The Democratic Party has abandoned the working and middle classes—both in policy and, now, in programming.
This week, the Democratic Party's desperate attempt to appeal to blue-collar workers with fake populist rhetoric is on full display. Don't fall for it. Behind the talking points and media spin, the true "progressive" socialist policy agenda of the 2020 Democratic National Convention would be a disaster for the American people.
According to a recent report from NPR, the Democrats originally planned to "highlight the plight of everyday Americans by giving small-business owners, teachers, factory workers and front-line health care workers prime-time speaking slots" at their convention. As usual, the Party quickly forgot all about amplifying the voices of ordinary Americans, preferring instead to dole out prime-time speaking slots to establishment insiders and political power brokers.
The American people already got a glimpse of the Democratic Party platform before this convention even started. In early July, former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders published their own "unity" manifesto with numerous "recommendations" for the Democratic National Committee, many of which were lifted directly from the "democratic socialist" agenda. This was likely Bernie's backroom payoff for remaining "cooperative" after the Democratic Party elites colluded against him—not once, but twice.
The 110-page document urged the Democrats to dismantle President Trump's border security policies, implement a "roadmap to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers," pass a "public option" designed to lead inexorably to a government takeover of American health care and other radical ideas that were then incorporated more or less verbatim into the 2020 Party platform.
Moreover, the policy platform also highlights the need to address climate change "with an ambitious, unprecedented, economy-wide mobilization to decarbonize the economy"—a broad declaration that could be used to justify any number of radical initiatives, from renovating almost every building in the country to banning flatulating cows.
To satiate the radical Left and signal his commitment to climate extremism, Biden tapped the author of the far-left "Green New Deal," Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), to co-chair his campaign's climate policy task force. AOC is not a scientist, but she is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, which presumably makes her qualified to speak on such complicated and consequential topics. She is, of course, a featured speaker during the convention.
Notably, Biden's decision to pick Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate only cements the Democratic Party's radicalism. Unlike Biden, who has deliberately refused to clarify the details of some of his energy proposals, including his floated ban on fracking and fossil fuels, the California lawmaker has taken a consistent stance against the energy industry and in favor of tearing down the American economy. Sen. Harris was the first to endorse from the debate stage last year the Green New Deal—a plan that would not create the green economy of the future, but destroy the greatest economy in human history.
"There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking," Harris declared last year.
Of course, utopian socialist schemes don't come cheap. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a fracking ban alone would destroy about 19 million jobs nationwide and shrink the country's GDP by $7.1 trillion in the space of just four years.
And if the Biden-Harris administration wants to implement other parts of the Green New Deal, then the costs will be even higher. Never forget, the Green New Deal is estimated to cost a stunning $93 trillion—or about $600,000 per household.
On the top of all that, the Democratic Party's pledge to eliminate the president's tax cuts would cost Americans an average of $1,400 every year, affecting 82 percent of all taxpayers. And that is only part of Biden's plan to hike taxes by a record-shattering $4 trillion.
Actions speak louder than words, and the Democratic National Convention's snub of American workers in favor of well-connected elitists and extremists perfectly illustrates the Party's true allegiances.
Charlie Kirk is the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, an advocacy group for young conservatives, and host of The Charlie Kirk Show.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
