America was subjected to an experience akin to Chinese water torture on Sept. 4, 2019.

CNN gave seven hours of free airtime to one political party exclusively for its marathon climate town hall event.

Related: Biden, at Climate Town Hall, Says He’d Rethink Fundraiser by Fossil Fuel Executive

At that event, the top 10 socialist presidential candidates were each given a 40-minute campaign commercial in which they were able to grandstand, bloviate, and make stuff up, frankly, on the issue of global cooling, global warming, climate change — or whatever they’re calling it this year. (Shown above, in front, is Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.)

It was far from a rational, science-based discussion.

Instead, CNN, a fake news operation in my view (and in the view of many others), has qualified to be nominated for best TV comedy of the year.

Here’s some of what went on:

  • Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) threatened to cudgel Republicans into submission on the Green New Deal by nuking the Senate filibuster.
  • Tech guru Andrew Yang channeled the spirit of George Orwell, saying he wants the government to “shape our system” by dissuading people from consuming meat.
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), not to be outdone, argued that killing unborn babies is essential to population control.
  • Joe Biden, however, ultimately stole the show. In an astounding feat of mental gymnastics, the former vice president blamed the climate crisis for everything from cancer to the Darfur genocide.

Aside from confirming to a watching world that the Democrats are nuts, these 2020 candidates also left an opening for conservatives like me to reveal their real agenda.

Want to play along? Here’s a thought experiment you can conduct with the raging leftist in your life. Ask that person if he or she is committed to fighting “climate change.” If the answer is, yes, then ask, “When shall we invade China?”

If America wants to get serious about addressing pollution and emissions, it’s time we take on the world’s number-one emitter of CO2: China.

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China’s CO2 emissions total more than that of the United States and all of Europe combined. Worse yet, China’s levels of real pollution — particulate matter in the atmosphere — only continue to climb.

And so, President Donald Trump’s critique of CNN’s climate change town hall was absolutely correct: China, not America, is the problem.

The good news is we don’t have to send the U.S. military into China to shut down the planet killers, otherwise known as China’s factories and power plants. To tackle the problem of CO2 and pollution, America doesn’t even need to bankrupt our economy. We just need to contain China’s. And that’s exactly what the president is attempting to do.

Currently, China’s industries churn out metric tons of pollutants each year. As long as there is sufficient demand for its products, the country won’t stop any time soon.

Trump’s tariffs, however, address that problem directly. Tariffs effectively reduce America’s reliance on Chinese goods. Not only does that advance the United States’ economic interests, it also reduces China’s production of goods, thus reducing its emissions.

Related: Five Big Reasons Consumers Aren’t Paying for Tariffs on Chinese Imports

Without demand to bolster their production, Chinese businesses will be disincentivized from generating exports. As a result, China will naturally reduce its level of pollution and CO2. Remember, leftists claim — without proof — that CO2 is harming the planet. So you’d think they’d be on board with hampering the communists in China from continuing to belch CO2 into the air.

But Democrats are opposing the president’s tariffs, despite the environmental benefits they claim it will create. One might question if they see CO2 or America as the true enemy.

Any trade deal with China must allow America’s military to maintain superiority over China. They are communists, after all. What sane person wants backstabbing, thieving, scheming communists to supplant the world’s greatest beacon of freedom as the lone superpower?

President Trump has pushed a plan to reduce China’s influence. Democrats have largely opposed it. In fact, leftists in the House of Representatives recently passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would make severe cuts to United States space programs — the very initiatives this country needs to remain ahead of China.

Most notably, the NDAA would restructure the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, America’s foremost spacefaring initiative. The Air Force itself noted that the Democrats’ changes to the Trump administration’s plan would devastate America’s space and defense capabilities, paving the path for China’s success. Whose side are Democrats on, anyway?

China is pursuing a strategy of “simultaneously prosecuting offensive and defensive integrated air and space operations” in order to defeat the U.S.

For them, space technology is just another weapon to be used against the United States. We can’t let them wield it. Trump has threatened to veto the bill if the NSSL changes stand.

Liberals rail against the alleged horrors of environmental recklessness, but in truth, they see the environment as just another vehicle to power. They want to virtue-signal their support for the planet by condemning the use of plastic straws and the consumption of meat (as they suck down their big gulps and wolf down their corn dogs at the Iowa State Fair).

They proclaim the world has only 11 years before environmental catastrophe. But despite all their doomsday prophesizing and fear-mongering, Democrats are unwilling to confront real threats.

China — in its endless pursuit of power — is the real threat to the world’s environment, and the Left’s constant climate hysteria only distracts from that reality.

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