Even though President Joe Biden has failed at nearly every turn — and Democrat leaders in Congress have repeatedly failed to deliver on the Biden administration's legislative agenda — the leftward lurch of the president's party has continued anyway. And they're going to pay for it in November through an unavoidable reality that an increasing number of polls have illuminated.
In an exceptional misfire this month, teachers union boss Randi Weingarten pridefully commissioned a poll seeking to show Americans that Democrats are more trusted to manage and run public education than Republicans. Instead of making a case for Democrats to win this November, the poll — conducted by a left-leaning firm, mind you — shattered the Dems' usual advantage when it comes to education.
Instead of a comfortable lead for Democrats over their GOP counterparts, the poll showed that Republicans now enjoy a one-point advantage when it comes to Americans' trust. That's bad news for Democrats and even worse news for teachers' unions who rely on Democrat leaders for protection from competition or oversight.
By prioritizing teachers' unions over parents — including Democrat voters — Joe Biden's party has sent a message with lasting consequences that America's students aren't of any import to them, nor are those students' academic achievements. And it's no wonder after Democrats and their allied teachers' unions have been harping about public education for so many years that parents are looking at what happened to their kids' education during and after the pandemic and placing blame on those who claim to champion public education.
Just look at what's happened in San Francisco's public schools — where their operating budget for the next academic year is more than one billion dollars — and how public school students in the City by the Bay have fared. Fewer than half (47.2 percent) of the district's students finishing eighth grade were rated "ready for high school." Slightly more students graduating high school, 57.5 percent, were evaluated as ready to go onto college or enter the workforce. African American students and Hispanic — officially referred to as "Latinx" by San Francisco public schools in another illustration of their misguided priorities — students fare even worse than the average, showing just how surface-deep Democrats and their teachers' union pals are to the woke buzzwords of "equity" and "inclusion." And while San Francisco schools have been failing their minority students with extended school shutdowns and by replacing basic education with woke indoctrination, they've also been penalizing students who are succeeding by eliminating merit-based and advanced learning programs deemed "racist" by the wokesters. This is the reality of Democrats' priorities playing out in just one public school district, and they're going to pay for it in November.
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But Democrats' misguided priorities don't stop with education and allowing teachers' unions to take a leading role in determining U.S. education policy — as they were allowed to do with COVID protocols. No, there are even more issues where Democrats have placed the shrill cries of other special interests above the concerns of their usual Democrat constituencies at their own peril.
Look at the border. Joe Biden and his administration claim that their lawless wide-open border is the "humane" way to govern in a weird embrace of the left's "no human being is illegal" nonsense, but the communities along the U.S.-Mexico border have been upended by Biden's open-border policies. Crime, deadly drugs, human trafficking, countless previously removed convicted sex offenders, and even members of terror watch lists have entered the country and terrorized communities made up of what Democrats think are reliable Dem voters. But Mayra Flores flipped a blue border district that touches the Rio Grande Valley red, her opponent's campaign rang the alarm that Democrats are taking Hispanic voters for granted, and the White House responded by sending First Lady Jill Biden out to eloquently call Hispanic Americans "breakfast tacos." The chaos that's become the tragic norm for border cities is now starting to hit elsewhere in Washington, D.C., and New York City — and the Democrat leaders there are suddenly balking at the idea that illegal immigrants should be welcomed and shipped around the country under cover of night at taxpayer expense by the Biden administration. Not only are Democrats taking Hispanic voters for granted, they're failing to grasp the hardship those voters are facing due to Democrat policies. They'll pay for that too in November.
In another example, Democrats have chosen to embrace the "progressive prosecutor" movement that believes criminals are victims and shouldn't be punished for breaking the law. From Philadelphia and Manhattan to Los Angeles and San Francisco — where a Democrat-triggered recall of the woke Democrat D.A. Chesa Boudin saw minority voters as the driving force behind Boudin's ouster — lawlessness has been embraced in the name of "social justice." But as residents in those communities know and as San Francisco already proved, social justice is no substitute for real justice. Democrats tolerate a lot of nonsense that arises from their party's policies, but rampant violence and reoffending criminals wear their patience thin, and fast. Democrats — and not just woke district attorneys — will face the consequences of their decisions not to enforce consequences on brazen criminals in November as well.
It's often said that Republicans trail Democrats because conservatives think and talk with their heads while their opponents on the left think and talk with their hearts. But the feel-good mantras that Democrats have used to paper over their deeply flawed policies are falling apart. Their coalition of college-educated suburban white women, Hispanic voters, and big city liberals are all suffering as a result of their flawed priorities. And this November, there are signs that those Dem voters will respond, not by thinking and talking with their hearts, but by talking with their votes to send a message — Democrats can't solve these problems, it's time for conservatives to take control and right the ship.
