10 Things To Look For in Next Week's Democratic Party Convention

As the Democratic National Convention meets next week, Kamala Harris hopes it will be an opportunity to recast herself as a moderate. Harris has launched "a highly choreographed effort to define herself -- in some cases, redefine herself -- as a different kind of Democrat," insiders have told Axios. "Harris won't say it this bluntly in public, but her advisers do so privately: She wants to break with Biden on issues on which he's unpopular." Her campaign hopes next week's DNC will be the new Harris's coming out party.

Yet Kamala's chrysalis faces headwinds within her own party. Last month, the Democratic Party released a draft of its 2024 platform which, like all platforms, reflects a political party's long-term aspirational plans to reshape the nation. The 2024 platform contains numerous extreme policies that should concern Americans of all backgrounds, especially people of faith. The real test of the vice president's would-be transformation comes down to a simple question: Can she stand up against her party on these issues?

The draft of the 2024 Democratic Party platform touts the Biden-Harris administration's efforts "to address discriminatory legislative attacks against LGBTQI+ children" and "safeguard health care." It contrasts this to President Donald Trump's "extreme plan to punish doctors who treat transgender youth and to ban gender-affirming care" for kids. 

This refers to roughly half of all U.S. states which have passed versions of the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. These commonsense protections shield minors from potentially-sterilizing puberty blockers (which were never intended to suppress healthy puberty), cross-sex hormones, and surgeries that remove the healthy breasts and reproductive organs of minors. Think of Kayla Lovdahl, who is now suing the doctors who allowed the adolescent to undergo a life-altering double mastectomy at the age of 13. 

While the White House has suddenly backed away from surgeries for minors during this campaign season, at least publicly, the Democratic Party remains committed to giving Planned Parenthood and other pillars of the multi-billion-dollar transgender industry the green light to carry out so-called "gender-affirming care," with all its permanent and irreversible effects, on minors whose brains have not yet fully developed -- minors whom the law bars from getting a tattoo or smoking a cigarette, because they do not understand the long-term implications of those choices.

The draft platform also commits to "guaranteeing that transgender students are treated fairly and with respect at school" and "keeping students safe on campus by restoring and strengthening protections under Title IX." The Biden-Harris administration's audacious rewriting of the landmark civil rights legislation blatantly violates its intention to establish and protect women's spaces by prying open the doors of girls' showers, locker rooms, and dorm rooms to trans-identifying males.

Think of the 11-year-old girl whom teachers ordered to share a bed with a boy on an overnight field trip. Rather than listen to her parents, the administration has even threatened to withhold federally-funded school lunches from poor children unless their school districts knuckle under to its executive decrees.

No wonder these policies are unpopular. Strong majorities oppose transgender procedures for adolescents. A total of 55% of Americans believe "changing one's gender" is immoral, according to a 2023 Gallup poll. A majority of multiracial (53%), Hispanic (52%), and white Americans (51%), as well as half of black Americans (50%) oppose placing males of any age in areas where females disrobe.

The platform also promises to "prioritize the investigation of hate crimes against trans and non-binary people." All crime is hate crime, rooted in a hatred of a God-given order that upholds the right to life. Yet prosecuting alleged "hate crimes" threatens free speech and serves as another avenue for the government to weaponize federal agencies against American citizens who uphold biblical morality.

The platform also vows to "ban so-called 'conversion therapy.'" Despite the scare wording, "conversion therapy" consists of compassionate conversations aimed at helping people (many of whom were molested) fulfill their desire to embrace their birth gender. Respecting medical professionals' freedom of speech to enable children to live happier lives should be easy for a campaign that has oriented itself around "joy" and "freedom."

If Kamala Harris wishes to appear as a centrist, she could begin by standing up against her party's war on parents. In addition to transgender surgeries, the Democratic platform dedicates the full resources of the federal government to "fighting book bans that censor LGBTQI+ content." President Donald Trump and his "MAGA allies are ripping away our bedrock personal freedoms, dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love," says the first page of the 80-page document. These alleged "book bans" simply seek to place books with graphic sexual content in an age-restricted portion of the library. Many of these books contain graphic, cartoon-like depictions of sodomy, as well as wistfully-positive descriptions and depictions of child molestation.

The draft platform promises to nationalize taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand. "With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again," states the platform. "We will repeal the Hyde Amendment," the federal law dating back to the mid-1970s that protects pro-life Americans from seeing their salaries pay for most abortions.

Democrats promise a national abortion expansion, funded by pro-life taxpayers. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of U.S. voters oppose funding abortion in the United States, such as the $1.89 billion abortion businesses received from taxpayers over just three years, according to a Marist poll. Wouldn't a moderate want to appeal to two-thirds of voters?

The Democratic Party draft platform threatens Christian conscience rights in one small sentence: "Democrats will pass the Equality Act to codify protections for LGBTQI+ Americans." The Equality Act would force Christian businesses to hire people who identify as LGBTQIA2S+ by adding sexual orientation (and in some drafts, gender identity) to civil rights legislation. It could potentially impose a quota for such hiring practices, despite the owners' biblical moral convictions. Heavy fines and federal prosecution such as the kind suffered by Masterpieces Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, would follow.

The 2024 draft platform states, "We will guarantee access to medical care in prison." Since the federal government already provides health care in prisons, the platform means the Biden-Harris administration's commitments to furnishing taxpayer-funded transgender hormones and surgeries to prisoners -- and the administration has committed to housing inmates who identify as transgender in the opposite sex's prisons, triggering an atmosphere of rape, sexual assault, intimidation, and physical abuse. This seems particularly relevant in a platform that touts the "National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence."

"We unequivocally support statehood for D.C.," reads the platform. "Democrats support self-determination for Puerto Rico. ... Democrats also support self-determination for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. We will create a Congressional task force to study equal voting rights and House representation."

Unable to win elective office or pass sweeping national legislation, self-styled progressives have turned to remaking the electorate, changing constitutional offices, and fundamentally transforming America. In addition to remaking the Supreme Court and granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, some propose adding new states to the union. These liberal-leaning states would each add two new U.S. senators and at least one representative to Congress, tilting the balance in a socialistic direction.

The Biden-Harris administration has presided over a historic number of illegal entries at the southern border, fueled by promises that they may receive "free" health care and the most valued benefit: U.S. citizenship. Yet the draft platform promises to "provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and others," boasts of Biden-Harris actions to "expand legal pathways to citizenship," and commits to "supporting a pathway for long-term undocumented individuals." It brags that the administration "has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients." Lest the point be missed, the platform demands, "Congress must pass legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, farmworkers, careworkers, and other long-term undocumented individuals."

The platform poses as tough on crime, stating agents have "arrested more individuals for fentanyl-related crimes in the last two years than in the previous five years combined." That may indicate increased enforcement; it may also indicate a massive increase in fentanyl trafficking, crimes and overdoses under Harris's watch. As it turns out, the Biden-Harris administration clarifies which it is: "fentanyl seizures have increased more than 860% from fiscal years 2019-2023, and fentanyl seizures nearly doubled from fiscal years 2022-2023," reports the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

It also vows to increase competition for U.S. jobs. "Congress must act to increase the number of family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant visas that are available each fiscal year so that people aren't forced to wait decades," it states.

The draft 2024 Democratic platform contains an odd proposal that would literally ban speech. "We will also ban voice impersonations," states the platform in its section on artificial intelligence. It is not clear how this would square with the First Amendment.

The section adds that, since "AI can deepen discrimination," the platform commits to "combating algorithmic discrimination." The clearest example of such discrimination came when Google's AI platform depicted George Washington and other Founding Fathers exclusively as black men.

"There is nothing more important than addressing the climate crisis," states the platform.

In a fallen world, lies are the lingua franca of politics. Yet the 2024 draft platform distinguishes itself in this regard. "Trump called members of the military who died in war 'suckers' and 'losers.' He disparages the brave men and women who wear our uniform and protect our democracy and national security," it says. The platform recycles the "suckers" and "losers" lie twice. "He called white supremacist and openly-antisemitic Charlottesville protesters 'very fine people.'"

The platform continues to present potentially inciting language against the president:

"Trump is a greater danger to democracy than ever. ... After years undermining public faith and confidence in our elections, he has warned of a 'bloodbath' if he loses now. ... . He has vowed to weaponize our government to go after his enemies and benefit his allies. ... And to silence his critics, he suggested the 'termination' of our Constitution. There is no more profound threat to the soul of our nation."

The draft platform was released on July 13 -- the same day that Thomas Matthew Crooks came within a fraction of an inch of assassinating President Donald Trump. Yet the Harris campaign has doubled down on the issue. "To a crowd of 12,000 in Las Vegas, Harris says Trump is a threat to democracy," reported NPR. At a campaign stop earlier this month in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the vice president continued to beat the drum and "pointed to his vow to be a dictator 'on day one', his threats to weaponize the Justice Department against his political enemies and his 2022 comment demanding the 'termination' of constitutional provisions over his 2020 election defeat."

If Harris hopes to remake herself as a moderate, she should pivot on all of these issues. Even fellow Democrats know that whether voters will buy her distancing from her own positions of years past, and her administration's accomplishments, is another story.

"Are you aware this is the Biden-Harris administration?" asked White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday.

Originally published at The Washington Stand