***Article first published by 'The Epoch Times' on Oct. 5, 2018***

The Kavanaugh Supreme Court Senate hearings both transfixed and horrified America. Over the last few weeks, many have watched in increasing disbelief at the theatrics, grandstanding, walk-outs, and complete lack of goodwill exhibited by the Democratic contingent of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Most Americans who follow politics superficially, or not at all, must be wondering what has happened to the Democratic Party. Would Harry S. Truman or John F. Kennedy behave this way?

If one studies the backgrounds of these senators, however, their outrageous behavior becomes less of a mystery. All of these senators are—at least to some degree—socialists.

Several have connections to communist or Islamist front groups. At least three members are proteges of wealthy stealth socialist Steve Phillips, a former supporter of the pro-China League of Revolutionary Struggle. Several also have connections to supporters of hostile foreign powers.

These Democratic senators would struggle to pass any form of basic background check to get even the lowest form of security clearance.

They are partisans who demonstrably don’t hesitate to put their own political agendas ahead of their duties to the Constitution and the American public.

Dianne Feinstein, California, Ranking Member

While the establishment media gave lip-service to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s long-time employment of alleged Chinese spy Russell Lowe, Feinstein had long-standing ties with China years before she became a senator.

One of her first acts as mayor of San Francisco in 1979 was to establish sister-city relations with Shanghai, where she traveled multiple times building a relationship with then-Mayor Jiang Zemin. Jiang notably invited Feinstein and her husband—the first “foreigners” granted the privilege—to see Mao Zedong’s bedroom.

In 1935, China and America began offering commercial flights between the two countries, only to have the service abruptly cut in 1949 when the communists took over China.

Feinstein fought to re-establish passenger airline service, and on Jan. 8, 1981, “a Boeing 747 with 139 Chinese passengers arrived exactly on time at San Francisco International Airport,” The New York Times reported. Mayor Feinstein and Chinese Consul General Hu Ding-Yi held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the occasion.

Feinstein’s connection to China is not limited to her own activities, but through those of her husband Richard C. Blum, who has been criticized throughout the years for his involvement in China. In 1997, The Los Angeles Times addressed this relationship:

“On Capitol Hill, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has emerged as one of the staunchest proponents of closer U.S. relations with China, fighting for permanent most-favored-nation trading status for Beijing.

“At the same time, far from the spotlight, Feinstein’s husband, Richard C. Blum, has expanded his private business interests in China—to the point that his firm is now a prominent investor inside the communist nation.

“For years, Feinstein and Blum have insisted that they maintained a solid ‘firewall’ between her role as an influential foreign policy player and his career as a private investor overseas.

“But such closely coinciding interests are highly unusual for major figures in public life in Washington. And now, as controversy heats up over improper foreign influence in the U.S. political process, the effectiveness of the firewall between those interests could be called into question.”

Patrick Leahy, Vermont

Sen. Patrick Leahy earned himself the nickname “Leaker Leahy” in the 1980s when he was vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. After disagreeing with President Reagan’s foreign policy, Leahy threatened to sabotage classified strategies he didn’t like.

According to then-fifth vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police Jim Khouri, in a Nov. 10, 2006, article for Renew America, Leahy has also been a great friend to Cuba’s communist regime. Leahy visited Havana in 1999, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018. Leahy was one of the main fixers behind President Barack Obama’s relaxation of U.S. sanctions on Cuba in 2015, and also helped get Cuba removed from the State Department’s sponsors of terrorism list.

Leahy made headlines in 2014 when it was revealed that he had helped the wife of an incarcerated Cuban spy to become pregnant. While he was not allowed conjugal visits, Gerardo Hernández was able to impregnate his wife by having his frozen sperm transferred to her in Panama, an operation organized by a Leahy staffer.

Dick Durbin, Illinois

Sen. Dick Durbin is a long-time associate of Chicago activist Timuel Black, a veteran of the Socialist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America, and the Communist Party spin-off Committees of Correspondence.

Durbin has close ties to the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a known affiliate of the Middle Eastern terrorist group Hamas.

Durbin’s “Muslim Rights” hearing held on March 29, 2011, by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights was heavily influenced by a Durbin staffer, Reema Dodin, who was in regular contact with CAIR. Dodin is a Palestinian rights activist who organized anti-Israel rallies at the University of California Berkeley as a student. Dodin was also a member of the radical Muslim Student Association. Dodin was cited in the book “Muslim Mafia” as one of the moles who had cultivated contacts inside the offices of key Democrat leaders.

In fact, CAIR has her listed as a reliable source in their Rolodex. Her boss, Durbin, has been a long-time supporter of CAIR—and has helped raise funds for this terrorist-linked group.

Durbin has also worked for several years with Chicago’s Hana Center, which grew out of a pro-North Korea network called Young Koreans United. Durbin has brought Hana Center activist Luke Hwang onto the floor of the U.S. Senate to plead the case for illegal alien amnesty.

Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse traveled to Cuba in February 2013, to “gauge the island’s economic changes.”

Whitehouse also spoke at the pro-Cuba Center for Democracy in the Americas’ 8th-anniversary event on June 19, 2014, where he gave an award to Socialist International affiliate and former Obama appointee Carol Browner.

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota

Sen. Amy Klobuchar was a protege of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was a longtime Democratic Socialists of America supporter.

Klobuchar is also a strong advocate for communist Cuba, which she visited in 2015, and again in 2016 with Obama.

Klobuchar is also very close to Minnesota CAIR and other radical Islamic front groups. She addressed Minnesota CAIR’s 2013 banquet, and the Muslim American Society’s 2017 conference in Minneapolis. Both organizations are well-documented affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood and HAMAS.

Chris Coons, Delaware

Chris Coons, at the age of 21, authored an article in the student magazine at Amherst College titled “Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist.”

In the article, Coons chronicled his transformation from a sheltered, conservative-minded college student, into a cynical young adult who was distrustful of American power and willing to question the American notion of free enterprise. In one passage of the article, Coons explains how in the months leading up to his trip abroad, “leftists” on campus and college professors had begun to “challenge the basic assumptions” he had formed about America.

A course on cultural anthropology, noted Coons, had “undermined the accepted value of progress and the cultural superiority of the West,” while a class on the Vietnam War led him to “suspect … that the ideal of America as a ‘beacon of freedom and justice, providing hope for the world’ was not exactly based in reality.”

Coons traveled to communist Cuba in 2012.

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut

Sen. Richard Blumenthal has a long history with the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans, which is led by Communist Party USA members such as Win Heimer, Joelle Fishman, and Tom Connolly.

Blumenthal is also close to CAIR Connecticut and other local Islamist fronts.

Blumenthal received money from the Iranian American Political Action Committee during the 2016 election cycle.

Cory Booker, New Jersey

Sen. Cory Booker was a friend of radical leftist student Phillips at Stanford University. Phillips would go on to marry into the billionaire Sandler family of San Francisco, who are major donors to the left organizations Center for America, ProPublica, and the Democracy Alliance.

Phillips and his wife, Susan Sandler, have funded Booker’s career and are pushing him to run for president in 2020. Booker is seen as insufficiently “progressive” by some on the left, a misperception that Phillips has tried to correct.

Phillips wrote in an article titled “The Progressive Case for Cory Booker” on his blog Political Intelligence on Dec. 20, 2012:

“Every progressive person in America should support Cory Booker’s campaign for U.S. Senate. Lest there be any confusion on the Left, allow me to make the case for why this needs to be a priority for all progressive-minded people.

“First, let me make clear that I come out of the Left. I’ve studied Marx, Mao, and Lenin. In college, I organized solidarity efforts for freedom struggles in South Africa and Nicaragua, and I palled around with folks who considered themselves communists and revolutionaries (the non-violent type), and I did my research paper on the Black Panther Party.

“So, it is with that background and perspective that I consider the candidacy of Cory Booker. And I believe every progressive in America should enthusiastically support Cory.”

Kamala Harris, California

Sen. Kamala Harris is also a longtime Phillips protege. The connection was probably made through Harris’s younger sister Maya Harris, who moved in the same radical circles as Phillips at Stanford.

Phillips and Sandler have financed Harris’s career through their PowerPAC+.

A June 3, 2014, article on the PowerPAC+ states:

“Once named the ‘female Barack Obama,’ Kamala ran for Attorney General of California in 2010 on a progressive platform. She openly opposes the death penalty, refusing to pursue capital punishment during her eight-year tenure as San Francisco District Attorney, and as Attorney General, she said that she would review each case individually.

“PowerPAC.org and PowerPAC+ have been Kamala supporters since 2010. In our efforts to support Kamala, PowerPAC.org produced a political ad outlining Kamala’s promise to protect the most vulnerable working-class neighborhoods by holding California polluters accountable to their environmental crimes.”

Phillips and Sandler are also pushing for a Harris presidential run in 2020.

Harris is also close to the Los Angeles-based Korean Resource Center, and the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, which both grew out of the pro-North Korean activist group Young Koreans United.

Mazie Hirono, Hawaii

Sen. Mazie Hirono was endorsed and financially supported by Phillips’s PowerPAC+ in 2012.

Hirono also has ties to the ultra-radical National Korean American Service and Education Consortium.

Hirono keynoted the August 2013 Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance 12th Biennial convention in Las Vegas. APALA was led at the time by Kent Wong, a former member of the pro-China Communist Workers Party, and an avid supporter of the Beijing line.

Hirono staffer Betsy Lin traveled to Havana, Cuba, in 2014. The trip was paid for by the pro-Cuba Center for Democracy in the Americas.

Every Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is in some way affiliated with countries, organizations, or philosophies opposed to the U.S. Constitution. Is it any wonder that they would fight so hard to oppose the nomination of Kavanaugh, or any other constitutionalist to the U.S. Supreme Court?

Keeping constitutionalists off the Supreme Court makes the eventual triumph of socialism far more likely. We shouldn’t blame these senators for their appalling behavior. They are merely doing their revolutionary duty. As good socialists, what else can they do?