Everyone knows that the Far-Left wing of the Democratic Party is taking over the House.
But AOC and company now seem to be on the verge of dictating policy for the Republican majority in the Senate as well.
Witness the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization.
The program, which is funded through later this year, is the "crown jewel" of Joe Biden's sparse legislative achievements.
Of course, there's the question of whether the federal government should be involved in enforcing state-level criminal law in the first place -- although questions of constitutionality and federalism now seem almost quaint.
But, increasingly, this program is largely an effort to enforce Leftist East Coast sensibilities on "fly-over country." And this year's reauthorization is no exception.
The House-passed bill, H.R. 1585, has lots of gun control. It would allow anyone you've ever dated to place a telephone call to a pliant judge and obtain a secret order stripping you of your Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights -- based on an unproven allegation that you've "harassed" them. And that phone call would strip you of your Second Amendment rights under federal law. The first thing you would learn of it is when the SWAT Team arrived at your home in the middle of the night.
Interestingly, in a D.C. area survey, 50% of 8th, 9th, and 10th graders claim they have been "harassed" in school.
But the point is to use this language to do an "end run" around resistance to the increasingly-contentious "red-flag" gun confiscation bills -- which the House-passed VAWA reauthorization now resembles.
The bill would also attempt to force prosecutors to incarcerate veterans, traffic-ticket scofflaws, plea bargainers, and others who attempt to buy a gun from a dealer without realizing they are barred from doing so.
In addition, the bill contains a large new tax on employers, in the form of a huge expansion of unemployment insurance benefits.
The bill discriminates against faith-based groups.
The bill continues the trend toward forcing "fly-over America" to accept government recognition of gender preference and transgender rights.
In short, in the words of Ranking Member Doug Collins, House Democrats "have sought at every turn to make this bill into a political weapon..." As a result, it was rushed out of a Judiciary markup by a party-line vote, and Collins predicted the bill would have "zero chance of moving forward in the Senate."
Cut to the Senate -- where Leftist Dianne Feinstein is attempting to force Republican Senator Joni Ernst to negotiate a "compromise" on the basis of the House bill.
Hold on a minute.
The bill authorizes a Democrat program, which could be reauthorized without add-ons at any time.
Instead, the Democrats have added dozens of items from a Leftist wish-list, and are now insisting that Ernst negotiate over which of the Leftist items to keep.
There's no way Republicans can win under this scenario. If Ernst were to achieve the Herculean task of dropping 90% of the AOC agenda which is built into the bill, it would still be a stunning victory for the AOC faction in the House.
Even worse, a prominent gun group is supposedly advising Ernst on how to strip the bill of the very most Draconian anti-gun provisions, while leaving most of the gun control in place.
If the Senate gives Bloomberg yet another gun control victory, what do you think this is going to do to the GOP base in 2020 -- both at the presidential level and in Senate races like Ernst's?
Make no mistake: Unless the Senate agrees to every word of the Far-Leftist House bill, the socialist contingent will continue to accuse them of being "anti-woman."
And by allowing the Democrat "insult machine" to force the GOP to pass liberal legislation, Senate Republicans will have only succeeded in inviting Democrats to do more of the same.
"Victory feeds on itself. And, similarly, defeat feeds on itself."
And, if Republicans think legislative failure is their pathway to electoral success, they will be sorely disappointed.
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