Connecticut Crazy: Illegals Voting and Unfit Firefighters?

Two recent news items out of Connecticut offer reason to suspect progressives in the Nutmeg State are determined to challenge California's perennial stranglehold on the award for the most woke state in the union. From granting illegal immigrants voting rights to watering down firefighter standards in the name of diversity, the state assembly has many wondering if they consider the progressive cause more important than the people they were elected to serve.

"It's official. [Democrats] have lost their minds," a Jan. 19 tweet from the Connecticut Republican Party reads. "Now they are proposing voting rights for illegal aliens. Elections are for U.S. citizens only. We will fight this tooth and nail to preserve the integrity of our democratic system."

The bill in question succinctly states:

"Statement of Purpose: To allow undocumented immigrants who are residents of the state to vote in municipal and state elections."

Illegals Are 'Part Of Our Fabric Of The State'

Connecticut Democrats are not even hiding behind the fig leaf of the more placid-sounding term "non-citizens." They are flat-out stating that they want to grant those who have willingly violated the immigration laws of this nation the most hallowed right bestowed on citizens of a representative republic.

There seems little attempt to even spin this as concern for the greater good of all residents. That approach has been utilized in one state after another to justify granting driver's licenses to illegals as an alleged road "safety measure." No, this appears wholly an attempt to further normalize illegal immigration. The bill's author readily admits it.

"For Rep. Juan Candelaria of New Haven, the purpose of the proposal is not to have it pass, but to lay the groundwork for future policy in a state that is home to 240,000 non-citizen immigrants, approximately half of which are undocumented," The Hartford Courant reported Jan. 24.

"When we talk about undocumented individuals, they are part of our fabric of this nation and of the state," Candelaria declared. "They're part of the community and they should have a voice. People might not be amicable to this idea, and I respect that opinion, but at least by having the process, we can have the dialogue and we can have the debate. And that's all I want."

OK, so one Democrat state congressman is grandstanding in an attempt to boost what the leading newspaper in the state says is a growing community of some 120,000 illegal aliens in Connecticut, which only has 3.2 million residents overall. But the amazing, yet entirely predictable, aspect about Candelaria's stunt is that Democrat leaders in the state assembly are unwilling to dismiss it out of hand.

"State Rep. Matt Blumenthal, chair of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said that the committee has yet to screen new proposals and that he could not comment on Candelaria's proposed constitutional amendment. He also declined to share his thoughts on non-citizen voting," The Courant related.

"Our colleagues in the General Assembly have proposed roughly 150 ideas for bills to be handled by our committee," Blumenthal told the paper. "My co-chair [Sen. Mae Flexer] and I look forward to reviewing them all and discussing whether they should go forward in the committee."

What's to review? Apparently, in progressive Connecticut today, a Democrat does not dare upset illegal aliens in any way, even if that only means saying that any move to allow them to vote is a non-starter out of the gate.

Torching Common Sense in Connecticut

Meanwhile, another Democrat bill seeks to lower fitness standards for Connecticut firefighters. The proposal introduced by five Democrats, including two state senators, reads:

"Statement of Purpose: To allow for a more diverse class of candidates for firefighter positions at municipal and volunteer fire departments by recognizing that additional female candidates would qualify for such positions based on revised physical standards that offer an alternative to the fifty-pound simulated vest test component of the Candidate Physical Ability Test."

As The Washington Free Beacon noted Jan. 18, this presents a problem:

"Unlike in the military, where uniforms and equipment vary by gender, all firefighters wear the same gear, which weighs at least 59 pounds – 9 more than the vest used for the physical assessment. That's not including the weight of ladders, hoses, or other firemen, who must sometimes carry incapacitated colleagues on their shoulders. While a few pieces of protective gear now come tailored for women, most of the essential tools do not."

This begs the question: If your house is burning down with you inside, will you be comforted to know that the firefighter who is not physically able to save you has added to the culture of diversity at your local station?

"A citizen in need of rescue doesn't care if a firefighter is white, black, Hispanic, male, or female," Frank Ricci, a retired firefighter and former president of the New Haven firefighters union, told the paper. "They care that they can do the job. This attempt to socially engineer public safety positions will only serve to endanger the public," he warned.

Democrats dominate both houses of the state assembly in rock-solid blue Connecticut. The party has held a ruling “trifecta” of governor, Senate, and House since 2011. Can the people be faulted for wondering what benefits of citizenship they have when their tax dollars fund officials who appear more loyal to whatever woke agenda happens to be in fashion than to their own best interests?