The 2020 election is coming, and while the presidential election is getting most of the media attention, voters across the nation will be picking their leaders down the ballot as well. The Democratic Party continues lurching to the left, proposing more big government spending and taxes every day. As voters make their choice, it’s important that they know what the consequences of such policies really are.
California is a perfect example. Democrats run the state top to bottom, and as a result, the high-tax state is continuing to spend its way into fiscal insolvency.
This was on full display in the state’s nearly $215 billion budget that was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this year. The budget is packed with pork-barrel earmarks including funding for a dog park, a sculpture garden, an escalator, and countless other wasteful projects.
However, one provision quietly tucked into the budget represents a new low for California’s spending problem: funding for a progressive activist organization.
That organization is called the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), the namesake of the firebrand labor activist Dolores Huerta, and it’s now getting some $2 million a year from the state government. The non-profit organization is ostensibly meant as a youth civic engagement organization. However, when you pull back the curtain, you’ll find an activist organization that’s recruiting kids to advance a progressive agenda.
According to their website, the DHF has publicly advocated for left-wing positions. They opposed gun-rights for teachers. They touted the benefits of Obamacare. They’ve even partnered up with Organizing for Action, an organization founded by President Obama to promote a liberal activist agenda.
It comes as no surprise that an organization founded by Dolores Huerta is promoting a left-wing agenda. Just look at her other organization, the United Farmworkers Union (UFW).
The UFW has been a tool of the progressive agenda for years, even as it has ignored its duty to protect farmworkers. The union exclusively donates to Democratic campaigns and has endorsed only Democrats for public office. In turn, the Democrats controlling California have used their power to support this union.
This was on full display just a few years ago when the UFW attempted to stick Central Valley farmworkers with a contract that would have cut workers' paychecks. All the more ridiculous was that the UFW had failed to represent these workers for over 20 years prior.
The farmworkers didn’t want this contract, and they voted to kick out the UFW. However, Democrats on the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, puppets of the UFW, blocked this vote for five years before a judge put a stop to it.
Unfortunately, the Dolores Huerta Foundation seems to have the same liberal bias as the UFW. That’s exactly why taxpayers shouldn’t be paying their bills.
Yet Democrats across the nation frequently force taxpayers to fund political organizations that they may not agree with (Planned Parenthood’s millions in taxpayer funding comes to mind). It’s one more example of how little regard the left has for our hard-earned money.
As Americans head to the polls next year, it’s essential that they choose leaders who will be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. If not, we may see more of our money going to organizations that actively oppose our values, like the Dolores Huerta Foundation.