When President Biden addressed Congress on April 28, his lips were moving but Bernie Sanders' words were coming out of his mouth as the president advocated for a socialist manifesto that would put unelected bureaucrats in charge of everything and mark the return of big government.
So if you think the federal government should tell you what kind of food to eat, what kind of vehicle to drive and how to live your life, you'll love Biden's socialist plan for America. Democratic Socialists — socialists, not Democrats –Sanders, the far-left senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the equally "progressive" New York City congresswoman, were delighted with Biden's address to Congress, as well they should have been.
The conservative Wall Street Journal called Biden's socialist vision for America "cradle to grave government" and criticized his American Families Plan for "tripling down on a welfare state that disdains the dignity of work and seeks to make Americans the wards of government." Dan Henninger, the Journal's deputy editorial page editor, wrote that "Mr. Biden and the Democratic left have transformed their slim 2020 victory into a political bulldozer" that seeks to spend more than $6 trillion of our tax dollars, which led columnist Karl Rove to call Biden the "six trillion dollar man."
Moreover, in addition to Biden's reckless tax and spend policies, he and/or his policy advisers want to rewrite American history and tell millions of public school students how to think about our allegedly horrible, racist country by teaching "critical race theory" based on the New York Times' hateful 1619 Project, which describes the United States as a racist country founded on slavery. Forget about the Civil War, which was fought to abolish slavery, or modern advances in civil rights legislation.
African-American Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, rejected Biden's "systemic racism" charges, and so do I. "Hear me clearly," Scott said, "America is NOT a racist country." Acknowledging racist incidents in his own life, Scott objected to "those who use race as a political weapon, hoping to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present."
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris tried to claim that their support for the 1619 Project isn't racist, but we know better. Of course I could be wrong, but I think most Americans agree with Scott and this columnist. When it comes to race relations, we acknowledge our faults and want to make things better without rewriting American history.
If Democrats run on defunding police, decriminalizing crime and teaching critical race theory to American schoolchildren, they'll lose both houses of Congress next year. Americans may like economic stimulus checks, but they don't like racism, even if it comes disguised as something else. Racism is always wrong, whether it comes from the far left or the far right.
I'm pleased to report that Idaho Gov. Brad Little just signed a bill that prohibits the teaching of critical race theory in that state's public schools. I wish my 16-year-old twin grandsons could go to school in Boise in the fall but alas, they'll be back in a suburban Seattle high school that teaches critical race theory and spends a lot time cheerleading for Black Lives Matter even though only 40 of the school's 2,700 students are black.
Fortunately, my politically aware grandsons will speak out against racism whenever it raises its ugly head in their compulsory "social justice" classes. That's why I'm so proud of them and why everyone in my immediate family rejects Biden's socialist agenda because we're all in this together, right?
Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal's senior political columnist.
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