OPINION:
The Democrats’ “resistance” to the incoming Trump administration and Republican-led Congress is quickly taking shape.
The usual left-wing media smear machine is in full gear, taking aim at several of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees.
But the most interesting action is in California, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state’s would-be savior, is acting as if a foreign power will soon occupy America.
A couple of weeks ago, he called a special session to ask the Democratic-dominated Legislature for $25 million to create a fund for lawsuits against Mr. Trump’s initiatives. Mr. Newsom has also met with other top Democrats to discuss ways to sabotage the Trump agenda any way they can.
For instance, the photogenic governor has made it clear that he will continue California’s refusal to work with federal officials on stemming illegal immigration.
The Golden State is one of hundreds of “sanctuary” jurisdictions that defy federal law and will not cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since February 2021, drawn by the Biden-Harris administration’s open border and welfare incentives, more than 10 million immigrants have entered the United States illegally. Each year, hundreds of them, betrayed by smugglers, die near the border. A shocking number of women and children are raped.
The whole thing is a human rights disaster on many levels, but progressives who see the immigrants as a potential future voting bloc don’t seem to care.
Democratic mayors in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia have pledged to keep their sanctuary status, come what may.
Let’s take them at their word. All illegal immigrants, beginning with the over 600,000 confirmed criminals that the Biden-Harris administration deliberately allowed to come into the United States, should be shipped to sanctuary states and cities.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis paved the way for this in 2022 by busing and flying illegals into Democratic cities including New York and Chicago. This woke up a lot of people — even liberals — to the insanity of open borders.
New York now has an estimated 250,000 illegals, some of whom are being housed at great expense in hotels. In March, the city began handing out prepaid debit cards.
Mayor Eric Adams, who had defended the handouts, says he has had it. He met with incoming border czar Tom Homan on Thursday to discuss how to work together on the problem.
Mr. Trump can do the same thing that Mr. Abbott and Mr. DeSantis did on a national scale, using federal resources instead of state funds.
How much would you bet that residents of these states and cities would soon adopt the approach taken by Martha’s Vineyard? In September 2022, the Democrats’ wealthy Massachusetts island, home to the Obamas and Oprah Winfrey, quickly evicted a crowd of 49 illegal aliens that Mr. DeSantis had flown in.
But this was only after residents got photo-ops showing them hugging the newcomers to demonstrate diversity and inclusivity before kicking them out.
It was a teachable moment for the nation about progressive hypocrisy, and it helped build momentum for the Republican sweep on Nov. 5.
Another way the Trump administration could bring a dose of reality to Democrats is to halt federal subsidies for wind and solar power and electric vehicles, and to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions rules.
California has led the way in attacking reliable fossil fuel energy and is experiencing brownouts. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in California as of Dec. 12 was $4.30, with some stations charging as much as $5.65, according to AAA. The national average is about $3.
Despite trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in the ground, California imports nearly 90% of its natural gas. Likewise, the state, which has oil reserves estimated at 30 billion barrels, once produced 60% of the oil it used. But environmentalists have driven this figure down to 23%.
Instead, the state depends on imports from “such paragons of human rights and environmental stewardship as Ecuador, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Iraq,” Edward Ring of the California Policy Center wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Ring also noted that Mr. Newsom is pushing a California Air Resources Board plan to install 2,500 wind turbines, “each about 1,000 feet tall from the waterline to the tip of the blade, to points 20 miles offshore. There, they will be connected to the sea floor with cables nearly a mile long.”
The electricity will be shipped to shore via high-voltage underwater cables. What could go wrong? This makes about as much sense as Mr. Newsom’s other pet project, the billions-over-cost “bullet train” from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Next, they’ll be building a subway using the San Andreas Fault as a site map.
While all this is happening, California has not backed off its dictate to force trucking companies to buy incredibly expensive and impractical electric 18-wheel rigs. This is sheer madness.
The answer to Mr. Newsom’s and other Democrats’ policies of “resistance” is to force them to live with their bad choices.
That means securing the border while letting “sanctuary” jurisdictions have the millions of illegal aliens that their party enabled — with no federal funding assistance.
Los Angeles County has about 1 million illegal immigrants among its nearly 10 million people. It’s only fair to give them more of what they say they want.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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