OPINION:
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.”
The wisdom of King’s quote was proved in spades on Jan. 20 during President Trump’s inauguration. If you had any doubt that the Democratic Party’s soul is now dead, just consider the behavior of former Presidents Joseph R. Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as President Trump delivered his inaugural speech.
When Mr. Trump said, “I will put America first,” they sat.
When he said the “weaponization of the Justice Department will end,” they sat and stared.
When the president declared that his top priority was to “create a proud, prosperous and free nation,” these people stayed in their seats and refused to clap their hands.
When Mr. Trump said he intended “to give the American people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and, indeed, their freedom,” Messrs. Biden and Obama, the Clintons and Ms. Harris sat stone-faced and unresponsive.
When the president spoke of being grateful to have survived an attempted assassination, they stared with arms folded in not-so-thinly veiled disgust.
When he said he believed God had spared his life to “make America great again,” they gave no response.
When Mr. Trump said he was committed to “bringing back hope, prosperity, safety and peace for every citizen of every race, religion, color and creed,” they offered no applause.
On and on it went.
When Mr. Trump challenged us to never “forget our country, our Constitution and our God,” when he promised to “revive common sense,” and when he said he would defend our borders and prosecute crime, there they sat, smug and sanctimonious.
Mr. Trump said he would “use the full power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil,” and they sat.
He said he would “direct all members of [his] Cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices,” and they sat.
He said America’s inflation crisis was caused, in part, by escalating energy prices and that the United States has “the largest amount of oil and natural gas of any country on earth, and we are going to use it,” and they sat.
When he said, “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves … and export American energy all over the world,” they were motionless.
When he declared he would “revoke the electric vehicle mandates” and let Americans buy “whatever cars they want,” they just glared.
When he announced a brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, they could hardly contain their disgust.
When he promised to “immediately sign an executive order to stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America,” their faces turned to stone.
When he announced he would “restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law,” they remained glued to their seats.
When he said he would “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life” and that “as of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” they just sat.
When he committed to keeping our armed forces focused on “defeating America’s enemies,” they sat.
When he said we will measure our military “not only by the battles we win but also the wars that we end and, perhaps most importantly, by the wars we never get into,” they sat.
They couldn’t even stand and join in ovation when he said, “We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. So, to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you. I will fight for you, and I will win for you.”
To this, all these Democrats could do was shamefully sit and stare.
When you can’t even force yourself to stand for equality, justice and constitutional law; when you refuse to applaud free speech, lower inflation, a color-blind society, defending our borders, the dreams of our children and everything else mentioned above, when you can’t even stand and show gratitude that your political opponent survived an assassination attempt, your party is dead and so is your soul.
The icons of the Democratic Party just showed the entire nation that they stand for nothing (at least nothing except themselves). They communicated to everyone watching that they won’t even stand for American greatness, common sense, goodness, and what is right and true. They proved to all of America that they are dead in heart, mind and soul.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Daycare: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.
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