Progressives’ line in the sand for Biden on Israel shows a party that’s lost its mind | Opinion
Earlier this month, interns at the White House and the broader Executive Office of the President that fills several other buildings released an open letter to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris rebuking the president for not being more forceful in seeking a cease-fire between our civilized, Democratic ally, Israel, and the authoritarian, barbarians of Hamas who broke the last cease-fire.
It is the latest sign that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has lost its mind. The Biden administration is now protesting against itself over the administration’s policy on Israel and the Palestinians.
Imagine the arrogance of a bunch of kids taking time off from school to learn at the center of our government and deciding that, nope, they know how to run things better than the duo elected by the American people to do the job.
But that wasn’t crazy enough. Junior political appointees in the Biden administration were like, “Hold my beer, we’re going to walk off the job, pick up signs and go protest outside our own White House to tell the president who appointed us that he’s wrong about foreign policy.”
Progressives have become so self-righteous that they treat a President Biden the same way they would treat a President Donald Trump.
When I worked in the Executive Office of the President, I can’t imagine having acted with such arrogance and disdain for the people who gave me a job. I was in awe of Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative who would go on to be president of the World Bank and deputy secretary of state. He had forgotten more about foreign policy than I know even now, decades later.
Today’s Democratic Party ranks are filled with the kind of people who share Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada’s self-righteousness. Their canceling cult has gone so far that they’re even trying to cancel the president they helped elect.
Now, the Republican Party is no better. Judging by the primary polls that universally show Donald Trump has a commanding lead, the adherents of the family values party are fine with a serially bankrupt, daughter-ogling rapist who tried to steal an election as their standard-bearer.
It is hard to tell whether a party with no values or a party with the values of the Spanish Inquisition is worse. Come to think of it, that is less of a difference than it appears. Far-right Republicans and far-left Democrats share the belief that anything goes in advancing their cause.
That is a recipe for disaster.
As Democrats keep telling us, if Biden isn’t reelected in 2024, our 247-year-old Republic will die at the hands of a reality-challenged billionaire. At the same time, Democratic White House interns and Biden administration junior political appointees’ actions deliver the message that saving the republic isn’t an important enough cause for them to remain loyal to their president.
Which is it?
Today’s progressive Democrats are at a turning point. Either they are going to help save the republic from Trump or they show the very contempt for democratic values as the MAGA men.
Republicans, too, are at a turning point. In a few weeks, Iowa Republicans will vote, followed soon thereafter by New Hampshire Republicans. Theirs will be the first voices in deciding whether Republicans stick with Trump or turn the page to someone who has more of a heart for Americans.
I fear that neither Republicans nor Democrats will turn away from their folly. The largest group of Americans, those who hold to neither party, will be left to clean up the mess.
David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent.
