PrintLiberals Don't Need to Win Elections to Get What They Want
The Democrats’ unprecedented losing streak continues. As Rich Lowry noted a couple of days after Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama’s chief legacy is the total collapse of the modern Democratic Party. In the handful of special elections this year -- including in Georgia and South Carolina on Tuesday -- nothing has happened to change that.
As a refresher on just how decimated is the modern Democratic Party, in addition to the U.S. Presidency, along with the U.S. House and Senate, Republicans hold the state offices in:
- 33 of 50 governorships
- 30 of 45 (with Alabama’s currently vacant) lieutenant governorships
- 31 of 47 secretaries of state
Additionally, the GOP controls 67 of 98 partisan state legislatures. What’s more, Republicans now control every branch of government in 25 states (a state government “trifecta”), and have veto-proof majorities in two states with Democratic governors. Democrats have a trifecta in only six states. The red in the image below reveals the square miles of the U.S. under GOP representation in the U.S. House:
By Kurykh, Mr. Matté - Own work, based on File:115th U.S. Congress House districts.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48718341
Nevertheless, as the recent war on President Trump and the more distant -- but certainly recent enough -- debate on marriage reveal, U.S. liberals don’t necessarily need to win elections to further their leftist agenda. In fact, as most any sentient political observer of the American scene is aware, arguably the sturdiest plank of the Democratic platform -- abortion -- became legal in America, not because of what occurred at the ballot box, but because of the tragically foolish decision of seven unelected justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. As the block (now lifted) on the so-called “travel ban,” the seemingly never-ending Trump-Russia collusion farce, and the Trump obstruction-of-justice myth prove, if the electorate won’t cooperate, the American left well knows that it can almost always rely on the cooperation of the courts and the mainstream media.
Since Barack Obama’s election as U.S. President in 2008, election losses for American democrats can literally be measured in the thousands. Yet liberals were still somehow so shocked at Hillary’s loss to Trump in the last presidential election that they’ve turned to wing-nut conspiracy theories in order to undermine his and the GOP’s -- sometimes one and the same -- agenda. Of course, at nearly every turn the media and the courts have aided and abetted the efforts of Democrats.
Even more disconcerting than the rise of fake news to undermine Trump and the GOP is the rise of fake law. It’s one thing to have an army of (mostly) low-educated, left-wing bloggers, reporters, and pundits engaging in media malpractice; it’s quite another to have the highest levels of the American judiciary practicing judicial tyranny. With the rise of the alternative media, the widespread liberal media malpractice we are enduring can be countered. Reining in liberal courts is much more difficult.
Again, before the Trump political era, the marriage debate provides a great lesson here. As recently as November 2009, the U.S. electorate was 31 for 31 in soundly rejecting same-sex “marriage.” At a rate of over two-to-one (67.5%), U.S. voters in 31 states, at the very least banned same-sex “marriage.” This rate of victory for (biblical) marriage was FAR greater than the rate by which most candidates -- Republican or Democratic -- win their races.
As I noted at the time, this rejection of same-sex “marriage” occurred not only in conservative states, but in some very liberal ones as well. Along with the reliably red states in the South, Midwest, and mountain West, deep blue states such as Maine, California, Oregon, Hawaii, along with “purple” states such as Ohio, Colorado, and Nevada, all soundly rejected same-sex “marriage.” Across the U.S., from the Deep South to the Northeast to the Midwest to the West coast, American voters united behind (biblical) marriage.
Despite the length and the volume of the electoral defeats (take note, Christian conservatives), liberals in general, but especially liberals in the media, persisted in pushing their perverse views on marriage. (We are now seeing similar tactics as liberals battle biology and sound morality in the debate over gender.) Shaming corporations and corporate executives -- most of whom were ill equipped to take an intelligent and principled stand for marriage -- soon most every large corporation in the U.S. was an ally for the left in the marriage debate (as they are now in the gender debate).
Astute observers of American politics had to know that the courts were most likely soon to follow. Sure enough, contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of the American electorate, a misguided and foolish ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex “marriage” the “law of the land” in the U.S. The oldest institution in the history of humanity (marriage is older than God’s covenant with the nation of Israel, older than The Law, older than the church, and one of the earliest truths revealed by God) has been legally dismantled by five liberal justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
There’s an important lesson here: If liberals can achieve the legal redefinition of marriage without the aid of the American electorate, there’s little they can’t accomplish. The consequences of the infamous Obergefell ruling are devastatingly wide ranging. I don’t think there is another legal precedent that is as far reaching as the legal redefinition of marriage. And again, liberals achieved this all the while losing elections!
Thus -- and sadly -- it is not enough for conservatives to win elections. In addition to continuing our efforts in the alternative media, we must make sure the courts are properly staffed. One of the biggest reasons (as should be the case in every presidential and senatorial election) that I, and many others, voted for Donald Trump for U.S. President was because of the role the President plays in the federal judiciary. So far, by most indications, Mr. Trump has done little to disappoint.
As Mr. Trump has at times demonstrated himself to be conservatively challenged, long-entrenched conservatives must ensure that these efforts continue. As the Drudge headline the day of this writing indicates (“Trump To Get Another Supreme Judge?”), we may soon be having another battle over the Supreme Court. Knowing well what’s at stake, liberals will go all out (beware the level of violence!) to keep a solid conservative out of any seat currently occupied by a reliably liberal vote. Trump and the GOP are making progress in dismantling the legacy of Obama and other like-minded liberals. A conservative judiciary at the federal level would go a long way in ensuring that such dismantling is widespread and long-lasting.
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
