Are Republicans a threat to democracy?

OPINION:

In this election, Republicans have issues up the wazoo, including inflation, border security, crime, energy policy, COVID lockdowns and education.

Democrats have exactly three: abortion, climate change and their fanciful claim that democracy is under siege. The first two clearly aren’t working. So, the fallback position of an alleged Republican conspiracy against democracy is now front and center.

I doubt there’s a Democratic leader anywhere who hasn’t ominously warned that Republicans or MAGA Republicans or ultra-MAGA Republicans are a clear and present danger to democratic government.

“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the foundations of our republic,” President Biden sputtered at his September 1st Independence Hall harangue.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre elaborated: “The president views the pro-Trump faction of the Republican Party as an extreme threat to our democracy, our freedom and our rights.”

“The urgency of saving our democracy is real,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared.

“We refuse to let extremist, so-called leaders dismantle our democracy,” Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed, when she wasn’t reminiscing about the color of school buses.

Of what does this danger to democracy consist: That some Trump supporters question the legitimacy of the 2020 election? 

When Hillary Clinton told Rhe Washington Post that former President Donald Trump “stole the 2016 election,” was she an election denier? When current Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams insisted that when she lost the governorship in 2018, the election was “stolen” and “rigged,” did that make her an enemy of democracy?

In fact, there hasn’t been a presidential election Democrats lost since 2000 that they didn’t contest. But remember, only Republicans can be election deniers.

The other major indictment of the GOP is the charge that Mr. Trump somehow incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which Democrats insist on calling an insurrection. The notion that a group of yahoos who acted like frat boys on spring break could have toppled the government is surreal.

Speaking of insurrections, Democrats hope voters don’t recall their role in the 2020 George Floyd riots — when assault and arson were rampant — the work of their friends in Black Lives Matter and antifa, who hoped to ensure urban anarchy by defunding the police. Democratic leaders either maintained a decorous silence or applauded the rioters.

Understand, Democrats’ narrow definition of democracy does not include the following: Deciding political questions in legislatures and courts, not in the streets. With the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court sent abortion policy back to the states. Extremists promised and delivered a summer of rage, which included attacking pro-life pregnancy centers and churches and threatening the lives of justices. One fanatic came to Washington armed, with the intention of killing Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home.

Dedication to preserving our constitutional form of government, including balance of power and separation of powers: Now that the high court has a conservative majority, Democrats want to keep adding justices until they get rulings they like. The president thinks he can bypass Congress by canceling $426 billion in student loans by executive order.

Upholding one standard of justice for all: Under Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice has become the enforcement arm of the Democratic National Committee. Anti-abortion activists who demonstrate at abortion clinics have their homes raided by FBI SWAT teams. Attacks on churches and pro-life centers (over 100 to date) are ignored. DOJ also refuses to enforce a law against demonstrating at the homes of federal judges.

Respecting freedom of speech: It’s virtually impossible for conservatives to speak on college campuses, including state schools. In blue cities, woke goon squads break up conservative rallies, while police are ordered to stand down.

Not deciding which laws to enforce and which to ignore: Since his first day in office, the president has ignored laws against illegal immigration. Carnage in the streets is the result of far-left district attorneys refusing to prosecute certain crimes or putting career criminals back on the streets as quickly as they’re booked. In cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, we have become a nation of men, not laws.

For the Democratic Party, defending democracy means fighting any and all efforts to deter election fraud (like voter ID), using Gestapo-like tactics against its opponents, slander (accusing half the country of “semi-fascism”) and pretending Jan. 6 was a coup d’etat that almost succeeded.

After they’re through exposing the GOP as a mortal danger to democracy, maybe Democrats can explain how stopping the latest trillion-dollar scam will crash the economy.

• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.