In all the recent debates, the leading (and most of the following) Democratic Socialist candidates for the nomination have been fighting with one another to stake out the most radical positions on climate change, global warming, and the environment. Starting with Castro and Yang, but spreading like ripples in a millpond, other candidates have lunged to the left, eager to embrace the most bizarre climate solutions. One of those, first espoused by Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and former Obama Cabinet Secretary Andrew Yang, include such drastic measures as the banning of cheeseburgers. These win-at-any-promise Democrats are doing this to each other – fighting to get on the next woke bandwagon before it leaves the station – but they’re not alone. They’ve got help – from the media, and from the Squad.
Though she’s still too young to run for President, “Squad” leader and Green New Deal champion Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who calls herself a Democratic Socialist – finally, truth in political advertising – calls cattle flatulence the leading cause of global warming, and demands that the rest of us give up meat. The Socialist-Democrat echo chamber took no time at all to embrace her latest far, far, far-left meme.
Even those among the running class who haven’t directly condemned bovine digestive distress have rushed headlong to embrace AOC’s Green New Deal. That 93 trillion dollar boondoggle goes after beef chapter-and-verse. So, one way or the other, all the Democrats on the campaign trail here have sworn a blood oath against the evils of beef.
Until this weekend.
Naturally, Biden and Bernie and Sanders and Kamala and the rest of the seven (teen) dwarves all fell in line … that is, until they came to Iowa, the first-in-the-nation state to pick a Presidential candidate. This weekend’s Iowa State Fair once again proved to be a magnet, drawing 17 more-or-less 2020 presidential candidates, including all of them who had so recently spoke out against meat as an agent of death – not death for our hearts, but death for our environment. Each of these stalwarts of liberal rectitude were there to proclaim their commitment to fight against guns and global warming, for healthcare for all, and for a ban on assault weapons, and private insurance, and beef …
… Oops. Not beef. Not in Iowa. Not at the State Fair. Not today.
Instead of remaining loyal to their newly-embraced “core beliefs” about beef and the environment, candidates large and small lined up to not only eat good red Iowa meat, but to actually prove their presidential ability by flipping a few steaks and burgers – for the cameras, of course. As a measure of its impact – and the power of “beef” in Iowa – this annual event included the roasting of more than 10,500 steaks (plus a sorry, forlorn lot of 1,000 overcooked 1, vegan burgers). Not, of course, that there’s much demand for veggie burgers at an event where selecting blue-ribbon cattle is considered entertainment. Cory Booker, the only vegetarian candidate, is facing a potentially terminal fund-raising disaster that – had it come just ten days sooner – would have at least spared him from making nice over beef.
But nothing would do but the candidates had to grab pictures of themselves flipping steaks and looking like they enjoyed the heat, the grease, the smoke and the crowds,
Joe Biden looked typically goofy as he watched a steaks grilling – almost as if he’d never seen a steak actually being cooked – all the while trying to act like a competent fry cook without, and to do so without burning himself.
Milquetoast candidate Andy Yang, who usually tries to strike a much more moderate and reasoned pose, looked like he was channeling Jackie Chan as he wielded cooking implements like Samurai Swords.
But poor Liz Warren, she just looked out of place in front of a range with a spatula in her hand. “What’s this?” she seems to be wondering. A fry cook she’s not, that’s for sure.
Will the media pick up on the hypocrisy of it all? Probably not. CBS and PBS both covered the event without a hint of irony, apparently forgetting – just for today – that the bozos flipping burgers over charcoal fires (with their horrific carbon footprints!) had been condemning beef as an environmental disaster at the last debate, just the other day.