OPINION:
CHICAGO — Back when human ingenuity was widely celebrated in America and the government attempted to solve actual problems, this great City of the Big Shoulders reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that its sewage would dump into the Mississippi River instead of the clear waters of Lake Michigan, the city’s source of clean drinking water.
One hundred years on, we might quibble with the fairness of floating all that sewage down to St. Louis and beyond. But you have to give the city credit for tackling a real problem and pulling off one of the greatest civil engineering feats of all time.
Today, our government leaders have considerably lowered their aspirations for human existence on the American continent. Democrats gathered here for their political convention are focused on how to provide free abortions and vasectomies in a mobile clinic parked outside the convention center. Operators say that all appointments for the week have been booked.
This, of course, reverses many decades in which humans enjoyed the back seat of automobiles precisely because it was a great place to get pregnant — or at least enjoy trying. And — at the very least — figure out how to get that damned clasp to unhook.
No, this is not your parents’ Democratic Party.
What does it say about Democrats today that all they want to talk about is getting un-pregnant? And sterilizing their men?
For sure, if you are going to offer free vasectomies in a taco truck, the Democratic National Convention is the place to start. But don’t complain to the rest of us if you hit a pothole and the wrong thing gets snipped clean off.
And as for modern engineering marvels, our leaders do not even try them anymore. No, the only great modern engineering marvels they pull off nowadays are political ones.
Just one month ago today, President Biden was the presumed nominee of the Democratic Party, cruising into this convention as a sitting president with 50 years of political experience. He had just wrapped up a six-month primary cycle in which he ran essentially unopposed.
Sure, he was old, a bit doddering and prone to senior moments. But Democrats shamelessly celebrated these qualities as proof that Mr. Biden was a good and decent man who had four more years of steady leadership in him.
And then — in just a few days — Mr. Biden was magically eliminated from the ticket and replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, who has never earned a single vote for president. (So much for “democracy.”)
This extraordinary bloodless coup was pulled off in a matter of days behind closed doors because party leaders decided they had a better shot at clinging to power with Ms. Harris at the top of the ticket and the sitting president ushered off to the Great Basement in the Sky.
It was bold. It was swift. It was savage. It was merciless. It was silent.
Nothing like this had ever been pulled off in the history of American politics. And it worked.
Voters — Democratic and Republican — should be asking whether Ms. Harris and the leaders of today’s Democratic Party are willing to fight as boldly and as tirelessly for their interests as they are for themselves when it comes to preserving their political power.
The answer is obviously no.
If Democrats could pull off this masterstroke, why can’t they stop the border invasion? Why couldn’t Ms. Harris and Democrats prevent the inflation that is crushing American taxpayers? Why can’t Democrats teach Chicago children to read?
Don’t expect much curiosity from the political press on this point.
The politics website Politico noted that Ms. Harris’ campaign is devoid of a single policy issue — beyond clinging to power, of course. To get to the bottom of this important story, Politico interviewed Democratic lawmakers.
These Democratic lawmakers called Ms. Harris’ issueless campaign “a savvy strategy” — so long as it means they stay in power.
“They’d rather lay out a specific plan post-November, when a potential President-elect Harris would have to staff up her administration and determine her governing priorities,” Politico reported without any hint of hilarity.
Again, so much for “democracy.”
Luckily for American citizens, Democrats are trailblazing deep into the uncharted wilds of taco truck abortions and vasectomies. And by “lucky,” I mean these mobile abortion vans may fill up around here, but they will never catch on in the rest of America like the back seat of your dad’s ’57 Chevy.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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