Republicans: Time to Declare Code Red on Socialism

For years, Arizona and Florida have only gained population and therefore representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College because of immigration as well as migration into the states by retirees because of their low taxes.  Sadly, voters may end up throwing that all away by electing socialist governors in the fall.  In Florida, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who had the endorsement of Bernie Sanders, beat out the establishment favorite Gwen Graham in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.  Gillum has called for the impeachment of President Trump and embraced the idea of single-payer healthcare, which failed even in Sanders’ home state of Vermont, the most sympathetic to socialism in the union.  No wonder liberal billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer bankrolled Gillum’s candidacy.    

Meanwhile, in Arizona, Arizona State University Professor David Garcia captured the Democratic nomination for Governor.  During an appearance at Netroots nation, essentially the liberal version of CPAC, slammed the idea of a border wall on the southern border with Mexico, asking the audience to “Just imagine, no wall in Southern Arizona.”  Garcia has vowed to raise income taxes in an effort to pay for higher salaries for teachers and free community college.

Considering the fact that Florida and Arizona generally lean right of center politically, conventional wisdom would say that these far left candidates have no chance in the fall.  Unfortunately, the polls indicate that they do in fact have a chance to compete in states that do not seem sympathetic to socialism at first glance. In Arizona, every poll taken so far has shown Garcia beating Incumbent Republican Governor Doug Ducey, albeit by a very small margin. In Florida, a majority of the polls taken so far show Gillum leading DeSantis; with one exception. An internal poll for Gillum taken shortly after Tuesday’s primary shows him beating DeSantis by five points while two polls conducted prior to the primary show Gillum leading DeSantis by four and three points, respectively.   

The race in Florida has already turned quite nasty.  During an appearance on Fox News, DeSantis talked about Florida’s economy by saying “we cannot afford to monkey this up” by embracing the socialist policies championed by Gillum.  DeSantis’s critics, which comprise about 90 percent of the media, immediately accused him of using the word “monkey” as a dog whistle, effectively a synonym for the N-word; directed at the African-American Gillum.  Perhaps DeSantis used the word “monkey” as a synonym for the F-word, would the media have preferred it if he said “we cannot afford to f*** this up?”  Knowing the media, they probably would have found some way to make it into a racial slur.

While Garcia and Gillum may end up winning their respective gubernatorial races, that does not mean that they will have a green light to implement all of their socialist fantasies into law.  As President Trump has learned, the executive branch can only do so much.  The executive needs Congress at the Federal level and the same applies at the state level where the governors will need the support of the state legislature in getting their agenda passed.  Currently, Republicans control both chambers in the state legislatures of Arizona and Florida yet that could change as a result of the election this fall.  Should Democrats manage to capture just one of the chambers in either state, that will make implementing socialism all the more easier.   

Political pundits have tried to figure out what last week’s elections mean for the final batch of primary elections; especially in New York State.  Governor Andrew Cuomo, hardly a moderate, has marched even further to the left in an effort to ward off primary challenger Cynthia Nixon, best known for her role on “Sex and the City.”  Many have dubbed what they view as Cuomo’s inauthentic drift to the left as “the Cynthia effect.” Appearing at Netroots Nation, Nixon suggested that the Democratic Party should fully embrace socialism, complaining that “Republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do so we might as well give them the real thing. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul has attracted a primary challenger in Jumaane Williams, a member of the New York City Council, who identifies as a Democratic socialist.  Williams recently got arrested while protesting the President’s Supreme Court pick in front of Trump Tower.  Notice how I said protesting the President’s Supreme Court pick, not Brett Kavanaugh.  The angry left-wing mob would have held the protest no matter who President Trump ended up picking.  Many protesters gathered outside of the Supreme Court on the night President Trump announced his pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy had prepared signs saying “Stop Hardiman” or “Stop Kethledge,” which they would have held up if President Trump had picked Judges Thomas Hardiman or Raymond Kethledge, both considered finalists for the position. 

 

While the voters of New York State have yet to decide whether they want to embrace Democratic socialism at the local level, many Democratic voters have decided that they want politicians affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America representing them in Washington.  For those who need a refresher, the Metro DC Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America harassed Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen as she attempted to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  In Maine, Zak Ringelstein captured the Democratic Party’s nomination for the United States Senate seat currently held by Independent Angus King, who currently caucuses with the Democrats.  While Ringelstein has no chance of winning the general election, his victory in the primary says a lot about the mood of the Democratic Primary electorate.  In New York’s 14^th Congressional District, DSA-backed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated longtime Democratic Incumbent Joe Crowley and has embraced every aspect of the progressive agenda from impeaching President Trump to supporting single-payer healthcare, to, of course, abolishing ICE. 
 

Regardless of whether or not they have affiliated themselves with the Democratic Socialists of America, many Congressional candidates have called for the abolition of ICE; including New Mexico Congressional candidate Debra Haaland and Wisconsin Congressional candidate Randy Bryce, who hopes to capture the seat currently held by retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan. 
 

The same applies to candidates running statewide who have touted their admiration for socialist policies while not necessarily identifying as Democratic Socialists.  For example, look at aspiring California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has served as the Lieutenant Governor of the Golden State for the past eight years and served as San Francisco Mayor before that.  During a recent appearance on the “Pod Save America” podcast, Newsom promised to implement a statewide universal healthcare plan, which includes coverage for illegal immigrants.  He promised to do it without bankrupting the state, citing how he implemented universal healthcare in San Francisco during his tenure as mayor “without bankrupting the city.”  Regardless of whether or not the universal healthcare will bankrupt the state, left-wing policies in San Francisco that Newsom wants to bring to the rest of the state have already bankrupted its streets and sidewalks of cleanliness. Human waste and hypodermic needles have effectively replaced the Golden Gate Bridge and cable cars as the most famous landmarks of San Francisco.  Unlike in Arizona and Florida, where a Democratic legislature will not necessarily greet left-wing Democratic candidates should they actually win the election, Newsom will have an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature in Sacramento ready to rubber-stamp all of his left-wing policies. They have already turned California into a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants.
     

The far left has already found their chosen one in Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has decided to forego running for re-election in order to challenge Texas Senator Ted Cruz this fall.  While President Trump carried Texas by nearly 10 points in 2016, the Real Clear Politics average has Cruz beating O’Rourke by only 4.4 points. In a state that still has a strong sense of patriotism despite the Democrats’ best attempts to turn it blue through immigration, O’Rourke has come out on the side of national anthem protesters and has remained “open” to the idea of “doing away with” ICE.  President Trump has announced that he plans to hold a major event for Cruz in October, which will hopefully help drive up Republican turnout and stop the blue wave.  
 

Last week, the death of John McCain led many in the bipartisan ruling class to embrace bipartisanship; obviously directing their calls for working across the aisle towards Republicans.  It looks like they might want to give that message to Democrats, since many of the candidates who may end up making up the Freshmen class of the 116^th Congress will hardly find any common ground with Republicans when it comes to implementing their socialist policies.   
 

A healthy handful of candidates have vowed not to back Nancy Pelosi for Speaker should they win the election.  Believe it or not, many on the far don’t see the San Francisco socialite as far left enough as demonstrated by their railroading of her during a town hall event last year because they thought she had failed to do enough to protect “Dreamers.”  At least one of the protesters probably belonged to the Democratic Socialists of America, which has a membership of 49,000.  The far left never ceases to amaze me; they had previously shut down a Bernie Sanders speech in Seattle, Washington. The radical left will surely have a hard time finding any candidate sympathetic to its policy positions as Senator Sanders.  
 

While the far left Democrats have definitely embraced some crazy ideas, at least they can go to bed at night knowing they have told the American people the truth about what they believe; regardless of how unpalatable Americans living outside of Madison, Wisconsin, Ann Arbor, Ithaca, San Francisco, and Cambridge may find them.  Many Democrats secretly hold these beliefs, they just don’t want to commit political suicide by embracing them.   

 

While Republicans may find it tempting to dismiss socialism as just another political fad, the numbers show socialism has more appeal than logic would assume; largely as a result of America’s education system, run by the left since the Cultural Revolution, molding the minds of the young to see socialism in a favorable light.  Republicans should not sit back and assume easy races just because Democrats in swing states chose socialists; they should treat these races as seriously as they would if they had to run against “moderate” Democrats and declare code red on the mainstreaming of socialism in America.