Democrats only offer taxes and big government if they take control of the House

OPINION:

Partisans on both sides are anticipating the November elections, although for very different reasons.

Republicans, especially those with ties to Team Trump, are concerned that should the Democrats control a majority in the House after the elections, they will launch multiple investigations, oversight festivals and eventually impeachment proceedings (again) against President Trump.

The Democrats have pretty much acknowledged that if they control the House, they will engage in an investigatory orgy.

The Democrats also have made it clear that should they control the House, they will scrutinize companies and individuals whom they deem to have been, well, too helpful to the Trump administration.

Although that all sounds like good college fun, the problem — initially for the Democrats, but ultimately for all of us — is that impeaching the president and hunting down his friends, allies and appointees really won’t change much in the United States.

Most voters don’t care about impeaching Mr. Trump. Rather, they care about the economy, their own personal financial situation, the schools to which they send their children, the roads they drive and what sort of nation they may be passing to their children.

Don’t misunderstand; a substantial chunk (maybe 20%) of the voting population wants to get Mr. Trump and his crew in any way, fair or foul. Most of the rest want to live their lives in peace and prosperity without too much “help” from the federal government.

They want to be left alone by the federal government, they don’t understand shutdowns, they didn’t care about the last two impeachments, and they would rather not have their “leaders” act like poorly socialized children.

For those voters, the Democrats, who either do not have or cannot articulate a positive agenda for the nation, are not likely to offer much help.

That is mostly because a disproportionate share (perhaps as much as 40%) of Democrats are composed of self-identified liberals (mostly White, almost entirely college-educated). They have just about all the cash and, consequently, control just about all the levers of power within the party.

That means the party agenda reflects what they care about: permeable borders, a toothless justice system, diversity (whatever that might mean), general hostility to organized religion and families, and indifference to economic progress.

As a practical matter, it also means that any Democratic candidate for pretty much any office eventually has to bend the knee to most or all of that agenda.

Let’s just take one quick, recent example. Last week, 186 House Democrats voted against legislation that would have deported anyone in the country illegally who had been engaged in welfare fraud. No telling what their alternative plan might be.

How about the SAVE America Act? Despite its obvious popularity with a population that has to provide photo identification for just about everything, the Democrats remain resolutely opposed to it (handing over one’s driver’s license is Jim Crow redux and all that).

Let’s think about a more obvious example. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran for office just a few months ago as a moderate. Three short months into her term, she has indicated she will sign various culture war legislation, as well as impose new taxes on citizens of the Old Dominion. Most ominously for her presidential ambitions, she is now the face of unfettered gerrymandering.

Ms. Spanberger’s story (like others) suggests that no Democrat can be a moderate for too long before the party machers impose discipline. It tells us that when it comes to what Americans care about — economic growth, immigration, law and order — the Democratic Party doesn’t have much to offer.

In Virginia, the voters have received nothing from the new regime that is designed to encourage economic prosperity or secure the blessings of liberty. Rather, they have been given more taxes, more culture wars and a gerrymander as aggressive as one could imagine.

That is because taxes and an expansive government — and the fact that they are not fans of Mr. Trump — seem to be all the Democrats have to offer. If they take the majority in the House, then that will not change.

We will get investigations and hearings and taxes and a culture war. We will not get an economic growth agenda; the Democrats just don’t have one. Nor are we likely to get an answer to illegal immigration, except perhaps a return to the open borders of the Biden years.

In short, giving the Democrats control of the House is unlikely to change much or make anyone feel better in the long run. The Democrats just do not have a competing set of ideas with respect to how best to run this country.

All they seem prepared to offer is more taxes, more illegal immigrants and more bureaucratic back and forth with the Trump administration.