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For two nights in June, we got our first glimpse of 20 Democratic candidates who are vowing to make Donald Trump a one-term president.



There wasn’t much daylight between any of them on the issues. They promised everything from free health care for illegal aliens to "decriminalizing" illegal border crossings altogether. The combination of those two policies alone would upend America. They also promised executive orders that would give handouts to some and impose mandates on others.

Away from the debate stage, there are lavishly-funded Leftist movements that are pushing specific issues around the country. One is dedicated to creating "safe" injection sites where IV drug users are allowed to inject heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine with impunity and in violation of federal law.

Another movement wants to give the right to vote to felons on parole. Bernie Sanders takes that a step further and wants felons to vote while still in prison. The ACLU has made a major push to reduce the U.S. jail and prison population by 50 percent and to “combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system.” They assiduously avoid the issue of whether the people being released from prison are actually guilty. Colorado has decriminalized "magic" mushrooms, and Nancy Pelosi has come to the defense of MS-13.

Meanwhile, under "Red Flag Laws" law-abiding citizens could have their guns confiscated without due process and without prior knowledge that a complaint has been lodged against them that they “might be dangerous.” Is it merely a coincidence that Leftist policies are making the country more dangerous for all law-abiding citizens?

You probably won't go broke predicting who today’s Left will defend next. They regularly characterize criminals as victims and law-abiding citizens as perpetrators. All they have to do is accuse the latter of racism, sexism, “white privilege,” “toxic masculinity,” or homophobia and they have succeeded in turning the tables on Lady Justice.

What about the real victims of those criminals? The Left is selective there too. They tend to believe that only members of certain groups can be victims. Reducing people to nothing more than a group to which they might belong is a staple of leftist collectivism and robs people of their individuality. This way, they can impose one-size-fits-all edicts on everyone because of the criminal actions of a few.

In the service of their current mission, Leftists have contradicted themselves on positions that used to be part of the liberal bible. Sixties feminists are now expected to tolerate men in women’s sports and women’s bathrooms. Labor unions are expected to tolerate open borders that steal jobs and force down wages, and environmentalists are expected to look the other way as tent cities produce mountains of trash and human feces on the streets. Today's Left isn’t chipping away at civil society. They're taking a jackhammer to it.

When common sense values like self-reliance, work, and personal responsibility are portrayed as "old school,” at the same time that blaming others, criminal behavior and government dependence are not just tolerated but enabled, one has to ask, What’s the true motive here? What’s the end-game?

If we fit enough of these pieces together, the picture is of a decidedly socialist America—an America our Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to prevent.

There are plenty of Leftists who simply see these proposals as “more compassionate.” They aren’t very concerned with where this bandwagon is heading. A much smaller number of strategists are in the driver’s seat. They are determined to turn wrong into right, day into night, and basic morality and logic on its head.

No matter the issue, Socialism is the underlying answer. Upside-down policies are marketed as "cool" and more “forward-thinking” so as to get more people on the bandwagon. With peer pressure and the help of a propaganda-driven media, young people and others think Socialism is just fine and dandy. They have no clue what it really is or how much poverty, cruelty, and serfdom it has always caused.

Just because most presidential candidates won’t admit to being a Socialist like Bernie Sanders doesn’t mean they don’t agree with every policy that would result in the same end result. Their policies whip up and reward lawlessness, inflame tensions, and create class warfare so that eventually, the people will plead for more government to restore order. What a sad irony that they are pleading to the very entity that created the chaos in the first place.

When lawmakers promote lawlessness, we have reason to be profoundly concerned. Why is the Left trying to decriminalize crime? It’s not for the sake of compassion. It’s for the sake of Socialism.