In Chicago, Democrats Veer Left

Debra Saunders on Aug 21, 2024

CHICAGO -- Day Two of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago confirms this much: With Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's nominee, Democrats are not moving to the middle.

Independent voters, you are not the focus in Chicago. You are an afterthought.

During the roll call, a New Jersey delegate announced preferred pronouns "she/her/her."

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden bragged that his state was first with all mail-in voting. Like there's something wrong with people showing up at the polls to vote.

At this convention, "Big Pharma" is the enemy. We need to take on "Big Pharma," Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont proclaimed.

Forget the fact that the industry makes drugs that save lives and fight disease. Pharmaceutical makers are considered price gougers to this crew.

Israel? Forget about the Jewish State. Joe Biden did not mention Israel by name during his keynote speech Monday night. To his discredit, Biden talked about his attempts to cut a deal to free hostages without denouncing Hamas by name. The president also did not mention the 1,200 people murdered on Oct. 7.

Biden even said, "Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides." And for that, he actually won applause.

It was not a good sign when Sanders declared, "We must end this horrific war in Gaza. Bring home the hostages and demand an immediate ceasefire" -- and that won applause as well.

Notice that the onus was directed at Israel, not the terror-mongers who started this.

As the celebratory roll call was taken Tuesday night, radicals burned the American flag and police risked their lives as they made arrests of antifa and black bloc thugs. What was their point? Probably they just figured they could get away with it.

Convention speakers made a point of renouncing the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 -- and rightly so. But they don't seem particularly indignant when anarchists burn cities and assault police.

The cheapest shot of all: Sanders blamed Donald Trump for the terrible death toll that whopped America when COVID hit in 2020.

There are many things you can say against Trump, but he did not create COVID, and it is not his fault that people died from a disease that seemingly came out of nowhere with no instructions on how to fight it.

Trump put together a task force that crafted guidelines intended to help state and local governments decide how they would deal with the pandemic.

Trump was right to reject the sensibilities of the laptop class and others who had the ability to work from home. And he understood that while some Americans had to isolate, others wanted to get back to work and, more important, get their children back in school.

Tuesday night, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker repeated the bogus claim that Trump told Americans to "inject bleach." Fact-checkers have ruled that statement "misleading," as Trump asked out loud if disinfectant could be injected to fight the pandemic. But really, what Pritzker said was not misleading. It was dishonest.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

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