Myth Busted: The Democrats Moving to the Middle

In a little more than a month, the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives for the first time since losing the chamber in the Tea Party wave of 2010.  As I have explained before, fifty years of third-world immigration, court-ordered redistricting, and a large number of Republican retirements contributed to the Democratic victory. 

Shortly after many news outlets predicted that Democrats would retake control of the House of Representatives, current House Minority Leader and presumptive Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gave a speech where she sung the praises of bipartisanship.  President Trump also sounded surprisingly optimistic at a press conference he held the day after the midterms, where he said that he would work with Democrats but said that he would take bipartisanship off the table if the Democrats decide to use their new House majority to launch endless investigations into every aspect of the Trump Presidency; promising a “war-like posture” in response to the Democratic investigations. 

Just a week later, Pelosi and several of the potential Democratic candidates for President in 2020 made appearances at the National Action Network Policy Conference.  During her speech, Pelosi promised “we are going to be unifying.  We are going to be healing.”  Perhaps she did not consider the irony in her statement in light of the fact that the National Action Network’s founder, the Reverend Al Sharpton, has served as one of the least unifying forces in American politics over the past three decades.  Pelosi delivered a special message to Sharpton, whom she described as the “nation’s hero,” as well as the National Action Network as a whole: “thank you for helping to take back America,” “thank you for saving America.” 

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown used his platform at NAN to accuse Republicans of stealing the Georgia gubernatorial election from the African-American Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams.  If only Brown had made that accusation two weeks earlier; he may have faced more trouble winning re-election in a purple state.  Now that voters have inexplicably given him another six-year term, Brown feels free to act like a far-left lunatic.  He also argued that Republicans “can’t win elections fairly because there are way more of us than of them.  They can’t win elections fairly.  They win elections by redistricting and reapportionment and voter suppression.”

Sharpton, described as a “race hustler” and a “racial arsonist,” first became a household name during the Tawana Brawley hoax; where an African-American woman falsely claimed that a group of white men had raped her. When a grand jury concluded no attack had taken place, Sharpton went on a large-scale temper tantrum; calling New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a liberal Democrat who demanded an investigation into the alleged assault on Brawley a “racist” and described the state’s Democratic Attorney General as Hitler all because they failed to agree with his false narrative about what happened to Brawley.

Sharpton has taken the NATO approach when it comes to dealing with race relations in the United States, effectively adopting the slogan that when it comes to the African-American community, “an attack on one is an attack on all.” In 1991, a car in a motorcade belonging to an Orthodox Jewish leader accidentally struck two young black immigrant children, killing one of them and injuring the other. In the roughly 48 hours following the attack, a race riot described as “the most serious anti-Semitic incident in American history” unfolded in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, where the car accident took place. During the riot, African-Americans stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum to death shouting “get the Jew!” Rosenbaum had absolutely nothing to do with the car accident, other than the fact that he practiced Hasidic Judiasm, like the man who accidentally struck the children. In spite of the obvious motive for Rosenbaum’s death, the perpetrator did not face hate crime charges.  Sharpton led a march during the Crown Heights Riot, where the rioters burned an Israeli flag and threw bricks and bottles at the police.

Four years later, Sharpton ran to the defense of an African-American subtenant who faced eviction by the owner of a complex the business shared with Jewish-owned Freddie’s Fashion Mart because he refused to pay higher rent.  As Bernie Goldberg pointed out in 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, Sharpton set up a “picket line” outside the store and declared that “we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.” Customers faced harassment by the mob gathered outside Freddie’s for months.  Not long after one protester reportedly shouted “burn down the Jew store,” another protester walked into Freddie’s and shot four employees before setting the store on fire. Sharpton refused to acknowledge that his rhetoric may have led to the massacre at Freddie’s Fashion Mart and refuses to this day to admit that his rhetoric has done little to help race relations in the United States. 

So their willingness to embrace Al Sharpton serves as Exhibit A in the case to bust the myth of the Democrats moving to the middle.  As for Exhibit B, look no further than the endless investigations into Trump and Company the Democrats plan to launch the second they retake the House. 

Axios recently sat down with Congresswoman Nita Lowey, the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee who will likely become the Chair once the Democrats retake control of the House; unless the newly elected Democrats demand that all octuganarians who have served in Congress since the Stone Age step aside.  Keep in mind that Lowey has served in Congress since January 1989; nine months before the birth of the Democrats’ newest rising star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  The interviewer went through a list of possible investigations House Democrats would launch once they take control of Congress.  She indicated that she would look into every matter he brought up, in addition to claiming that she had her “boxing gloves” on.  

Top House Democrats have promised to fire a “subpoena cannon” filled with 85 potential investigations at the Trump administration and organization.  With all of that time devoted to investigations, it seems like the Democrats will have little time to pass any legislation that will improve the lives of the American people. The Democrats have used the tired cliché “we can walk and chew gum at the same time” but in reality, when it comes to running a government, the phrase “drinking and driving” more accurately applies. Their “drinking,” or their endless dabbling in investigations, will significantly impair their ability to “drive,” or legislate.  That list has grown slightly now that liberals have found a new scandal to devote all of their time to: Ivanka Trump’s use of a personal e-mail account to conduct government business.  Liberals and the media, basically one in the same, have done their best to compare Ivanka Trump’s use of a personal e-mail account to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail account; in an effort to paint the Trump family as hypocrites for obsessing over the Clinton e-mail scandal.  While Ivanka Trump probably could have avoided this mess by not using a private e-mail account to con the media neglects to mention that unlike Hillary, Ivanka did not share classified information via her personal e-mail account, create a private server or destroy her e-mails before Congress had a chance to examine them.

On the other hand, if the Democrats preoccupy themselves with going down rabbit holes; maybe that will prevent them from passing an amnesty bill and socializing healthcare. In addition to preventing them from passing bills that would bankrupt the country, the Democrats’ grandstanding may also help pave the way for a successful re-election bid by President Trump.  As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Even voters skeptical of Trump will embrace him after two minutes, let alone two years, of watching Speaker Nancy Pelosi run the House, Rep. Maxine Waters run chair the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler head the Judiciary Committee – and Rep. Adam Schiff run around issuing subpoenas all around town.” The House Democrats can make themselves look like fools while the Republican Senate works round the clock to confirm President Trump’s judicial nominees as well as cabinet officials.  They will definitely have an easier time doing that now that they will no longer have to worry about placating a certain Senator from Arizona who has spent nearly his entire tenure in the upper chamber auditioning to become an MSNBC or CNN Contributor.  Senator Jeff Flake will not serve in the 116^th Congress; he decided to scrap his re-election bid after it became clear that he would have lost handily in a Republican Primary. Hopefully, the replacement for Flake on the Senate Judiciary Committee will not hold up judicial nominees because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring up his ridiculous bill to protect the Mueller investigation/witch hunt up for a vote on the Senate floor. 

While those who predict a moderate Democratic Party point to recent comments by the two most recent Democratic Secretaries of State (and the two most recent unsuccessful Democratic Presidential candidates) partially critical of mass immigration, these individuals will  have no power to make policy in the 116^th Congress.  The Democratic lawmakers in Congress have a far different view of immigration.  Pelosi described the President’s commitment to the wall as a “manhood issue,” indicating that she would have even less enthusiasm for the wall than outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan and that’s not saying much; since, as Tucker Carlson pointed out, Ryan spent his entire career advocating for the country club and Chamber of Commerce wings of the Republican Party’s platform on immigration.  During his time as a legislative aide for Congressman Jack Kemp, Ryan watched in horror as California approved “Proposition 187, which barred illegal aliens from receiving state welfare benefits…He and Kemp led Republican opposition to the law.” (Carlson, 69). When working for then-Congressman Sam Brownback, “Ryan authored a series of ‘Dear Colleague’ letters that successfully frightened Republicans into neutering” a “bipartisan proposal to significantly curb immigration.” (Ibid.) So, it should not come as a surprise that Speaker Ryan did not make building the wall a top priority.

Just weeks before the midterm elections, Pelosi expressed little concern for the harmful effects some of her far-left policies on economics and climate change: “if there is some collateral damage for some others do not share our view, well, so be it.” Pelosi came out in favor of single-payer healthcare during a 2016 appearance on “Meet the Press.”  

So, it looks inevitable that the Democrats will govern from the left the second they retake control of the House of Representatives. But a question remains as to how Republicans will respond.  The Republican response to the Democratic march to the left and inevitable overreach on the “subpoena cannon” will ultimately determine whether or not they have any shot of retaking the House of Representatives in 2020.