OPINION:
More and more Americans are sensing that something has gone terribly wrong in our country and that we need a sea change in leadership.
Fearful of losing their mojo, the Democrats and their sycophant media are pretending to be all-American moderates instead of what they really are: hard-left enthusiasts for socialism, sexual anarchy, illegal immigration, climate extremism, COVID-19 shot mandates, higher taxes and feckless foreign policy.
I think it’s backfiring on them. Their newfound “moderation” is so obviously an election-year ploy that it reminds people of how radically dishonest the party has become. It’s no wonder that former Democrats such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii jumped off and are now aboard the Trump train.
In addition, more corporations are abandoning the “woke” agenda. Google, Meta, Zoom, Snap, Tesla, DoorDash, Lyft, Home Depot and Wayfair have downsized their diversity, equity and inclusion teams.
This past week, Lowe’s, the home improvement chain, joined Tractor Supply, John Deere and even Microsoft in scrapping their DEI programs. More will follow. The “wokeness” dam is starting to bust.
The transgender issue alone should sink the left, especially among parents.
Most people, even many self-proclaimed liberals, don’t want children to be given puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, or to have healthy body parts surgically removed.
The Democratic Party is on record supporting this child abuse. From the teachers unions to mainstream media, we’re told over and over that protecting children from doctors who use hormones and drugs to stall natural puberty (while sharpening their scalpels) is a form of hate.
In Democratic-run states, minors can be legally subjected to “gender-affirming care,” an oxymoronic term if there ever was one. It’s right up there with the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
By contrast, 26 states, all run by Republicans, have enacted laws banning this evil insanity.
The Supreme Court will soon hear a challenge to Tennessee’s law barring puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors. If the court upholds the law, it could inspire more states to move in this direction.
The attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in the case is Chase Strangio, which is more proof that God has a sense of humor.
The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland have either banned “gender-affirming care” for minors or made it far less accessible.
But for America’s “woke” Democrats and their media, it’s full steam ahead.
This past week, The Washington Post featured a front-page story about a drag queen pageant in Tonga, a Pacific island nation. It was cast as social progress in an otherwise backward country.
The headline: “On a runway in Tonga, hate feels a galaxy away.”
We quickly learn that a contestant had been “hiding who she was: a trans woman in a devoutly Christian country.”
Presto. Christianity equals “hate.”
The story runs to two full pages inside, with 10 color photos of drag queens. Who says the progressive press isn’t focused on Americans’ everyday concerns?
Meanwhile, on the Post op-ed page, columnist Marc Fisher lacerates Fauquier County, Virginia, for requiring libraries to inform parents about books checked out by their minor children.
“Snitching to parents about their kids’ reading choices is a surrender to parent activists trying to politicize schools,” he writes.
How do you like those apples, parents of 6-year-olds?
You know what this is about. The books in question steer children into LGBTQ acceptance and behavior, including identifying with the opposite sex instead of their natural-born sex.
The “raincoat with pockets of candy crowd” is not content to wait until the kids achieve maturity and can make their own choices. And if parents get in the way, they need to be checked into the boards. Hockey fans know what that means.
The Post earlier had a Sports front-page story about a man competing in the women’s 1,500-meter final at the U.S. Olympic trials:
“Nikki Hiltz … had come out as nonbinary and transgender three months earlier, and instead of taking pride in being one of the fastest milers in the country, Hiltz doubted themselves and questioned whether anyone wanted them there, if there was any room for them in the world.”
Did you have to read that twice? It’s not you. The Post’s supposedly professional journalists referenced an individual by using plural pronouns.
This would be funny or just sad if Democrats and their media were not working to enact laws and corporate policies to force all of us to take part in the delusion — or else.
As Ruth Institute President Jennifer Roback Morse says, a government powerful enough to force you to lie about gender is powerful enough to make you do anything.
Unless you have a heart of stone, you must feel sorry for people who, whatever the reason, are not comfortable in their God-given sex.
Research shows that more than 90% of sexually confused kids straighten out on their own if allowed to mature. A truly compassionate society would steer them toward counseling that helps them recover their natural sexuality.
But the Democrats, from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on down, have redefined this as “hate.”
It’s past time that voters stop letting them get away with it.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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