The Patriot Post® · The Left's Shadow Government

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/46537-the-lefts-shadow-government-2016-12-20

Editor’s note: This article was penned on Monday, Dec. 19.

The political left is vehemently refusing to accept the results of the November 8th elections. Like spoiled children who do not get their way, the left is throwing a collective temper tantrum. Their behavior is so bad that even liberal Juan Williams conceded yesterday, “There’s no question Democrats run the risk of looking like hypocrites.”

I hope you appreciate, my friends, that the battle did not end on November 8th. Nor will it end after today’s final votes are cast by members of the Electoral College. The left is not giving up. It is not going away quietly.

The real transition of power taking place in Washington right now is not between the Obama administration and the Trump-Pence team, but from the Obama White House to a left-wing shadow government.

Let me give you a few examples.

There is a great American tradition of ex-presidents quietly exiting the scene and allowing their successors to step into the spotlight. Barack Obama may be vacating the White House, but he is NOT leaving Washington, D.C.

The president and first lady are renting a nine-bedroom, 8,200 square-foot home in one of Washington’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Mr. Obama will be the first president in nearly 100 years to remain in Washington after the conclusion of his presidency.

Author Ed Klein, who is an expert on D.C.‘s machinations, said Obama was mounting an “insurgency” or “a shadow government opposing the Trump administration.”

Presidential historian Stephen Hess said it was “a terrible idea” for Obama to stay in Washington. Hess noted that Obama will be “connected to every problem that [Trump] is going to be confronting” and reporters will be “camping out on [his] doorstep.”

In other words, we should expect to hear from this soon-to-be ex-president a lot. Any time Trump tries to undo Obama’s legacy, be it Obamacare or institutional global warming malarkey, Mr. Obama will be on hand to rally the opposition.

Speaking of global warming, left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer, who spent more than $140 million in the past two election cycles, recently told Reuters he will “spend whatever it takes” to fight the Trump-Pence agenda.

The radical group Center for American Progress (CAP), which is heavily funded by George Soros, is vowing to become “the central hub of the Trump resistance.” The group just hired Harry Reid’s deputy chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, who promised to bring a “relentlessly aggressive attitude” to combating the Trump administration every day.

In addition to Obama, Steyer and Soros, a myriad of left-wing groups like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the Sierra Club are shattering fundraising records. A massive, coordinated counterattack is already underway and will only intensify.

Electoral College Meets Today

Today is the day members of the Electoral College cast their votes for president and vice president of the United States. Contrary to its name, the Electoral College is not a single institution or place, but a series of gatherings in state capitals across the country. These meetings are taking place as I write. Electors in California, Hawaii and Nevada will meet late this afternoon and into the evening East Coast time.

In most elections, this is often an overlooked formality. But this year is different. The left has launched an all-out campaign to persuade electors to ignore the voters, and in some cases the laws, of their states in order to delegitimize Donald Trump’s presidency.

As we have reported, electors have been mercilessly harassed by liberals trying to convince them to vote for Hillary Clinton, John Kasich or anyone but Donald Trump. Electors have received thousands of emails, letters and phone calls. Some have received death threats.

At least $500,000 was spent to run ads aimed at GOP electors featuring Martin Sheen and Debra Messing imploring the electors to vote against Trump.

An effort to overturn state laws binding the votes of electors failed in a Colorado court. Now left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore is offering to pay the fines of rogue electors.

Dozens of electors demanded a special briefing by the CIA to hear the intelligence information behind the allegations of Russian interference in the election. It’s not happening for a variety of reasons.

While there is zero evidence that Russian hacking changed ballots or affected vote totals, some commentators believe Putin may have been trying to undermine confidence in our electoral system. Responding to this garbage, Kellyanne Conway said yesterday that the misguided efforts of the left were playing right into Putin’s hands.

“The entire nonsense about the electors trying to use the Russian hacking issue to change the election results is really unfortunate,” Conway said. “I think that actually undermines the democracy more than any other conversation we are having right now.”

Europe On High Alert

Last month, the State Department warned Americans traveling in Europe to avoid Christmas markets and holiday celebrations amid intelligence reports that radical Islamists were planning attacks during the “upcoming holiday season.”

Days later, German authorities arrested a 12-year-old boy of Iraqi decent after he was caught planting two explosive devices, one at a Christmas market and the other near the town hall in Ludwigshafen.

Late last week, French authorities ordered thousands of additional soldiers onto the streets of Paris and other major cities. Ten thousand troops are on patrol throughout the country as France remains on high alert for possible attacks by radical Islamists. Airports, shopping centers, churches and synagogues are under heavy surveillance and armed guard.

Today the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated in Ankara by a radical Islamist who is believed to have been a police officer. The assassin reportedly yelled, “Allahu Akbar!”

There is also breaking news that a truck plowed through a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany. Nine are reportedly dead and at least 50 are injured. The Berlin attack is reminiscent of the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, which was similar to vehicular attacks that have occurred in Israel for the last 18 months.

This year the holiday seasons overlap as Chanukah begins on Christmas Eve, December 24th. While our politically correct elites bend over backwards to deny any connection between terrorism and Islam, ISIS and Al Qaeda certainly understand the significance of jihad and the symbolism of attacking the faiths that undergird Judeo-Christian Civilization.