The worldview election

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Following last week’s Democratic primary elections, House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a stark warning about the direction of the Democratic Party. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says the larger issue isn’t merely who won a primary—it’s what those victories may say about the country’s future.

CAL THOMAS: Following last week’s primary elections, in which the rise of Democrat-Socialist candidates alarmed many longtime Democrats, House Speaker Mike Johnson argued the movement is no longer confined to New York City.

JOHNSON: Across the country, Democrats have candidates winning primaries and rising through the ranks...

To many Americans, that list sounds less like isolated incidents than evidence of a broader trend.

Johnson says the success of these candidates is only possible because younger Americans have never had to live under socialism. He warned they have been taught too little to recognize that the lofty promises of socialism have repeatedly ended in cruelty and failure.

Johnson recalled a similar warning given by Ronald Reagan.

JOHNSON: He said freedom is not passed along in the bloodstream. It's got to be fought for. These are the times Reagan was warning about. He was warning about communism overseas. Now it is on our own shores...”

Contrast that with the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, who favored lower taxes and was an ardent anti-communist.

Labor unions, though largely supportive of Democrats, were proudly pro-American.

Public schools began the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and, until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, many also included prayer and Bible reading.

Political parties change. Some changes are for the better, like the battle for civil rights. Others deserve much closer scrutiny.

Johnson argues the deepest divide isn’t over issues like tax rates or spending.

It’s over the source of our rights.

JOHNSON: The principles of America... individual freedom... limited government... the rule of law... peace through strength... fiscal responsibility... free markets... human dignity... the sanctity of all life... We hold these truths to be self-evident... all men are created equal... created by our Creator...

America’s founders believed our rights come from God—not government.

That conviction has distinguished this nation from every system that places the state above the individual.

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, perhaps that’s the larger question before us.

Not simply which party wins elections.

But whether Americans still believe in the self-evident truths on which this nation was founded.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

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