I am a legal immigrant and naturalized US citizen who has been living in Fairfax County for 15 years. I came to the United States 20 years ago from a communist country. Having lived in both worlds, I appreciate this country and its founding principles, maybe much more than many Americans who were born and grew up here ever would. Therefore, I am very attuned to things that are happening in the United States that are far from our nation’s founding principles.
We sometimes hear people warn, maybe hyperbolically, that if Kamala Harris is elected, America will turn into a communist/socialist country. I think many people here, myself included, do not believe that America would ever go full communist because after all, this country is still being run by the super rich donors and special interests, and being capitalists themselves, they will not let that happen. If anything, crony capitalism is a much bigger concern. What the Democrats are doing and the policies they are supporting are increasingly resembling those of a totalitarian regime, the kind of regime that all communist party ruled countries have.
In a totalitarian regime, censorship is prevalent, you can’t say things that you are not allowed to say, at least not publicly. In a totalitarian regime, the ruling party goes after their political opponents and dissidents. In a totalitarian regime, coercion from the government is commonplace. If they tell you to do something, you can’t say no. What we witnessed during the 2020 Presidential election was the US government working in collusion with big tech companies and big media to censor people with different viewpoints on the Covid vaccine or those expressing doubts about the 2020 elections. They also suppressed information that was negative for the Biden campaign, like calling Hunter Biden’s laptop and the serious information it contains as Russian disinformation. They used Covid as an excuse to change election rules right before the election, bypassing the legislature, and carry out a 2020 election in an unprecedented manner with mass mail in ballots, and then vilifying individuals who doubted the election results.
Democrats say Trump is a threat to democracy because he didn’t accept the results of the 2020 election. To be fair, had the 2020 election been done the same way it was always carried out, with one day election and in person voting, Trump wouldn’t have had much basis for not accepting the results of the election. In a totalitarian regime, elections are a joke, and if people here do not demand their elected officials to try their best to ensure election integrity, the country will soon be forever controlled by one party. That is not a good thing, as in countries that are ruled by one party, liberties are stiffened and corruption and lack of accountability are prevalent. We don’t want this in the United States.
I have also noticed the expansion of the nanny state and big government which is the antithesis of our founding principles as a nation. Up until 1935, there was not a built up Government based welfare system in the United States one welfare program was introduced at a time, and since the birth of the Great Society by Lyndon Johnson, welfare has become the norm, and to some, an entitlement. Now, even individuals who come here illegally can have access to welfare in one way or another.
Since Joe Biden took office, the first thing he did was rescind several executive orders under the Trump Administration and opened the “floodgate” of southern border crossings, which has peaked to record high under his watch. Millions of individuals have flown into this country, given housing, money, and food stamps, etc. all at taxpayers’ expense. As a legal immigrant, I have never asked for one cent in the form of welfare. I went through the immigration process one step at at time, paid all the fees, even thousands of dollars for a medical checkup as a required step in order to get a green card, which is ridiculous given that I had been in the country on a work visa for years before that, and especially, when thousands of people a day have been crossing through the southern border without having to go through any medical examination. I think welfare as a necessary program to help citizens temporarily in difficult situations, or when they are permanently disabled or people in old age that have not saved enough to support themselves, but when it is used for any purposes other than that, it’s an abuse of taxpayer dollars and disincentivizes hard work and attracts even more illegal immigrants.
It is disingenuous for the Democratic Party to mingle legal and illegal immigrants as one group and call Donald Trump and Republicans who want to secure the border and stop mass immigration racist, or equalize settlers and immigrants to this country in the early years, who received no welfare, and those who are coming here in the thousands every day. They are not the same. Cut welfare and the influx of illegal immigration will drop substantially.
Fairfax County’s Congressman Gerry Connolly, is a staunch Democrat and his voting record is 100% in line with the Democratic Party, whether or not the proposed legislation is in the best interest of his constituents. He supports the Green New Deal, which would require 100 percent renewable-sourced electricity along with changing transportation and industry to eliminate the burning of carbon. That would mean closing every nuclear, coal, and natural gas plant, controlling every aspect of American lives and implementing broad, socialist policies. Such programs are unrealistic and estimated to cost trillions of dollars. He champions “environmental justice”, “racial justice”, which implies that this country is institutionally racist, and that somehow non-white people are oppressed and we need to vote for Democrats to fix that. People with leftwing ideology may agree with him, but such claims have no factual basis. Connolly also introduced the Lady Liberty Act to institute a minimum of at least 125,000 refugees to be admitted to the country annually. What is that number based on? Why does it have to be a minimum but not maximum? What will a maximum be? 1 million? 10 million? Or 100 million? If millions of Haitians and Venezuelans can pour into this country, claiming asylums, many more can for the same reasons. There are more than 700 million people in the world living under extreme poverty and unstable countries right now.
Does Connolly intend to bring all of them here? How would that benefit his constituents and this country in general? While advocating for broad socialist programs and flooding this country with millions of migrants who do not wish to go through the official immigration system, Connolly, among 150 other Democrats, opposed legislation that would remove illegal immigrants convicted of rape and sexual assault from this country. He also opposed the Save Act, an election integrity bill that would require proof of citizenship for registering to vote, and in the aftermath of the horrific school shootings in Uvalde, TX and Nashville, TN, opposed several bills that would help fund enhanced school security measures across the country by using surplus Covid funds for those purposes.
The ultimate goal of and measure of ethics for elected officials should be serving, first and foremost, their constituents, not foreigners, not special interests. They should adhere to the Constitution and stay away from policies that are the antithesis of the country’s founding principles, unless they don’t really believe in them. However, for those of us who still cherish these values and principles and keep our Republic, we should pay attention and vote for representatives who uphold them.
Mike Van Meter is that candidate who is committed to securing the border and listening directly to the needs of Constituents in VA-11.
