Progressive Weapons of Political Destruction Backfire

Reno Gazette Journal February 23, 2020

The Democrat field is down to a handful of candidates who meet the criteria for making the debate stage. With the early elimination of several candidates, we have an all-white contingent on the stage. At a similar point in the Republican primary race in 2016, the field was far more diverse with Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

Whether someone just by virtue of their darker skin would add substantively to the debate is a topic for a different piece. A vast majority of Republicans, myself included, do not care about the color of the skin as much as we care about the content of the character, but set that aside for the time being. The left has dredged up every opportunity they can find to tag the Republicans as white and racist. Now, the weapon of race they deployed against the Republicans is coming back to haunt them.

To be sure, the deployment of race as a weapon is not a rare occurrence with the left. Kamala Harris blamed race for her failures on her way out of the presidential race. Even before that, she accused Joe Biden of racism. Julian Castro and Corey Booker also pulled out the race card at the exit door. Now, winning Iowa and New Hampshire is not really that important because those states are too white.

Lost in the self-pity of progressive politicians is whether political success of Black and Hispanic politicians has led to better lives for Blacks and Hispanics. Take for example, President Obama, our first black President. If President Obama truly cares about the black community, why is he not in Chicago working on reducing the violence there which claims nearly 600 lives, most of them black, every year? Instead, President Obama lives in a $15 million Martha’s Vineyard estate rubbing elbows with his rich and famous neighbors, 87% of them white (Martha’s Vineyard is his second home, his primary residence in D.C. was purchased for another $8.1 million and features a massive wall). As far as progressive politicians go, forget black lives, it’s the black votes that matter.

Race is not the only weapon of political destruction the Progressives have unleashed on their opponents. Remember when the flavor of the month “#metoo” movement? It backfired and took out one of the major Progressive donors, Harvey Weinstein. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigns all have issues with misbehavior against women.

After the 2016 elections, Democrats weaponized the electoral college. Today, Sanders wins the popular vote in the Iowa caucus but comes in second to Buttigieg in delegates. They accused President Trump of being a Russian agent. Now, that same weapon is aimed at Tulsi Gabbard. For several cycles, Bloomberg bought elections by spending against Republicans. Now, Bloomberg is trying to buy an election by spending against Democrats.

One final point: Once you take an issue, weaponize it, and deploy it against the other party, it is just a matter of time before that weapon is turned against your own party. The Democrats impeached the President when no crime was committed and with no chance of getting 67 votes in the Senate. Next time, when a Republican controlled House impeaches a Democrat president for some lame reason, you may want to look back to the 2019-2020 silly season.