Traditional trappings of the middle-class American dream — a car, or several of them, in every garage, the freedom that comes with inexpensive air travel, modern, efficient appliances in every kitchen, a hamburger on every backyard grill and grills that become bigger and better — are under assault from liberal Democrats and their allies who argue that a world threatened by climate change cannot afford such luxuries anymore.

Absent legislation forcing people to abandon such niceties — legislation that has so far largely eluded the activists — Democrats are calling more and more for regulatory efforts. New regulations are directly or indirectly driving up the prices of such luxuries to the point that consumers are forced, even though such luxuries might still be legal, to abandon them in the name of frugality. It’s another sneaky strategy by the Biden Democrats.

Take that shiny new car in every garage. This week, the Kelly Blue Book is reporting that the average monthly payment for a new car has reached $777, double what it was in 2019 and more than 15 percent of the median take-home pay for American households. Used cars, if one can find them, are at an incredible average of $544 a month — not much cheaper than new cars.

Much of those price increases can be attributed to semiconductor shortages from the pandemic and higher interest rates, but there are few signs that prices are going back down anytime soon even as demand tapers off. The Biden administration’s relentless push to get Americans to adopt electric vehicles, which are 25 percent more expensive than gas-powered jitneys on average, is not going to make things any better.

While Mr. Biden’s climate alarmists insist they aren’t coming for anyone’s gas appliances, the reality is that they are relying on local jurisdictions to do it for them. Encouraged by federal regulators, hundreds of cities across the country have been passing new regulations that outlaw the installation of gas-powered appliances such as cooktops, water heaters, and clothes dryers  in new homes.

Natural gas appliances are almost always cheaper to operate than electric ones, by as much as 30 percent in many cases. Yet the antipathy of the greenies extends even to the food cooked on backyard grills — gas or otherwise — by many hungry Americans. Recent years have seen a concerted push to wean Americans from meat and steer them toward plant-based options, also in the name of combating climate change.

Factory farms that produce meat and the economic activity associated with them, we are constantly reminded, produce far more greenhouse gasses than farms producing plant crops. Meantime air travel is shaping up to be another front in the climate-motivated war on American freedoms. With air travel only now recovering from the Covid stoppages, more and more people are hoping to get out into the wider world once again. 

Environmental groups want to make it harder. In January, the Sierra Club and other groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency, seeking a crack down on airplane emissions. The Sierra Club has other options in mind when it comes to air travel. Fly less, it tells people, and take vacations closer to home. Airlines should remove first- and business-class seating on planes. Raise taxes on airline tickets and fuel. Stop building new airports.

“Flying will have to get more expensive, so as to reflect its environmental costs,” the Sierra Club promises. We’ll see how that sells on the hustings. For few of the luxuries and comforts to which Americans — and growing middle classes around the globe — have become accustomed in recent decades are safe from the climate lobby. Unless lawmakers begin to rein in the excesses of this cult, the march of progress is likely to stall.

What gets us is not only the policies the Democrats are pursuing. It’s the strategy of seeking such policies in the face of the failure of Congress to enact them democratically. It’s a moment to remember a principle of constitutional law, which goes something like: The failure of Congress to prohibit something doesn’t mean Congress approves. Democrats regulating outcomes Congress won’t enact is outrageous. What is Congress anyhow, chopped liver?