SocietyWatch
Democratic Party swings hard left
The Democratic Party has drafted a new strategy to defeat United States President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election: Shift even harder to the left. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced her candidacy for president on January 15, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris on January 21, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren on February 9. Several others are seriously considering runs. This lineup is the most left-wing Democratic presidential field in U.S. history.
So far, Senator Warren is the biggest name in play. Unlike some of her colleagues, she does not openly embrace socialism. She says she wants to “fix” capitalism, rather than replace it. Yet the details of her economic proposals would actually “constitute the largest seizure of private property in human history.” In August 2018, she introduced a Senate bill proposing that the government should manage every U.S. business with more than $1 billion in revenue. That would turn more than 1,000 American companies (90 percent of American businesses by sales) into state-run entities.
Senator Harris’s proposals on free college for households earning less than $125,000 per year and “Medicare for all” are far from centrist. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 2016 presidential candidate and self-described socialist, advocated both of these proposals. According to a George Mason University study, the “Medicare for all” program would cost about $3.3 trillion per year (93 percent of the total projected 2019 tax revenue).
Senator Gillibrand called on Congress to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, effectively erasing the nation’s border. She has embraced legal marijuana and endorsed a plan for government-guaranteed jobs for all Americans. Taken together, her proposals would allow illegal immigrants to pour into the country, claim a guaranteed job, and openly indulge in drugs. All of these proposals would have been unthinkable just one election cycle ago.
To understand the biblical significance behind the Democratic Party’s shift left, read Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s article “Communism in America Today.” (theTrumpet.com/go/communism).
Social media addicts struggle to make real friends
A survey of 3,053 British adults commissioned by the French beverage company Pernod Ricard found that social media addiction makes it harder to make new friends and keep old ones. In the survey, released at the end of January, 55 percent of respondents agreed that spending time on social media has made their friendships more superficial.
The survey found that the average Briton has 12 “real” friends, but only feels close enough to four of them to confide personal details. The average respondent said he or she had drifted apart from seven friends, blaming time spent on social media as a primary cause.
Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Social media is creating a world where people have hundreds of Facebook friends and few real ones.
Women run the military-industrial complex
Men no longer dominate the United States defense industry. As of January 1, women lead four of the nation’s five biggest defense contractors: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Boeing’s defense division. The U.S. military’s top weapons buyer, the government’s top arms control negotiator, and the chief overseer of the nation’s nuclear stockpile are also women.
This historical first is “a watershed for what has always been a male-dominated bastion,” reports Politico deputy defense editor David Brown, “the culmination of decades of women entering science and engineering fields and knocking down barriers as government agencies and the private sector increasingly weigh merit over machismo” (January 2).
Major news outlets are enthusing over the trend. In the past, some scholars, such as Francis Fukuyama and Steven Pinker, have argued that women filling such positions could make the world more peaceful. This hope will prove illusory. Bible prophecy reveals that female dominance in military industry will do nothing to prevent impending conflict.
A prophecy in Isaiah 3 refers to a time when God removes “the [men] of war” and “the captain[s] of fifty” from end-time Israel, and replaces them with women and childish leaders. This change will not to lead to a more enlightened, peaceful future, but will “destroy the way of thy paths” and leave the nation desolated by war (verses 1-12). To learn why God is removing strong leaders from America and Britain, read Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.
