A few years ago, during the ascendancy of Donald Trump, there were many pundits, mostly on the political left, who contended that if Ronald Reagan were running today, he would be too far left for the Republican party. Well, the wishful thinking notwithstanding, President Reagan is still a hero among Republicans and Conservatives, and he accomplished all that he did despite his party never having a US House majority.
Along those lines, Barack Obama is still a hero among the Democrats and Progressives, but there is a school of thought that the Barack Obama who ran on the 2008 platform would be too far right for the modern Democratic party. We don’t think that is true, either, but the 2020 batch of candidates, or at least the ones with a reasonable shot at winning the nomination, are definitely far to the left of Barack Obama, 2008 model.
What’s more, today’s “moderates” are far to the left of Barack Obama, 2012 model and even the Hillary Clinton, 2016 model, although she has moved leftward at a rapid pace.
All of the major current candidates have promised more free stuff than Obama and Hillary combined (and that is going some) and they have absolutely no way to pay for any of it.
But the spending promises (or in the case of Republicans, the spending cuts) never seem to fully take place – largely because our Presidents are not dictators (the exaggerations of the House Impeachment managers aside), and Congress will have its say. We think it unlikely that the wild spending schemes, or most of them, anyway, would ever come to pass.
Elizabeth Warren would cancel student debt by executive order, “on day one.” Joe Biden would fire any ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent who arrests and attempts to deport an illegal immigrant for DUI. Most of the candidates would halt detentions and deportations altogether.
They also all are supporters of abortion on demand, at any time in the pregnancy.
All the major candidates except Sen. Amy Klobuchar support “Medicare for All” and “The Green New Deal,”and she endorses both as goals for the long-term. At the first Democratic debate, every candidate on the stage raised his or her hand in support of healthcare for illegal immigrants.
None of them speak in favor of the Second Amendment (The Right to Bear Arms), and most have said they would try to do away with that amendment.
They want to terminate the electoral college and go to a nationwide popular vote; apportion the Senate according to population; add six or seven Supreme Court Justices; abolish ICE;and not only do they oppose the border wall, several said that we should tear down the border walls that already exist.
Joe Biden wants to jail oil company executives for pollution, and all of them would terminate coal production, impose a ban on fracking, stop drilling for oil on federal land, and they would oppose new pipelines and likely would seek to shut down some existing ones. Elizabeth Warren wants a 2% wealth tax on those with assets over $50 million, and raise it to 3% for those with assets in excess of 1 billion dollars. That’s annually, folks, and is on assets, not income, so it won’t take long before we no longer have any billionaires, if we siphon off 2% or 3% of their assets every year. This does little to promote incentives, for who wants to build up wealth knowing that the government will take it away?
Here’s another one, and although the “Just Society” proposal of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not yet attracted the support of the major candidates, it is hard to imagine them rejecting it if confronted with a question about it. It would prohibit the US government from denying access to any federal program based on immigration status. This means that illegal immigrants would qualify for the full range of federal social programs. “The Just Society” also would redefine poverty to make many more people eligible for food stamps or Medicaid.
They would restrict free speech, criminalizing “dissent” from the “settled science” of climate change. They all claim to worry about the security of our elections, but none want voter ID.
They also vow to repeal the Trump tax cuts and redo many of the regulations he has rescinded. We don’t imagine that will do much to boost the stock market or those retirement portfolios, IRAs, and pension plans held by millions of Americans.
One thing these promises would do, if they became policies, is empower the government and weaken individual rights. All of these candidates would seek to curtail personal rights and freedoms. They are the “we will tell you what you cannot do” candidates, or the “we will stop you from doing it” candidates. The most disturbing part of this is that the candidates rarely confront each other’s proposals with, “this goes too far,” “we can’t afford this” [although they did all stomp on Sen. Warren’s Medicare for All proposal, even though most of them already had endorsed it in principle] or “this breaks with 233 years of Constitutional law.” The candidates truly see “no enemies on the left,” or if they do, they know they can’t publicly resist them, for fear of outraging the mainstream media, the progressive interest groups, and the progressive base. Those forces are seeking a McGovern-style platform, and probably won’t settle for much less, regardless of the candidate’s sentiments. Perhaps this is why about 40% of the people who are flocking to Donald Trump’s rallies are Democrats, who don’t want to move further left.