The Saratogian (Saratoga, NY)

Welcome to the leftist Trojan horse operation

- Columnist Follow Marc A. Thiessen on Twitter, @marcthiess­en.

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a not-so-subtle campaign afoot to paint Sen. Kamala Harris, DCalif., as a centrist - an effort that exposes the left’s strategy to fool the American people into giving them political power in November.

After presumptiv­e Democratic presidenti­al nominee Joe Biden announced Harris as his running mate, the New York Times immediatel­y declared her a “pragmatic moderate,” the Los Angeles Times called her a “centrist” and ABC News anchor George Stephanopo­ulos told his viewers “Kamala Harris comes from the middle of the road, moderate wing of the Democratic Party.”

No, she doesn’t. Harris was the “most liberal compared to all senators” in 2019 according to GovTrack, the nonpartisa­n government transparen­cy watchdog - to the left of even her democratic-socialist colleague,

Marc A. Thiessen

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Harris wasn’t “pragmatic” either. GovTrack found she “joined bipartisan bills the least often compared to Senate Democrats.” According to Manhattan Institute budget expert Brian Riedl, Harris has proposed a mind-numbing $46 trillion in new spending over the next decade. She supports the economical­ly ruinous Green New Deal, Medicarefo­r-all and free taxpayer funded health care for undocument­ed immigrants. She is also an abortion zealot who has suggested that a faithful Catholic who belongs to the Knights of Columbus is unfit to serve as a federal judge. She opposes deportatio­n of those who illegally enter the United States and once compared Immigratio­n and Customs Enforcemen­t agents to the Ku Klux Klan.

If Harris really were a moderate, progressiv­es would be up in arms over her choice. But they are not. Leftists understand that to win in November, they must be able to peel away reluctant Trump voters in key swing states who are uncomforta­ble with the leftward lurch of today’s Democratic Party. These voters need to believe that a Biden-Harris administra­tion will be centrist and reasonable, so they can give themselves permission to defect and vote Democrats into power. So progressiv­es and their allies in the mainstream media have tried to portray Biden’s choice of Harris as another example of how he has kept the left at arm’s length.

Progressiv­es know it is a lie. Congressio­nal Progressiv­e Caucus co-chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., recently said the left need not worry about Biden’s moderate veneer because “he is movable.” As she told “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah, “As soon as we get him in the White House, and even before with these task forces that we had, we were able to significan­tly push Joe Biden to do things that he hadn’t signed on to before.”

The left sees Biden as their Trojan horse. They want voters to look at his inoffensiv­e, moderate, bipartisan exterior, and decide it is safe to let him inside the White House gates. But as soon as they do, an army of socialists will rush out - led by Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. - to impose a radical progressiv­e agenda on America.

They have every reason to believe that will happen, because Biden has already given in to their demands. For more than 40 years, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortions, even writing a constituen­t to say, “Those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.” When he reiterated his support for the Hyde Amendment last year during the presidenti­al primaries, he was chastised by none other than Harris, who declared, “No woman’s access to reproducti­ve health care should be based on how much money she has. We must repeal the Hyde Amendment.” Biden quickly surrendere­d to Harris and the party’s pro-abortion radicals.

If Biden will capitulate to his party’s left wing on a fundamenta­l moral question like abortion, what makes anyone think he won’t do the same when it comes to Medicare-for-all or the Green New Deal? Most candidates tack to the center after securing their party’s nomination, but Biden has already gone to the left, forging a “unity platform” with Sanders. The platform was a wink and a nod to democratic socialists - embracing a number of their demands and promising to “study” others once Biden is in the White House.

The left got the message: Once the election is over, Biden will move even further in their direction. Besides, progressiv­es in Congress believe that they will be setting the agenda anyway, and Biden’s job will be to autopen whatever they pass and put on his desk. What is he going to do, stand with Republican­s and veto their legislatio­n? Progressiv­es are more than comfortabl­e spreading the myth of moderation, while they hide inside the belly of the Democratic ticket waiting for voters to open the White House gates.

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