Who is the real threat, Biden or Republicans?

OPINION:

President Biden is going to Philadelphia on Thursday to talk about democracy in America and its challenges.

Good for him. Everyone should welcome what will no doubt be a fair, equitable and balanced examination by Mr. Biden of who and what might pose an immediate threat to representative government in the United States. An honest assessment of the present threat would require some introspection, and Mr. Biden at least is asking the difficult questions.  Those questions include:

Which person and which party has consistently refused to follow the law and protect the southern border of the United States from physical invasion and from the widespread introduction of illegal drugs? Which person and which party has vitiated his oath of office by refusing to protect the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic?

Which party has tolerated proxy voting in Congress? Which party has kept the Capitol effectively off-limits to citizens for the last 17 months?

Which party has made it a habit to crush the spirit of representative government by routinely not allowing members of Congress access to legislative text until just before votes? Which party has reduced Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution to having a single vote on an omnibus appropriations bill — usually after the fiscal year has begun — without debate or consideration of a solitary amendment under regular order?

Who decided on their own and almost certainly in contravention of the law to transfer the obligation to pay student loan debt – costing anywhere from $500 billion to $1 trillion, depending on who you believe — from those who incurred it to taxpayers?

Which person and which party has turned federal law enforcement, especially the FBI, into a political weapon? Which party has tolerated or encouraged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process directed at its political enemies? Which party has had the FBI surveil not only competing campaigns but the media as well?

Which party’s leaders have explicitly threatened Supreme Court Justices? Which party openly advocates for packing the Supreme Court?

Which party has acted as if major treaties — the Paris Accord climate agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran nuclear agreement — do not require Senate ratification?

Which person and which party decided, without the benefit of a declaration of war, that the United States would support combat and special operations against a foreign adversary (Russia)?

Which elected official’s adult son has almost certainly broken multiple laws yet has not been arrested or charged? Which person may or may not have received cash related to the activities of that same adult offspring? Did any of the cash that changed hands originate in nations that are adversaries of the United States?

Which party celebrated nationwide riots that resulted in billions of dollars of economic damage and hundreds of deaths? Which party and which person has encouraged or allowed numerous cities to endure surges in crime and homelessness? Which administration gave guns to Mexican drug cartels? Which party has advocated for defunding the police?

Who has used hundreds of millions of dollars from foreigners — George Soros, Johann Georg Wyss — to make our nation less safe and less prosperous?

Which party consistently tries to minimize the text found in the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and 10th amendments to the Constitution?

Which administration has argued in court against the release of a Justice Department affidavit while leaking daily selective confidential investigation materials to the media?

Which party wants to federalize elections? Which party actively opposes voter ID? Which party hosts notorious election deniers such as Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre? 

Which party has subverted congressional protocol by creating a committee without any members selected by the minority (the January 6th committee)?

Which party leader set up a server with the intention of shielding her government work from transparency requirements and Freedom of Information Act statutory provisions?

Which person and which party have called their opponents “fascists”? Which person has said that his political rivals would put Black people “back in chains” if they were elected?  Which party leader acknowledged that he lied about a presidential candidate’s tax returns?

Which party has tolerated violence, including firebombing, against its political opponents without ever condemning such violence, let alone focusing law enforcement efforts on such violence?

Which person has not had a sit-down interview with an American media outlet in almost seven months?

It will be good and healthy for Mr. Biden to address all of these questions, especially those about his party’s use of the federal law enforcement community. There has been enough shadowboxing. It is time to get serious in identifying the risks the nation faces and its enemies. 

Benito Mussolini – who knew a thing or two – defined fascism as: “All within the State, nothing outside of the State, nothing against the State.”

In Philadelphia, Mr. Biden no doubt will try to explain how that definition better describes Republicans than Democrats. Unfortunately, however, he will fail because that definition fits the essence and energy of the modern-day Democratic Party.

• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated” podcast. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.