OPINION:
NEW YORK — Democrats are fond of saying that former President Donald Trump is a “threat to democracy.” That is why they will stop at nothing to destroy him.
But it is a lie. And they know it is a lie.
Donald Trump is not a threat to democracy. He IS democracy.
Rather, Donald Trump is a threat to the Democratic Party — and that is why Democrats will stop at nothing to destroy him.
Whether you love him or you hate him, no politician in America today inspires the kind of loyalty and enthusiasm that Mr. Trump inspires. His rallies are like nothing we have seen since the dawn of the television age.
People literally steal Trump political signs off the side of the road — to put them up in their own yards. And — for better or for worse — no politician in our lifetime could have attracted the die-hard, riotous crowd that assembled on Jan. 6, 2021 — all in support of one man, Donald Trump.
What terrifies Democratic Party leaders and their confederates in the old guard of the establishment Republican Party in Washington are not the broken windows and trespassing that took place in the Capitol that day.
What terrifies them is that one man outside the system — who is an existential threat to the system — has the ability to inspire such a revolt against the powerful federal government and the Democratic Party that controls it.
The lawless insurrectionists in the Democratic Party have fallen into confederacy with old guard Republicans in Washington desperate to cling to power. Politics makes strange bedfellows. Desperate politics makes even stranger bedfellows.
That’s why no one has been more strident about destroying Donald Trump than GOP former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“In our nation’s 236-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Mr. Cheney said in a campaign ad for his daughter during the 2022 election campaign. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”
Dick Cheney is an expert on violence and toppling governments. His Achilles’ heel, however, is that he prefers to invade first, think later.
Mr. Cheney’s grand efforts in Iraq turned out about as well as his daughter’s last election. She lost by more than 35 points in perhaps the most Republican state in the country. She was the incumbent.
Now Donald Trump faces courtroom persecutions from Florida to Washington to New York City. Every case — both federal and state persecutions — are being directed by President Biden and his White House operatives. Mr. Biden’s No. 3 man at the Department of Justice is actually in the courtroom here arguing this latest case against Mr. Trump.
Because the judge is forcing Mr. Trump to attend every day of the sham trial, Mr. Trump has enjoyed some visits to local neighborhoods, only to be greeted by cheering fans in the deepest blue Democratic strongholds. Mr. Trump now threatens to hold a political rally at Madison Square Garden.
The latest polling by The New York Times shows Mr. Trump closing the gap against Mr. Biden to a mere 10 points — in New York, a state Mr. Biden won by more than 20 points in 2020. Most alarming for Democrats is Mr. Trump’s wrenching their iron grip on Black and Hispanic voters.
Indeed, Mr. Trump is a threat. He is an existential threat. Mr. Trump is an existential threat to the Democratic Party.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.