Fentanyl Crisis Rattles Dems

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Only four states share a common border with Mexico, but the millions who crossed that border illegally since Joe Biden took office didn’t stay there. Some of those unlawful migrants brought the lethal illegal drug fentanyl to unsuspecting customers across Middle America.

Fentanyl is 50 times more deadly than heroin, which used to be the most feared addictive drug. In much of the country fentanyl has become the leading cause of premature death, outpacing accidents and homicide.

On Friday, a bust in Florida seized enough fentanyl to kill 2.7 million people, some of it hidden in a Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal box. On Monday in York County, South Carolina, authorities announced their seizure of a cache of fentanyl—more than 30 kilograms—that was enough to kill every person in the entire county.

In Mesa, Arizona, a shop owner and employee are accused of selling thousands of fentanyl pills from a Mexican drug cartel for many months. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned against brightly colored fentanyl pills, called “rainbow fentanyl,” which look like candy and attract kids.

A month ago Biden’s own Attorney General, Merrick Garland, admitted that “across the country, fentanyl is devastating families and communities.” He identified the source as the outlaw drug cartels operating in northern Mexico, yet Biden has done nothing to disrupt their operations or close our border to the traffickers who bring their deadly product to our country.

The Department of Justice describes the Mexican drug cartels as “ruthless, criminal organizations that use deception and treachery to drive addiction with complete disregard for human life.” But instead of matching its actions to those strong words, the DOJ spends its resources on political investigations of Americans who oppose the Biden regime.

Open borders and defunding police are what Democrat politicians stand for, and for a while it seemed they would get away with it. Now the fentanyl crisis may be turning undecided voters against Democrat candidates.

Polls have shown a steady decline in support for Democrat candidates as the public wakes up to the fentanyl problem, and how Democrat policies have made it worse. A political ad for Trump-endorsed Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania reminds voters that his opponent “John Fetterman supports decriminalizing dangerous drugs like fentanyl and heroin.”

In the first year of the Biden Administration, there was a sharp increase of 15% in overdose deaths to a new record of 107,000. Much of that was due to fentanyl that flooded across the southern border soon after Biden opened it to illegal immigrants and the criminal cartels who profit from them.

Communist China ships precursor chemicals to Mexican drug cartels who produce the fentanyl, according to the DEA, and the cartels then send it across the border that Democrats refuse to close. The deadly fentanyl is everywhere now, and continues to pour into our country.

This is a top campaign issue in many of the races that will determine who controls the U.S. Senate. In addition to Pennsylvania, races in Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio are turning on the problem of fentanyl as allowed by Democrats’ open border and soft-on-crime policies.

In Ohio, Trump-endorsed JD Vance has described illegal fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Vance points out that his opponent Tim Ryan, who has been a Democrat congressman for two decades, “has done nothing to stop the flow of fentanyl.”

As sparks flew in their debate earlier this month, JD Vance explained that the Democrat Ryan “talks about wanting to support a stronger border. … Well, Tim, you’ve been in Congress for 20 years, and the border problem has gotten worse and worse and worse.”

Even Gov. Ron DeSantis made fentanyl an issue in his debate against Charlie Crist in Florida Monday night. “If you’re trafficking that garbage, that poison, you’re killing people in our state and we’re going to treat you like the murderer that you are," DeSantis said.

The Democrat Crist “has endorsed the idea of 'reallocating funding away from the police,' I guess to give to social workers. But if someone’s robbing your house, you don’t want a social worker coming to help you, you need the police,” DeSantis declared.

In the deep blue state of New York, the Republican Lee Zeldin has surged in the polls as he is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and making crime the top issue. Repeated headlines and surveillance footage showing people being pushed onto the subway tracks have New Yorkers on edge.

The historic advantage that Democrats used to enjoy with Hispanic Americans has dropped by almost half since the last midterm elections. According to a recent Economist/YouGov poll, Biden’s approval rating among Hispanic voters has fallen to 46%, and a remarkable 61% of this group now say that our country is headed in the wrong direction.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.