OPINION:
With the walking dead at the head of their ticket and the party facing annihilation in November, Democrats are desperate to convince you that they really, really care about you.
In reality, they care as much about ordinary Americans as President Biden cared about those who died at Abbey Gate when their coffins came back to Dover Air Force Base, and he couldn’t resist checking his watch.
Unless you’re a member of the elite, Democrats don’t give a damn about you.
The Democrats’ indifference starts at our borders. The president doubled the number of illegal immigrants in the United States — from 10.2 million at the end of 2020 to an estimated 20 million today.
On his first day in office, Mr. Biden canceled every one of his predecessor’s executive orders that limited the flow of illegals, including the “Remain in Mexico” policy. He stopped construction of the border wall and turned the Border Patrol into the equivalent of greeters at Las Vegas casinos.
Democratic mayors showered illegals with housing, health care, phones and legal services. That way, they can tell their friends back home: “Don’t come here! If you do, you’ll be punished with gift cards.”
Instead of their best and brightest, in many cases, we get their most monstrous, like the two Venezuelans charged with rape and murder in the death of a 12-year-old girl in Houston. They allegedly bound her hands and feet and assaulted and tortured her for two hours before strangling her. Such atrocities are happening all over the country.
When my grandparents came here, the streets were said to be paved with gold. Now they’re paved with loot and 12-year-old victims.
Our immigration policy is driven by members of “the Squad” who think borders are a human rights violation, as well as the need to import new voters. There are reports of ballots being distributed to illegals in several states.
Open borders aren’t the only factor driving up crime rates.
In Washington, homicides rose 36% between 2022 and 2023. A Gallup Poll showed 63% of Americans believe violent crime is a very serious or extremely serious problem, up from 54% in 2021.
The blame lies in part with the Democratic-led defund the police movement that grew out of the 2020 riots and Democratic prosecutors, like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, who side with the predators.
To appease the many hungry mouths clamoring for tax dollars, Democrats passed two massive spending bills: the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan of 2021 and the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which critics called the largest green energy slush fund in history.
Spending under Mr. Biden spurred the worst inflation in 40 years — the price of homes is up 42%, electricity 29%, gas 52% and food more than 30%. It now costs the average family $12,000 a year more to maintain the standard of living it had before Democrats took the economy into a nosedive.
Public education is a system of, by and for the teachers unions. New York City currently spends $38,000 a year per student on its schools, which is close to the tuition and fees at the average private college ($42,162).
According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, in 26 of the largest city school districts nationally, only 5% of eighth graders were proficient in reading and just 3% in math.
Democrats are opposed to school choice in any form or fashion, thus dooming the poorest families to the worst public schools. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama sent their children to pricey private schools, like Sidwell Friends, while singing paeans to public education.
At a briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared, “We are going to continue to do the work we have been doing on behalf of the American people.”
If by “the American people” she means the Democrats’ donor base, the open borders crowd, teachers unions, green energy cultists, LGBTQ activists and the criminals’ lobby, she is correct.
But if you’re the family of a 12-year-old girl whose battered body is found beneath a bridge, a small-business owner facing bankruptcy, a young couple who can’t buy their first home, a female athlete injured in competition with a trans woman, a retiree who has to choose between paying rent and utilities — lots of luck.
Democrats are forced to court average Americans in campaign years. The rest of the time, they’re free to deride us as the deplorables, bitter clingers and White supremacists who populate flyover country.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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