OPINION:
The Democrats’ plan to “save democracy” is pretty clear.
Their first order of business is to defeat former President Donald Trump by any means possible, wielding the legal system like a stiletto.
The second is to get rid of as many election integrity safeguards as possible. More about that in a moment, with Virginia as a striking example.
Mr. Trump, whose momentum toward the GOP nomination may be unstoppable, is being hounded on absurd charges by Democratic prosecutors in Democratic-run courts in four jurisdictions with jury pools dominated by Democrats.
Meanwhile, President Biden, whose alleged family graft in China, Ukraine, Russia and other countries makes the Teapot Dome scandal look like petty cash, is untouched.
This is what “democracy” looks like in communist and Third World countries. After all, North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Coincidence? I think not.
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who pledged during her election campaign to take down Mr. Trump, is trying him on 41 counts, including racketeering, for his efforts to challenge the razor-thin Biden victory in the Peach State.
Ms. Willis is now in the hot seat herself, having hired her alleged boyfriend to head the Trump prosecution. She has paid him handsomely, and he has accompanied her on expensive trips. What are you looking at, huh?
In Washington, special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting Mr. Trump on four criminal counts that basically accuse him of fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. No mention of “insurrection,” the Democrats’ favorite word, but it is implied.
In New York, Attorney General Letitia James is accusing Mr. Trump of business fraud, saying he overvalued his assets to get a loan that he later repaid with interest and with no complaints whatever from the lender.
Ms. James, if you recall, delayed approval of an emergency COVID-19 response medical tent in a New York park by evangelist Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse. The “woke” Democrat had to make sure the Christian group wasn’t peddling “hate” on account of its support of natural sexuality and traditional marriage.
Also in New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Mr. Trump with business fraud related to his 2016 presidential campaign for not reporting a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Mr. Trump, an allegation he has denied.
This “he said, she said” is sordid all right, and you can choose whom to believe. But interpreting it as a campaign-related matter is a stretch.
The Justice Department is also going after Mr. Trump for keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, which the FBI raided as if he were a Mafia don. President Biden illegally kept classified documents in his residence’s garage and offices after his stint as vice president. Yawn.
In Colorado, the exclusively Democratic state Supreme Court kicked Mr. Trump off the ballot. Maine didn’t even bother with a court. Its secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who ran the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union from 2005 to 2013, unilaterally removed Mr. Trump from the ballot to save democracy.
Now, on to Virginia. In the Old Dominion, where Democrats hold small margins in the Senate and House of Delegates, they are continuing their crusade to save democracy by keeping elections free of pesky protections.
The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee last Tuesday defeated a proposal to reestablish requiring voters to show a photo ID, which Democrats abolished in 2020. The committee also voted to reject a bill reducing absentee balloting from 45 days out from Election Day (a month and a half) to a mere three full weeks before Election Day.
You might think that Democrats apparently believe their constituents are too dumb, lazy or uninformed to obtain an ID or to vote in a timely manner. They pretty much make that argument, saying that requiring a photo ID or to cast votes on or near Election Day is racist and “suppresses the minority vote.”
They don’t want voter rolls kept up to date, either. That is also a racist plot.
It’s all about loosening the process so that it’s impossible for poll watchers and opponents’ campaigns to keep an eye on things.
Virginia Democrats did decide to delay three bills until 2025. One would make it easier for convicted felons who have completed their sentences to vote. Another would repeal the voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A third would expand abortion access.
Perhaps they thought reminding people of Democrats’ extremism should be saved for after the November election.
The last time Virginia Democrats held all three branches (2019 through 2021), they went on a lunatic spree, killing voter ID, copying California’s prohibition on sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, enacting a spending binge and pushing the LGBTQ agenda in schools. They also got rid of Lee-Jackson Day and cheered the tearing down of statues.
In November 2021, the GOP won back the House, the governor’s mansion and the other two statewide offices, but were unable to undo much of the damage because the donkeys held the Senate.
At some point, more Americans in every state need to wake up to the fact that elections have consequences and that “saving democracy” has become shorthand for one-party tyranny.
Perhaps the donkey party could adopt a more honest slogan, such as “Vote Democratic. Help destroy democracy.”
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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