Get Ready For The Californication Of America

I&I Editorial

Joe Biden promised Georgians a $2,000 check if they elected his party’s Senate candidates in the state’s runoff elections, and his bribery worked, with Democrats winning both, handing them control of the White House and Congress again.

But while Biden made the election all about battling COVID-19 and “healing the nation,” that is not what the far left that controls the Democratic Party cares about. It has bigger plans — namely, to turn the nation into a California-style one-party state.

By all rights, the 2020 elections should be a warning to extremists on the left. Biden eked out a victory with extremely narrow – and often questionable – victories in a handful of states after promising voters only that he would be a non-Trumpian nice guy.

Meanwhile, Democrats lost ground in the House, with the edge in their majority dropping from 36 seats to 10. And with the two Georgia wins, Democrats managed only a tie in the Senate, which is now split 50-50. (With Biden in the White House, Democrats can control the Senate because Kamala Harris will serve as the tie-breaking vote.)

Biden keeps talking about the need to “heal” the nation, which seems to fit the precarious position his party is in at the moment. Even if he believes that, his party doesn’t. And Democrats have been clear about the priorities they will pursue should they get control of the White House and Congress again.

No, we’re not talking about things like huge tax hikes or Obamacare, which is what they imposed the last two times they controlled both branches.

The stated goal today is to ensure a permanent Democratic majority so they can finally get their far-left agenda enacted.

In other words, they want to replicate what Democrats have already achieved in California.

This isn’t some right-wing conspiracy. This is what Democratic leaders have already stated as their plans or have already approved in the House.

For example, the very first thing Democrats did in the House this year, after seeing their lead shrink dramatically, was to approve a set of rules designed to neutralize Republicans as much as possible. Among others is a rule that will allow the House to pass massive new spending bills – a la the Green New Deal – without having to show how they’d be paid for. There’s a reason that socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is celebrating these new rules.

Republicans said the changes are intended to muzzle their party. “It is all designed to take away the voice of 48% of this House chamber,” said Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer made it clear last year that ditching the filibuster is on the table should Democrats get control of the Senate and Biden win the White House. He is certain to act on that as soon as Republicans attempt to use the filibuster to thwart Biden’s ambitions. Democrats will then have free rein to get even the most radical proposals to Biden’s desk.

As we’ve noted in this space before, Democrats have also promised to pack the Supreme Court so they can have a rubber stamp for their expansionist, Constitution-bending promises. They’ve also openly talked about packing the Senate by adding two new states to the union that will elect Democrats: Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

Democrats are also certain to pass legislation that will make it easier for them to win future elections, whether legitimately or not. In fact, the first bill the Democratic-controlled House introduced in 2019 was the “For the People Act,” which was designed to make election fraud easier on a national scale.

Had it become law, it would have forced states to implement policies such as early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration, and no-fault absentee balloting. It would have required states to count ballots cast by voters outside of their assigned precincts and crippled state voter ID laws. And, it would have put onerous restrictions on campaign speech that would have hampered Republican candidates most.

Californians are witnessing the fruits of the Democrats’ relentless determination to control government. After having successfully shoved Republicans off to the fringes, the state has imposed a seemingly endless series of tax hikes, intrusive environmental regulations, and costly mandates on businesses.

Californians at least have the ability to pick up and move to another less politically monolithic state – as they have been doing in droves over the past few years. But where are Americans supposed to flee should Democrats succeed in expanding California policies across the rest of the country?

What can stop this from happening? Biden could stand up to the far left in his party and try to find common ground with Republicans.

Or the few moderate Democrats who remain in the House and Senate could take a stand against their own party’s socialist leanings, either by siding with Republicans or switching parties.

We hope those happen, but we’re not overly optimistic. The next best thing is that Biden and his fellow Democrats try to do too much too fast, alienate voters with their leftist ambitions, and lose their congressional majorities in the mid-term elections.

But by that time, it might be too late to fix whatever damage they manage to inflict in those two years. History has made clear that once Democrats get a law on the books, it stays on the books. Anyone notice that Obamacare is still the law of the land?

In the meantime, it will be up to the public to do everything in its power to stop Democrats from making good on their plan to turn this country into the United States of California.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board