Democrats: Out of Touch and Loving It

Written by Robert Knight

A star was born last week in the great state of Maine. State Representative Laurel Libby, a Republican state legislator from the Auburn area, refused to apologize for a social media post criticizing transgender athletes.

Her post showed two photos of the same male pole-vaulter. One was taken at a boys’ event that he didn’t win, and the other showed him atop the podium after winning a girls’ competition. Ms. Libby’s comment was:

“Another day, another instance of an unremarkable male athlete (who couldn’t win against other males) dominating girls’ sports.”

Voicing outrage, the Democratic-dominated state House voted 75-70 to censure Ms. Libby and bar her from speaking or voting on legislation. Thus, Ms. Libby and the voters who had elected her to a third term were silenced by the party that claims to be “saving democracy.”

Ms. Libby’s post, meanwhile, went viral.

While all this was going on, President Trump took on Maine’s uber-leftist Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat who refuses to abide by the president’s executive order Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports to cease the transgender charade.

At a National Governors Association meeting on Feb. 21 at the White House, Mr. Trump asked whether anyone was from Maine. He noted that the state was still allowing transgender athletes in female sports and risked losing federal funding. Ms. Mills replied, “We’re going to follow the law, sir. We’ll see you in court.”

Mr. Trump responded in a similar fashion: “Good. I’ll see you in court.”

Ms. Mills issued a statement the next day expressing her shock at the possibility that federal money might be used to coerce states into taking action and vowed resistance. Talk about chutzpah. This has been the Democrats’ game plan since the New Deal.

Mr. Trump immediately ordered the Department of Education to investigate whether Maine was violating Title IX’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Ms. Mills threatening to sue Maine if its gender fantasies continue to victimize female athletes.

Along those lines, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a compliance review of the University of Maine.

“USDA is committed to upholding the President’s executive order, meaning any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding,” she said.

This is no small threat. As a federally funded land grant institution, the University of Maine receives more than $100 million in USDA funding.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Mills, like many other Democratic governors, enforced a brutal lockdown of businesses, some of which never recovered. This ham-handedness was right up there with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 edicts forbidding her constituents from buying seeds to plant flowers or strolling on the beaches of Lake Michigan.

Naturally, Ms. Whitmer is a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nod in 2028. If she snags the nomination, she might want to consider Ms. Mills as a running mate. Although the Maine governor is 77, the two share an affinity for authoritarianism and gender insanity.

Both women accuse Mr. Trump of abusing power, which is false. His actions are within constitutional executive authority. More important, he is defending the moral order defined by “nature and nature’s God,” with whom Democrats have been at war for decades.

For now, Maine’s educational establishment is sticking by Ms. Mills. The Maine Principals’ Association supports her stance despite Mr. Trump’s threat to withhold $250 million from a state that has considerable poverty along with its rustic, storied beauty.

It doesn’t seem to matter that a New York Times survey shows that about 80% of Americans, including 67% of self-identified Democrats, want males out of female sports and locker rooms.

On any given issue, whether it’s extreme climate politics in California, the collapse of law and order in Philadelphia and Chicago, or the sanctuary city movement’s welcome of illegal immigrant criminals, Democrats are wildly at odds with most Americans.

As Don Adams’ inept TV secret agent Maxwell Smart might say, “We’re out of touch — and loving it!”

The telegenic Ms. Libby shows no signs of backing off her commonsense stance. When offered one last chance to apologize, she bluntly said no.

Having worked as an intensive care unit nurse at two Maine hospitals, she is well-equipped to appreciate the differences between males and females. She is also a wife and the mother of five children, a mix of boys and girls.

Two years ago, Ms. Libby introduced a bill to streamline Maine’s process for building mental health centers.

Perhaps taking it as a personal threat, Democrats killed it in the cradle.

This article was originally published by The Washington Times.

Robert Knight is a former Los Angeles Times news editor and writer and was a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This column was originally published by The Washington Times.

He has been published by the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Christian Post, AmericanThinker.com, DailyCaller.com, Townhall.com, OneNewsNow.com and many others.  He has co-authored three books and written 10, including “Liberty on the Brink: How the Left Plans to Steal Your Vote” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) and “The Coming Communist Wave: What Happens If the Left Captures All Three Branches of Government” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) . 

You can follow him on Twitter at @RobertKnight17, and his website is roberthknight.com.