By Peter Lemiska

It’s no secret that Democrats and Republicans have always held opposing views on issues like government spending, welfare programs, and personal responsibility. Over the years, most Democrats and Republicans have gone along with the evolving positions of their respective parties. But just a few short years ago, the Democrat Party began to change dramatically, and has since morphed into a political party that no 20th-century American would recognize. What is utterly incomprehensible, though, is that so many party members have blithely followed their leadership down their new pathway — a pathway leading to socialism and anti-Americanism.

To see just how far Democrats have evolved, we only have to look at their party platform in, for example, the year 2008.

On parental rights, this was their position: “We know that there is no program and no policy that can substitute for parents who are involved in their children’s education from day one. … Responsibility for our children’s education has to start at home. … We have to hold ourselves accountable.”

Last year, Terry McAuliffe, former Democrat governor of Virginia, was campaigning to regain his seat. He proudly boasted, “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.” And even though parents fund those schools, he added these mind-boggling words: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

It wasn’t an outlying, personal opinion. Across the country, Democrat politicians and teachers unions have been working hard not to educate students but to rob parents of their critical responsibility: character development. Radical educators have become fixated on embedding their own progressive and socialist ideas into the impressionable minds of kindergarteners and young students, to mold today’s children into the radical activists of tomorrow, teaching racially divisive concepts like critical race theory and emotionally harmful ideas like transgenderism.
The 2008 Democrat platform addressed crime control this way: “As Democrats, we are committed to being smart on crime. That means being tough on violent crime, funding strategic, and effective community policing, and holding offenders accountable.”

Today, Joe Biden distances himself from the many Democrats who demanded police departments be defunded. But in July 2020, when that subject came up during an interview, liberal activist Ady Barkin suggested to Biden, “We agree that we can redirect some of the funding.” Biden unhesitatingly responded, “Yes absolutely.” While he agrees with the principle, he avoids the words.

During a post-election meeting with civil rights leaders, Biden revealed the real reason behind his shifty answer: “That’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country.” Biden cleverly avoided the phrase “defund the police” for one reason only. It was politically toxic.

Still, it’s abundantly clear that today’s Democrat Party is soft on crime. We see it in the budget cuts that did occur in police departments in Democrat-run cities. We see it in the progressive prosecutors who coddle criminals in Democrat-run cities. And we see it in the resulting surge in crime across the country.

Those aren’t the only changes to the Democrat Party since 2008.

Back then, the Democrats wrote this about illegal immigration: “We cannot continue to allow people to enter the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked. The American people are a welcoming and generous people, but those who enter our country’s borders illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of the law. We need to secure our borders, and support additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.”

That was then, and this is now.

When Biden took office, he immediately began dismantling border security between the U.S. and Mexico. It resulted in an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration. Since then, more than 2.4 million unscreened foreign nationals have entered our country illegally. Biden is now determined to end the implementation of Title 42 of the U.S. Code, which has helped the CBP expel many illegal migrants based on COVID concerns. If he’s successful, the resulting tsunami of illegal immigration at the border will make today’s chaos seem orderly. By the end of his administration, we could conceivably have more than 10 million new illegal aliens inside our borders — perhaps significantly more.

Yet, until recently, there’s been virtually no opposition to his policies by Democrat lawmakers.

Democrats also cited the American Dream several times in their 2008 platform. It’s the concept that, with hard work, every citizen of this country has an equal opportunity for success. It was what prompted so many immigrants to come here legally.

But today’s Democrats have their own American Dream. They dream of an America where racial bias is welcomed, as long as it’s in the name of equity. In their dream, radical teachers, not parents, mold the character of our children through required training on subjects like systemic racism and gender fluidity. And there’s no right and wrong in their dream of America. It’s devoid of moral standards and personal responsibility; so without rules to enforce, there’s no need for law enforcement officers. And there’s no dissent; whatever they imagine to be true becomes the de facto truth, because all opposing opinions are censored.

That’s not the American Dream. It’s a dystopian nightmare.

It was in October 2008 that Barack Obama made this ominous promise: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” Each time our current befuddled president capitulates to another bizarre demand by socialists and behind-the-scene Obama holdovers, he comes closer to embodying the term “useful idiot.” The question is, how much longer will Democrats in his party slumber through his radical transformation of America?

There are signs that some are finally beginning to stir. Nearly 50 Democrat lawmakers have expressed concern over Biden’s plan to end Title 42. With elections approaching, voters will have to decide for themselves if they’re actually awakening from their socialist dreamworld, or if it’s just an involuntary spasm, a political reflex to Biden’s abysmal poll numbers.