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CHAUTAUQUA--The framers of the Constitution didn't envision political parties.
Yet small-r republican government often leads to forming alliances and, by extension, political parties.
In the United States, establishing the Electoral College in effect secured a system with two major political parties.
Yet their philosophies have evolved.
Democrats used to be less enthusiastic than Republicans about an ascendant federal government. Over the course of the 20th century, that changed.
Liberalism and conservatism, moreover, have been on the rise among Democrats and Republicans, respectively, since the early 20th century.
Yet even during most of the years since, Democrats had a significant number of conservatives, while Republicans had a significant number of liberals.
That has also changed. The phrases conservative Democrat and liberal Republican have almost become oxymorons.
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Today let's look at Democrats, which Josh Kraushaar, the Aug. 10 speaker at Advocates for Balance at Chautauqua, or ABC, did.
Long gone is the time when it was conceivable that Democrats might nominate for president someone with significant conservative ideas.
Even beyond presidential campaigns, Democrats keep moving left.
So much so that Kraushaar, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Insider and a political analyst at Fox News, sees civil war among Democrats.
He says many liberals have--during the Trump 47 administration--become radicalized. As a result, socialists have won some--though not all--primaries. He cites the Democrats who are New York City mayor and the 2026 U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan.
Kraushaar, like many, will watch Michigan.
"The Michigan race will tell you everything you need to know," he said. "If you can win as a socialist in Michigan, why the heck can't you win in the rest of the country?"
At the same time, he rightly sees Michigan as Republicans' best chance of taking a Senate seat away from Democrats in 2026. He also cites Minnesota and New Hampshire.
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Perhaps the most consequential audience question to Kraushaar came from someone identifying herself and her husband as liberal Democrats, though not socialists.
She cited European countries having socialized healthcare, rightly called this a form of socialism, and genuinely wondered what makes that so alarming.
"I'm glad you asked that question," Kraushaar cheerfully responded.
Socialists in America tend to want far more than that: They want to abolish prisons, defund police, and destroy Israel, he said. This isn't socialism as in Scandinavia or Canada.
Kraushaar is right.
And there is, of course, even more to add: To name just a few items:
– The norms that for centuries have made Western Civilization the greatest in human history are of little use to these socialists, who have little respect for Western civilization, much less American exceptionalism.
– To them, particular sins in American history outweigh whatever (limited) good they see in American history.
– Their bloated government will choke the free-market economy. That means fewer jobs.
– Their judicial activism will undermine the rule of law.
– Their welfare state will undermine the human spirit.
– They advocate other policies that--to understate the point--are mistaken. Consider just one example: Letting men and boys not only play on women's and girls' sports teams but also use their locker rooms.
– America's borders, and thus American sovereignty properly understood, are of little use to socialists. When the Biden administration said "Open Sesame" at the southern border, a significant number of people whom America's enemies sent across the Rio Grande River were criminals, not Rhodes scholars.
– The weakness that socialists would have America project to the world, including her enemies, will undermine the security of America and her allies, and in effect invite those not wishing America well to undermine this country, not only from beyond her borders but also from within her borders.
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All of these and more fit quite nicely, thank you very much, into socialists' modus operandi: Undermining the West by sowing the seeds of chaos within and among Western nations.
If all of that and more sounds good to you, then by all means vote socialist.
But you, faithful reader of this column, know better. And you're well equipped to oppose socialism in the United States.
Dr. Randy Elf's Aug. 20, 2020, ABC presentation, on "How Political Speech Law Benefits Politicians and the Rich," is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ebymA7xOo. It's cited in his U.S. Supreme Court brief filed Aug. 7: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6556879.
COPYRIGHT © 2026 BY RANDY ELF