Democrats change the subject from Presidential election issues to Donald Trump
The real danger, they say, comes from a frighteningTrump “dictatorship”
As the 2024 caucuses and primary elections draw near, a sudden shift has marked the Democrats’ framing of what is central to the Presidential campaign. Not the policies of the Biden Administration, to which they would ordinarily be “pointing with pride,” but rather “viewing with alarm” the “end of democracy” with the allegedly “Nazi,” “fascist,” “Hitler” dictatorship of Donald Trump.
From the President to party officials to media mouthpieces (Morning Joe, CNN, MSNBC), the current line is that overshadowing the issues is the specter of a fundamental threat to the U.S. Constitution. Ironic that, as not a few Democrat spokespersons have spoken their contempt for an “outdated” two-centuries old document that stands in the way of progress. Indeed, they only cherish “our democracy” whenever judicial or legislative departments of the federal government push back against the current executive. Ever since the Woodrow Wilson Administration, the “supreme law of the land” has become less supreme with multiple Democrat administrations.
What led to this change of strategy? The polls. In recent weeks, poll respondents have shown Republican presidential aspirants scoring higher than Biden. Trump leads overall 47-43 percent, with similar leads in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Nikki Haley leads by a much higher margin, the remaining candidates ahead by less or tied. When those results were reported, a high-level Obama campaign official urged Biden to not seek re-election.
Then there are the issues. On economics and price inflation, on foreign policy and military matters, on the southern border and law enforcement generally, on the Hunter Biden facilitated bribery of his family, including the President, whose misuse of classified documents goes back to his days as Senator and Vice President, his support is exceedingly low, mostly in the 30 percent range.
There is, or appears to be, at least one major exception: abortion. Both in the 2022 and 2023 elections, it was a winner for Democrats. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin sought to limit abortions up to 15 weeks and win control of one house of the legislature but failed, while Ohio voters approved a sweeping measure that mandates abortion on demand. How Democrats can rejoice over this political advantage strikes one as odd, as it is hardly something to be proud of. Hooray! Death over life!
But that great number of issues stacked up against only one could well be little comfort. We know that a sizeable Democrat constituency consists of professional unmarried women, racial minorities and government employees. But the polls also reveal that the 90 percent of blacks and 70 percent of Hispanics who have supported the party in past elections is seriously slipping, meaning that even a little loss in support could bring defeat.
But how credible is the Democrat warning against Trump “dictatorship?” As numerous presidential nominees have said, “Let’s look at the record.” First, the Trump Administration did not become a dictatorship. Why should we expect a second Trump presidency to be any different? Second, none of his policies remotely resembled dictatorship. In particular, his border policies were falsely portrayed as inhumane, but the so-called “children in cages,” actually protecting them from cartel exploitation, in fact commenced in the Obama Administration.
What Trump’s border policies really did was to restrict illegal immigration, which is the paramount object of the current Biden Administration. In other words, Democrats excoriated Trump’s border policy for not permitting unrestricted illegal immigration! The Democrats deny it, but the clear object of unrestricted immigration is to flood the country with people from all over the world in order to change America’s demographics. That’s designed to empower “our democracy” in future elections in perpetuity. That’s “democracy” for millions of non-Americans at the expense of American citizens.
During the Trump administration, Russia did not invade Ukraine, Hamas did not attack Israel and Communist China refrained from harassing Taiwan. The national average for gasoline prices was under $2, and the inflation rate was only two percent. The economic crunch came after Trump left office, not mitigated by lower prices following higher prices that have in no way been mitigated by the Federal Reserve’s higher borrowing rates.
Democrats who still stand by the Russia collusion hoax might credit its restraining effect on Trump’s tenure, and no less their two impeachments. Now they apparently are saying that Trump will be less restrained in a second term. Trump didn’t end Obamacare or remove many federal employees the first time around, but be warned! He even seemed to confirm Democrats’ worst (feigned) fears when he told Sean Hannity on Fox News that he would be dictator only on day one when he will re-authorize oil drilling and close the southern border.
But Trump was joking, he said what so ignited them for that very reason.
Meanwhile, something closely resembling dictatorship marks the Biden Administration. Trump faces four indictments in New York, Washington D.C., Georgiaand Florida, making this the first presidential campaign in which the incumbent seeks to imprison the challenger. None of the charges have any merit but are driven by a determined refusal to respect democratic processes. Past presidents after leaving office have been permitted by federal courts to handle classified documents as they wish, scores of election results have been challenged in and out of the courts, and no presidential candidates have had to endure prosecutors poring through their financial transactions.
The Biden persecution of MAGA Republicans has caught parents, pro-lifers and Christians, in its broad-sweeping net. In crossing the line between legitimate concern for internal subversion to any persons or causes not acceptable to executive authority, this administration betrays an unquestionably UNDEMOCRATIC and DICTATORIAL character.
Democrats’ embrace of worry over Trump “dictatorship” makes it clear that they know they cannot win on the issues and must attack Trump personally. Just as Gov. Gavin Newsome made personal attacks on Gov. Ron DeSantis to avoid the issues in their recent Fox News debate, so Biden and his supporters must do the same with Trump. “Mean tweets” aren’t dictatorial.