Democrat candidates trap themselves with focus on issues that only fringe groups care about

Miranda Divine:

Joe Biden’s bleeding eye at the Democrats’ marathon “climate crisis” town hall on CNN is as good an omen as any of the political curse of eco-catastrophism.

From banning cheeseburgers and plastic straws to aborting babies in poor countries, the swivel-eyed climate zealotry of the 10 Democratic front-runners has just rendered them unelectable.

It’s extraordinary the candidates were gullible enough to be lured into what clearly was an ambush by puppet youth climate activists from the shadowy Sunrise Movement and 350.org.

Sunrise boasted afterward that it engineered the seven-hour talkfest, bypassing the DNC’s refusal to hold an official climate debate. (Next up is CNN’s LGBTQ Town Hall next month, proving the Democrats are fatally preoccupied with fringe concerns that might get them plaudits on Twitter but won’t win over a single voter from Donald Trump.)

“You and other members of the Sunrise Movement are going to be the ones who are going to receive the credit for this change that we’re talking about today,” Beto O’Rourke gushed under cross-examination by the Sunrise youngsters.

Julian Castro effusively praised Sunrise, too, even though its aggressive questioning was designed to cement the candidates into ever more extreme positions.

Poor Kamala Harris was visibly uncomfortable as she waved her arms around desperately as the answers were extracted.

“Will you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking your first day in office, adding the United States to the list of countries who have banned this devastating practice?” she was asked.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking, so yes,” Harris replied.

CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Harris if she would “reduce red meat specifically” if she were president.

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I would,” said Harris, dancing around the stage like a cat on a hot tin roof.

“Plastic straws?”.

“I think we should, yes.”

“Offshore drilling”

“Yes.”

Her voice barely above a whisper at the end, you could almost see her political future flash before her eyes.

Banning everything is not a recipe for electoral success.
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Of course, there was no acknowledgment from candidates that even if every American switched off the lights and went back to living in caves China will merrily keep building coal-fired power plants and emitting twice as much carbon dioxide as the United States.

They have bought the unscientific fantasy that you can replace base-load fossil fuel or nuclear power with unreliable solar and wind.
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There is more.

The program was a disaster for Democrats who have tied themselves to an agenda that would destroy the US economy and the country in the name of saving it.