Democrats’ war on democracy

Recently, Shift outlined how Washington Democrats are waging a war on jobs. That’s the logical conclusion based on the latest far-Left policies they are pushing at the local and statewide level.

Unfortunately, jobs (and, particularly, small businesses) are not the only favorite targets of Democrats. In fact, it appears increasingly as though Democrats are also waging a war on democracy.

At the national level, Bernie Sanders has suggested it’s inaccurate to apply the “democratic” label to the Democrat Party. Democrats’ rigged party rules for selecting their presidential nominee — rules that don’t respect the will of voters — are contrary to democratic ideals.

The Democrat Party’s use of “superdelegates” handed Hillary Clinton the nomination before average voters had their say. Take, for an example, Washington State’s superdelegates.

Our state’s “superdelegates” include Governor Jay Inslee, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, and all six Democrats in the state’s U.S. House delegation. They are not bound by the will of the people of Washington State at the Democrat National Convention. And, they all pledged their support for Hillary Clinton — months before the state’s caucuses and despite the fact that Socialist Bernie Sanders won the caucuses overwhelmingly.

Democrats were supposed to address the issue of superdelegates at their state convention last weekend — it’s not surprising that the undemocratic system was left in place.

It’s also not surprising that, when faced with opposition, Democrats have a disrupting pattern of attempting to stifle it out of existence. In our state, former Seattle City Councilmember Tina Podlodowski — who is challenging Republican incumbent Kim Wyman for Secretary of State — serves as a prime example of a Democrat using this disturbing strategy.

Podlodowski’s campaign slogans include, “Every voice, and every vote, must count” and “Together, we can build an election system that works for everyone.” But, her actions don’t quite match up to her words.

Podlodowski blocks everyone from her Twitter account who dares to criticize her or who has a dissenting opinion. It’s hypocrisy — at the expense of key democratic values — at its worst.

Superdelegates and the stifling of speech are not the only ways Democrats are waging a war on democracy.

Democrats are hypocrites when it comes to “dark money.” Time and time again, Shift has pointed out just how deep their hypocrisy goes, especially when California billionaire Tom Steyer is involved.

Steyer is determined to make a big impact on the 2016 elections—despite his expensive and lackluster results in 2014. And, he’s joined forces with other top liberal donors—many operating under the umbrella of George Soros’ Democracy Alliance—to ensure Democrats who support their ultra-liberal agenda get the campaign cash they need.

The Democracy Alliance’s 2020 Vision plan includes fighting climate change as a major theme. The group re-vamped its efforts last year with the creation of the Democracy Alliance Climate Fund, developed to “steer cash to groups fighting for environmental causes and candidates in key states.”

Additionally, according to Politico, the group’s 2020 Climate Fund will “invest in local and state organizations with an eye toward boosting their advocacy and organizing capabilities, while continuing to funnel money to larger groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.”

As signaled by Steyer, those “key states” and “local and state organizations” include Washington State and certain extreme “green” organizations operating in our state.

Washington Democrats — including Jay Inslee — are more than happy to benefit from the group’s dark money contributions. Of course, all the while they’ll be pointing the finger at Republicans.

Yet, even with their dark money schemes, Democrats and their big-money special interest donors have also been the focus of some of the biggest violations addressed by the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC).

Last year, the State Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against the Service Employees International Union 775NW (SEIU 775) and its political action committee (SEIU 775 PAC). The lawsuit alleged that SEIU 775 and SEIU 775 PAC violated campaign law by failing “to timely and properly file reports of in-kind and monetary contributions as required under the state’s campaign finance laws.”

Earlier this year, SEIU 775 was found guilty of violating campaign finance laws. The union received a fine of $39,000.

As the evidence proves, there is nothing democratic about the Democrat Party.