OPINION:
Vice President Kamala Harris never disappoints. President Biden often leaves audiences befuddled by his less-than-erudite remarks, or he simply takes a flamethrower to the English language. But the vice president’s penchant for effusively articulating the obvious or the totally irrelevant has made her the dancing Elaine Benes of American politics.
Sure, who doesn’t love a yellow school bus? Yes, Russia is a big country that invaded a smaller country. AI is indeed two letters and fancy. Maybe culture truly is, as she’s claimed, “a reflection of joy. Because, you know it comes in the morning.”
But Ms. Harris’ most recent of many trips to the word salad bar has been particularly illuminating. She said in remarks at a Maryland college, “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air.”
The White House was quick to say that Ms. Harris meant “pollution,” not “population.”
Psychiatrists believe that what we call Freudian slips are real and signal genuine beliefs and intentions. One would think this is especially true when a politician utters them.
The Democratic Party is the party of welfare, big government and the surveillance state. But the more you think about it, perhaps it’s also the party of population control.
It’s not a stretch to see how the left may be depressing population through a variety of means.
Democrats have long been champions of abortion and have recently doubled down on the practice. They’ve jettisoned “safe, legal and rare” for taxpayer-funded, late-ter, and on-demand.
It is estimated that some 60 million Americans have been lost to the practice, including more than 20 million Black children.
Democrats have been donning their tutus for the transgender industry, which seems tailor-made for a population control agenda.
Normalization of mental illness is leading to more Americans, including children, taking measures to sterilize themselves. Democrats, from the president on down, have embraced this trend that will permanently render countless Americans barren and childless.
Democrats’ big government spending and higher taxation continue to drive up the cost of living. That financial pressure and instability mean couples who marry today are having fewer children.
Fertility rates have plummeted since 2007, with the U.S. producing 9.6 million fewer children between then and now. Economic obstacles driven largely by the left’s policies are often to blame for families having fewer children.
Younger people today are having a hard time affording housing that is comparable to the homes in which they were raised. That’s thanks to carrying more student loan debt and higher property tax rates in blue states, driven by Democratic Party-aligned teachers unions and the higher education cabal.
Forty percent of children are born out of wedlock, which is great for government bureaucrats but bad for the growth of stable families.
The data on the negative mental health and societal impacts of screen time, social media and online pornography is clear, yet Democrats backed by Big Tech titans aren’t concerned about those at all.
Dating and marriage among young people are down. Depression, suicide and drug use are up. Today, nearly half of teens believe their lives lack value. New Pew Research Center data has found that 63% of men under 30 are electively single.
Half aren’t even looking for a relationship. Getting their needs met with internet porn or sucked into social media is a significant driver of those staggering numbers.
Leftist tech baron Mark Zuckerberg, a major backer of the Democratic Party, is now pushing virtual reality through his Metaverse, which will not only serve as a propaganda vehicle for the left but also create new barriers to genuine interpersonal relationships that lead to procreation.
Then there’s the Democrats’ new “fat is fabulous” mantra. Obesity is a national crisis that leads to diabetes, heart disease and a range of other ailments, including fertility problems.
Drug legalization, which is also contributing to spikes in mental and physical health issues, has been championed by largely Democratic elected officials. The use of drugs, including marijuana, has been linked to issues with fertility, including reducing estrogen and lowering testosterone. Democratic governors are now working to expand drug legalization to include psychedelics.
Of course, Democrats’ climate change hysteria is now used as a pretext for regulating every aspect of our lives, science and consequences be damned. After all, it’s all supposedly for the good of the children.
So maybe sometimes, it’s worth listening to our often incomprehensible vice president. She just might say something worthwhile, even if she didn’t mean to.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax and the author of “Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq.” He served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 2003 to 2004.
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