Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
After their major election loss, Democrats are doubling down on their worldview by trying to save the monstrous deep state they have been building for decades and making sure their own ranks still fall in line with radical social policies.
As President Joe Biden prepares to leave office, he and his party are scrambling to undermine one of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises: cull the odious deep state.
Biden is reportedly being pushed by his party to bolster the federal bureaucracy in the waning weeks of his presidency. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said the Biden administration has already done some “scenario planning,” as it attempts to “fortify the Justice Department, the intelligence agencies and other offices in Trump’s crosshairs,” according to The Hill.
The Trump transition appears poised to fulfill campaign promises to break apart the intelligence apparatus with the nomination of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, as director of national intelligence, cut out the far-left rot at the top levels the military by firing activist generals, appoint an attorney general prepared to stop the weaponization of the Department of Justice, and substantially dismantle the federal bureaucracy both with the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency and the appointment of Russ Vought to helm the Office of Management and Budget.
Facing the potential demise of the institutional control the left has maintained for decades, Democrats want Biden to sign a barrage of executive orders in his last days, alter union contracts of federal workers to make them even harder to fire, ram through far-left judges, blow open government funding of projects already approved by Congress before the can be stopped, and finalize federal rulemaking, The Hill reported.
“We should do everything that we can — everything that we possibly can — and I’d say all of the above,” Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., told the outlet. “He’s still the president until the last moment.”
As for the future of the Democrat political worldview, party powerbrokers appear poised to jolt further to the left, believing the faux-centrist Biden wing is to blame for major losses, the Washington Examiner reported.
“I think there’s a lot of resentment right now directed at the kind of old guard. Politically, when it comes to messaging and outreach, there needs to be some serious changes,” an anonymous Democrat strategist told the outlet. “A changing of the guard.”
Failed candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has also reportedly told campaign aides to keep her political options open for a future presidential bid or an attempt at governor of California, with Politico noting a “person close to Harris” said that “there will be a desire to hear her voice,” while another ally added, “She proved a lot of skeptics wrong as a political athlete.”
While Democrat finger-pointing has continued apace after the election, some Democrats have attempted to give an honest assessment of at least some of the party’s positions that are unpalatable for most Americans.
Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., noted that “identity politics needs to go the way of the dodo,” but any question of reforming her party’s radical position on gender was swiftly shot down after Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., criticized how out of touch it is.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton said after the election. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
But Moulton was raked over the coals for possessing a relatively mainstream view on the subject.
The congressman’s campaign manager, Matt Chilliak, quit over the comments in dramatic fashion, saying, “Millions of Americans today showed that they hate immigrants and transgender people more than they fear fascism.” Kyle Davis, a Democrat city councilor in Moulton’s district, called on him to resign, and Massachusetts Democrat Party chair Steve Kerrigan said Moulton’s position does “not represent the view of our party” and condemned it “in the strongest possible terms.”
MSNBC host Jen Psaki, former Biden White House press secretary, took time last week to attack fellow Democrats who hold similar views to Moulton, saying they are “falling prey to right-wing propaganda” and calling concerns about gender radicalism “manufactured panic.”
“I was just speaking authentically as a dad about one of many issues where I think we’re just out of touch with the majority of voters, and I stand by my position,” Moulton said on MSNBC. “The backlash I’ve received proves my point that we can’t even have these discussions as a party.”
“And we’ve got to be able to have these debates,” he added. “But, instead, we have a wing of our party that shames us, that tries to cancel people who try to even bring up these difficult topics, and, frankly, shames voters.”
Psaki suggested “checking facts first” on the subject, despite the fact that the medical interventions are experimental and gruesome, and boys competing against girls in sports is dangerous and strips girls of opportunities. Republicans last week rolled out part of a legislative agenda aimed at protecting children from Democrats and doctors who seek to entrap them in the American medical establishment’s gender transition business model.
Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.