In addition to outraging Democrats, Trump’s executive action barrage has violated their entitlement mentality. At the core of Democrat and Left philosophy lies the belief that designated groups are entitled to things and the government is bound to provide these. Time and again, Trump’s actions have not simply targeted government programs, but at their core, they have attacked Democrats’ premise of entitlement. (RELATED: Entitlement Fraud Is Now a Stated Aim of the Democrat Party)
Nothing epitomizes Democrats’ entitlement mentality like DEI. Simply seeking to institute a fair, unbiased process isn’t sufficient. Outcomes — predetermined ones — must be guaranteed. And enforced. Hand in hand with DEI came the mantra of “inclusiveness”: without implementing DEI guarantees, you were deemed to de facto favor excluding designated groups.
In short, certain groups were entitled, and their entitlement had to be delivered. Democrats, led by the Biden administration, erected an entire edifice within government to do so. Not only did the Biden action have spillover effects to the private sector, but woke warriors browbeat those outside government to adopt DEI, too. When Trump rejected DEI, Democrats predictably howled.
One of the Biden administration’s first actions was to throw open America’s southern border, keep it open, then plead they lacked the authority to close what they had opened. Biden’s illegal immigration policy meshed perfectly with Democrats’ “sanctuary cities,” which had long offered amnesty to all illegal immigrants who could reach them. At the heart of both open borders and sanctuary cities (and abolish ICE, another Democrat cause) is the belief that everyone is entitled to be in America, given all possible aid to get here, and innumerable benefits once they are here. Again, Trump rejected this entitlement and closed the border. Again, Democrats howled. (RELATED: The Scandinavian Lesson: What Malmö Warns Us About America’s Sanctuary Cities)
If you don’t see an entitlement within the climate change movement, you aren’t really looking. Those who believe in the theory of climate change often do so zealously and consider themselves entitled to have their belief enforced and subsidized by the federal government, while others are forced to pay for it with their money and their jobs. For climate change adherents, it is not enough that “green” options exist; these must be enforced and subsidized from production to purchase. Trump once more denied the entitlement, and Democrats once more howled. (RELATED: Nature Deserves Better Than Rushed Offshore Wind Projects)
Transgender radicalism is perhaps the quintessential expression of Democrats’ entitlement mentality. Despite Americans’ overwhelming support for barring biological men and boys from competing in sports against women and girls, Democrats have strongly embraced allowing this. Senate Democrats locked arms to block legislation that would have codified such a ban. Before Trump even took office, Governor Pritzker of Illinois promised to open Illinois up to more transgender surgeries.
Why such a strong Democrat stand on transgender issues? Their entitlement mentality. They believe that individuals are entitled to choose whatever gender they wish; the rest of society must accept this, even if it’s detrimental to women and girls’ ability to compete fairly. When Trump signed an executive order barring biological males from competing against women and girls, Democrats screamed unfairness, and Maine’s governor refused to comply. (RELATED: Trump’s Ban on Males in Female Sports: What It Does, Why It’s Justified, and the Left’s Outrage.)
When Trump’s DOGE cut government jobs, Democrats were again outraged. Why? Democrats believed that not only were workers entitled to those government jobs, but that, in essence, government itself was too — this is why Democrats even opposed buyout offers for government employees. Beyond being sinecures, headcount itself was sacrosanct. Once created, a government position must remain, and the person holding it is entitled to it… apparently, for life. (RELATED: The Left’s Heaven is Actually Hell)
It’s not a leap to say that Democrats believe that government itself is an entitlement. They and others who support big government are entitled to it, and big government is entitled to grow undisturbed in perpetuity. To Democrats’ entitlement mentality, the only possible solution to the federal government’s impending fiscal fiasco (with federal spending reaching 26.6 percent of GDP and federal debt hitting 156 percent of GDP in 2055) is to raise taxes to pay for it.
To Democrats, Trump’s many executive actions and cuts to government agencies and employees are not simply rationalizing government and making it smaller. For Democrats, Trump is excising their paradigm of entitlement.
This entitlement paradigm lies at the core of Democrats’ and the Left’s ideology. Conjuring entitlements has been their method of operation for the last century. Codifying their created entitlements into law is the means by which they have grown the government to an astronomical size over decades.
Pursued through specific programs deemed “entitlements,” Democrats have created a right and defined who must receive it. Ensconced in the federal budget, these entitlements are often mandatory; such programs are propelling the federal government to the precipice of fiscal crisis.
This entitlement progression — from an imagined right to enacted requirement to permanently funded program — is the heart and soul of the Left and the Democrat Party they control.
Democrats are assuredly mad at Trump’s process of revoking their programs. However, they are even more threatened by his refutation of their entitlement ideology.
# # #
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left, from RealClear Publishing, and has over three decades’ experience working in Congress, the Department of the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, and representing a Fortune 20 company.
READ MORE from J.T. Young:
Trump’s First Quarter Resiliency