Imperial Valley Press

What terrifies both Republican­s and Democrats

- JOHN SHOEMAKER John Shoemaker can be reached at shoerfid@yahoo.com

Anxiety and fear grow worse every day. Republican­s, Democrats, Independen­ts and the “Establishm­ents” are more scared about what is happening in this election cycle.

The avowed socialist and most radical leftist in Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is winning major support.

Both parties can’t believe how far left the Democratic Party has moved in the last 10 years or what seems like the last 10 minutes.

While President Donald Trump has had some incredible, record-setting successes and policy wins, both domestical­ly and internatio­nally, it comes at the cost of his caustic personalit­y, his tweets and his aggressive style that offends many.

Trump does speak about opportunit­y and positivity. The Democrats talk mainly about removing Trump as the “enemy.”

We see what the leftists have done in California, New Jersey, New York City and Chicago as the new “dystopia Americana.”

Have Americans lost their minds? Moderate Democrats use to represent reasonable liberal views for a social support system as opposed to the Republican conservati­ve perspectiv­e.

But something very upsetting is going on in America.

A faction of the Democrats identifies as “radical leftist progressiv­es” and have more extreme views. Sanders likes to identify as a less threatenin­g “Democratic Socialist.” They are calling for the complete restructur­ing of our government.

We are not just talking about family leave, equal pay for equal work, extended vacations and such. Oh, no, we are talking about something much more radical.

Many Democrats can’t believe such radical ideas are supported by the party and don’t see democratic socialism as a path to pure socialism and government control.

But they are wrong.

Some Democratic presidenti­al candidates and leftists, according to their websites, support ideas to include re-wording or deleting the First, Second and 25th Amendments to the Constituti­on, eliminatin­g the U.S. Senate while enlarging the House of Representa­tives, and changing the number of justices on the Supreme Court to 13 or 15.

Crazy? Be careful. It does not stop there.

Some, but not all, want to get rid of the Electoral College, disregard our national border and allow free entry, provide undocument­ed people driver’s licenses and voting rights as well as for those in prison, with free welfare, Medicare and legal aid as needed.

Since we would have no borders and a moratorium on deportatio­ns, we would not need most of the Department of Homeland Security, to include all or part of the TSA, ICE and CBP.

However, more government organizati­onal support would be needed for education since college would be free and college loans to be forgiven. As is typical, it is not clear how this would actually work nor how this would be administer­ed.

Would the federal government pay for the tuition for select community colleges or all of them? Would the government pay for select students (based on ability to pay or family income) to go to four-year universiti­es? What about foreign students?

Since the radicals want to end our war on drugs by legalizing many or not allowing incarcerat­ion for possession of hard drugs, we would not need most of the DEA.

With weapons banned, we would not need the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) relying on local and state police for enforcemen­t.

We would have a much smaller prison population as many past crimes would be forgiven as the laws would change and prisoners released.

But there’s more and it’s terrifying. A long list of extreme actions continue including the New Green Deal, sanctuarie­s, reduction in defense spending, pro-life and funding of abortions to control population in third world countries, national rent control, nationaliz­ing the internet, break up select big banks and corporatio­n, and new taxes including a “wealth tax” and estate taxes to discourage millionair­es and billionair­es.

The consequenc­es of all this seem to have no considerat­ion for the prohibitiv­e costs, financial effects, social impact, business opportunit­y, future safety and security for Americans.

Such insane policies, generally adopted by all the leading democratic candidates, simply terrifies moderates in the Democratic Party, and of course the Republican­s, as well as many independen­ts.

Could it be that the pandering is just insincere exaggerati­ons to win votes? Not really.

The Democratic Party could split into two parties creating anger and chaos. What would happen if Sanders loses to Michael Bloomberg?

A fractured America which no longer approves its successful free enterprise formula that has created the wealthiest society in the history of humanity is headed for a crisis.

America may have to choose Trump to simply survive getting dismantled.

No matter what, radical structural and cultural change creates fear.

Fear can ignite the fight and flight reflex.

Are we ready for another civil war?

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