With Election Day less than two months away, voters still have no idea what the Democratic nominee for president truly stands for.
While Vice President Kamala Harris has offered only scripted speeches and two prerecorded TV interviews, fundamental questions about her plans for the nation remain unanswered. If nothing else, her campaign has mastered the art of evading public scrutiny, particularly on deeply unpopular policies she once supported, as well as larger questions regarding our system of governance and the core institutions of our democratic republic.
There is too much at stake to let this silence go unchecked. That is why we at the Faith and Freedom Coalition recently sent a letter to Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) demanding that the vice president take a definitive stance on several proposals popular within her party that could reshape our country. Specifically, we have asked for clarity on her past openness to abolishing the Senate filibuster, packing the Supreme Court, dismantling the Electoral College, and granting statehood to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
As we eagerly await her response, we must consider the consequences of the Left succeeding in turning this wish list into reality.
Over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has generally served as a check on progressive excess by defending limited government in accordance with the Constitution and adhering to the founders’ original intent. The Roberts-era rulings on human life, religious liberty, school choice, parental rights, and much more have overall shaped society for the better.
In recent years, cases such as Carson v. Makin, in which the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot discriminate against religious schools when funding private education, rightly reinforced that families of faith deserve the same access to educational options as everyone else. Or take Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, where the court defended a high school football coach’s right to pray on the field, establishing an important precedent for religious expression in public life. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the court took a necessary and monumental stand in overturning Roe v. Wade, returning the debate over abortion policy to the people and their elected representatives.
In a single Harris term, if the Left’s plan to add new seats to the high court is realized, then all these accomplishments would be quickly discarded by a court packed with progressive justices. Worse, not only would many hard-won conservative victories be lost, but the legitimacy of the judicial branch would sink into the quicksand of partisan politics, likely irreversibly. Ending the Senate filibuster would accelerate the process, allowing Democrats to push through these partisan judicial appointments without the customary checks and balances.
Just as our judicial and legislative institutions are designed to uphold maximum fairness, the Electoral College is crucial for maintaining balanced representation throughout our republic. It guarantees that every state, including those with smaller populations, has an equal role in electing our president and, by extension, determining the makeup of the executive branch. Dismantling it would unfairly shift immense power toward densely populated urban areas, effectively silencing rural America and undermining the virtue and value of civic participation.
Granting statehood to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico would further worsen this imbalance. The Constitution did not envision statehood for these territories. The founders were cautious of consolidating power in the nation’s capital and saw Puerto Rico’s occupation as a temporary strategic measure rather than a pathway to statehood. Additionally, at least in the case of D.C. statehood, it is impossible to separate the Left’s passion for it from the fact that two permanent Democratic-controlled seats would be added to the Senate.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Democratic Party’s support for all these measures is a clear attempt to push through its most radical agenda by politicizing every branch of government, enabling Democrats to pass legislation and appoint justices too extreme for the majority of voters. Packing the Supreme Court with progressives would guarantee the overturning of rulings such as Dobbs and Kennedy, abolishing the Electoral College and granting statehood to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico would unfairly shift electoral power, and ending the filibuster would clear the way for ramming through radical policies and appointments with no checks or opposition.
These are real threats that would permanently remake America. Harris and Walz must clarify their positions on these critical issues before voting begins.
Timothy Head serves as executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
