Listen to the Democratic Left

by Karl Rove,

The justice system is ‘racist.’ ICE is guilty of ‘human rights abuses.’ And more.

United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, then a lifelong Democrat, electrified the 1984 Republican National Convention when she excoriated the recently completed Democratic Convention as a meeting of the “Blame America First” crowd. Kirkpatrick explained the danger by quoting the French philosopher Jean-François Revel: “A civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.”

Blame America First Democrats were briefly sidelined by Bill Clinton’s presidency, but the mob is back, angrier and more negative about their own country than ever. Consider observations by some of the party’s 2020 hopefuls during the progressive Netroots Nation conference in New Orleans earlier this month.

New Jersey’s Sen. Cory Booker declared that “we are at a time where injustice has grown to be normal in our country.” Speaking across town at Dillard University, Massachusetts’ Sen. Elizabeth Warren offered “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: it’s racist. . . . I mean, all the way, front to back.” Surely it doesn’t speak well of former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch that the justice system is in such dire straits after eight years of their leadership.

California’s Sen. Kamala Harris joined the assault, telling Netroots that “our criminal-justice system has failed.” Besides vowing not to be “shut up” by opponents of “identity politics,” Ms. Harris unconsciously took a swipe at President Obama’s record, saying “we have an economy that is at work for those at the very top but not for those doing the hardest work.”

Or listen to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialist who became the left’s overnight sensation after deposing longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in a stunning primary in June. She told Netroots that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency charged with enforcing immigration law, has “repeatedly, systematically and violently committed human-rights abuses.”

Andrew Cuomo and American Exceptionalism

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