OPINION:
President Biden’s cognitive decline symbolizes a party that has forgotten its past and has no future.
Former President Donald Trump has said he doesn’t care who the Democratic nominee is, because he’s running against Mr. Biden’s record.
It might be more accurate to say that he’s running against what the Democratic Party has become over the past 50 years.
George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, which gave Republicans the largest electoral victory in history, marked the beginning of the Democrats’ abandonment of national security, traditional morality and foreign policy realism.
Before McGovern, Democrats were the party of tax and spend, but they were also the party of strong national defense, tough foreign policy and an acknowledgment of America’s religious roots.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt prayed for our troops on D-Day. President Harry Truman rallied the West to stop the post-World War II Soviet advance in Europe.
President John F. Kennedy was determined to stem the tide of communism in Southeast Asia and Latin America, and President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to continue his predecessor’s policies until he was forced out by the appeasement wing of his party.
Mr. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, the year of the McGovernite takeover.
In Mr. Biden’s time in Washington, leftists came to have an iron grip on what was once the party of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, except for a few weak echoes of the past such as Sen. Joe Manchin III.
President Barack Obama’s eight years in office saw the triumph of appeasement and cultural Marxism. As he promised, Mr. Obama did his best to “fundamentally transform America.”
Radical influences on Mr. Obama included his communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, Saul Alinsky (author of “Rules for Radicals”), 1960s new left icons Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and his pastor of more than 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah “God damn America!” Wright.
Mr. Obama’s White House years included the Democratic Party’s embrace of abortion on demand and LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris added to the mix transgenderism, the war on what they call White supremacy and Christian nationalism and identity politics.
Distinguished by its gross incompetence, the Biden administration looked like it was put together by checking boxes: Ms. Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary Rachel Levine and recently resigned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. It wasn’t about who you are but what you are in terms of race, gender and sexuality.
Mr. Biden’s foreign policy is the culmination of the agendas of his most recent Democratic predecessors. President Jimmy Carter aided the ayatollahs’ ascension in Iran by withdrawing our support of the Shah.
President Bill Clinton bombed Christian Serbia to make Kosovo an independent Muslim state. Mr. Obama thought negotiations and bribes were the best way to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Mr. Biden built on this base.
After four years of containment under Mr. Trump, it was back to Mr. Obama’s failed Iran policy. Kowtowing to China became a reflex. The administration dialed back our support of Israel. The border is open to drugs, gangs and terrorists
Mr. Biden inherited a world at peace and turned it into a roaring inferno, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, Iran months away from acquiring nuclear weapons and China preparing to move on Taiwan.
If she comes to power, Ms. Harris will make her boss look like a MAGA Republican.
Less border czar than welcome wagon hostess, Ms. Harris once compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Ku Klux Klan and supported free health insurance for illegals and sanctuary cities.
In 2020, she set up a bail fund for rioters and demanded the withdrawal of federal agents sent to Seattle to protect a courthouse under siege by Antifa.
She says the pro-Hamas mobs terrorizing our streets and staging mini-pogroms on college campuses “are showing exactly what a human emotion should be.”
Her contempt for the Jewish state can be seen in her refusal to preside over the joint session of Congress where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last week.
Rated the most liberal member of Congress in 2019 by the nonpartisan GovTrack, Ms. Harris is all in on gun confiscation, “environmental justice,” “racial equity” and transgenderism. She is the culmination of half a century of dystopian thinking.
Mr. Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt earlier this month. The Democratic Party took a bullet to the head in 1972 from which it has never recovered.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.