Heidi Heitkamp’s Political Party Wants to Prosecute Global Warming Skeptics

The Grand Forks Herald had an interesting editorial recently talking about how North Dakota Democrats can put themselves back on the political map in North Dakota. Because, let’s face it, they’re not really on it right now.

I’d recommend reading the whole editorial, but in a nutshell the paper argues that the Democrats have simply moved too far to the left. They’re too ideological for most North Dakotans, and not nearly pragmatic enough.

I agree. One example the Herald cites is North Dakota Democrats choosing Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders over the more moderate Hillary Clinton in their recent caucus. I’d cite another example, which is Democrats calling for the prosecution of global warming skeptics in their party platform:

Democratic operatives responsible for creating their party’s platform this year have unanimously adopted a provision calling for the Department of Justice to investigate companies who disagree with Democrats on global warming science.

A panel of Democrats voted Friday to approve a final draft of the party’s platform to promote “Progressive Democratic Values,” which apparently includes investigating energy companies who “misled” shareholders about global warming.

Here’s the language directly from a press release sent out by Democrats about their 2016 platform:

It’s bad enough that the issue of climate change has become so thoroughly politicized that discussing it is an almost pointless endeavor, but now we have a major political party calling for the investigation and prosecution of those dissenting from that political party’s view of the issue?

Setting aside how we all feel about climate change – is it a real threat to humanity? to what degree does human activity impact it? can we really manipulate global temperature changes with tax policy and regulations? – can we at least admit that a political party promising to prosecute dissenters is an unsettling development?

North Dakota’s Democrats – up to and including Senator Heidi Heitkamp – should have to answer questions about this. Do they feel that people who question the Democratic interpretation of climate science should be prosecuted?

I, for one, would like to know. Because this is about more than climate change. It’s about Americans feeling comfortable expressing their sincerely held beliefs without fear of reprisal from the government.

By the way, note that the political prosecution proposal originated from a joint proposal from the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns. This isn’t just some sop to the far-left fringe of the party. Clinton, a relative moderate and the party’s likely nominee, is on board with it.

You know what enables Clinton to move that far to the left on stuff like this? The fact that Republicans have offered up the completely unserious Donald Trump as an alternative.