The Democrats' Leadership Crisis

As we approach the midterm elections, the "leaders" of the Democratic Party sign on to a variety of hard-left proposals, including "Medicare for All." The fact that many of the proposals are brutally expensive and would lead us into a brave new Venezuela seem completely lost in the woods. One must also wonder at the ludicrous speed at which previously "rational" Democrats have swung from working across the aisle to become feet-in-stone resisters. What is the source of the rage that turned mere humans into Green Hulks?

One might look at the occupants of senatorial and congressional seats for the answer. After all, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer are all members of "congressional leadership." With varying degrees of extremism and volume, they all espouse pretty much the same rhetorical territory staked out by Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and the oblivious (to facts and history) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

We should have Medicare for All and a "living wage," regardless of work skills or industriousness, and we should relegate the police and prisons to the dustbin of the history of "justice." Only Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has gone that far to date, and the Pittsburgh massacre has led to that rhetoric being momentarily shelved.

To say these proposals are scary to Republicans would be an understatement. As Peggy Noonan notes regarding the Kavanaugh cabaret, Republican senators are "amazed" and "terrified" that “seemingly, and without very much thought, nearly half the United States Senate has abandoned the presumption of innocence in this country, all to achieve a political goal.”

This isn't happening in a vacuum.

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