&semi; which can be used as an ID for voting in states that do require proof of eligibility&period;&NewLine;Democrats prefer a society based on identity politics and political correctness in which society is divided into oppressors and victims of oppressors rather than American historical culture of e pluribus unum&period;&nbsp&semi; In a peculiar notion of equality, Democrats promote special privileges for what they call &ldquo&semi;protected classes&rdquo&semi; &&num;8212&semi; you know, those who need protection from the imaginary oppressors&period;&NewLine;Democrats believe that free-enterprise capitalism is a basically evil and greedy institution that oppresses the working class &ndash&semi; and the government is the better provider of jobs&period;&NewLine;The Democrat &ldquo&semi;platform&rdquo&semi; rejects individual choice in a belief that citizens must be protected from their own bad habits&period;&nbsp&semi; They believe in laws, not education, to prevent people from drinking a 42-ounce soda, eating a rare hamburger or raising chubby children&period;&nbsp&semi; They reject the notion that we the people should be free to choose because they fear we will not make the choices they demand&period;&NewLine;They believe that children are the responsibility of the state &ndash&semi; often euphemistically referred to as &ldquo&semi;the village&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; In their world, a 13-year-old girl can get birth control pills or even an abortion without the consent or knowledge of the parents&period;&NewLine;Like the radical left-wing authoritarians in Russia and China, contemporary Democrats believe that religion is a philosophy based on ignorance&period;&nbsp&semi; It has no place in the commons&period;&NewLine;Democrats, who control our educations systems, reject the notion that such academic intuitions were established to encourage thinking&period;&nbsp&semi; Rather, they see them as institutions of indoctrination where opposing opinions are to be disregarded and even disallowed&period;&nbsp&semi; The unencumbered constitutional right of free speech is to be oppressed by the imposition of a pre-approved fixed value structure&period;&NewLine;Democrats want activist judges who create laws to promote and protect the liberal agenda rather than the Constitution&period;&nbsp&semi; Rather than an independent branch of government, as established in our tripartite separation of powers, Democrats view the judiciary as their political enforcement arm&period;&NewLine;As with all authoritarian movements, Democrats do not believe in a citizen&rsquo&semi;s right to bear arms&period;&nbsp&semi; Though they lack the political gravitas to ban all such instruments of personal protection at this time, they would if they could&period;&nbsp&semi; They understand that an armed populace is very difficult to oppress&period;&NewLine;Perhaps the most important plank in the Democratic Party Platform is to hate President Trump, Republicans, conservatives and all those they have slandered as ignorant, immoral and intolerant deplorables&period;&NewLine;So &hellip&semi; the Democratic Party does NOT have a &ldquo&semi;platform&quest;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; Au Contraire&period;&nbsp&semi; They have a very clear agenda for America&period;&nbsp&semi; It is the agenda that voters have been rejecting since 2010&period;&nbsp&semi; It is the agenda that has given the Republican Party and conservatives more political power than at any time since the post-Civil War Reconstruction Period&period;&nbsp&semi; Theirs is the antithesis of America&rsquo&semi;s founding culture of limited government, low taxes, personal freedom and a devotion to a Constitution rather than a malignant philosophy based on elitist power&period;&NewLine;Larry Horist is a conservative activist with an extensive background in economics, public policy and political issues&period; Clients of his consulting firm have included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman, and he has served as a consultant to the White House under Presidents Nixon and Reagan&period; He has testified as an expert witness before numerous legislative bodies, including the U&period; S&period; Congress and lectured at Harvard University, Northwestern University, Florida Atlantic University, Knox College and Hope College&period; An award winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries appear frequently on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation&period; He can be reached at <a href="mailto&colon;lph&commat;thomasandjoyce&period;com">lph&commat;thomasandjoyce&period;com</a>&period;&NewLine;