The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump brings the inciting rhetoric of today’s Democrats into sharp focus.
And it should make those who employ similar language on the local stage think twice — but I’m not holding my breath.
Biden and his surrogates have been ramping up their “threat to democracy” language to dangerous levels for eight years — and once it was clear that Trump would again be the GOP nominee, the vitriol went off the charts.
Elected Democrats at every level now talk about Trump and “MAGA Republicans” with more hate and derision than they ever summon for the Hamas terrorists who are currently holding American citizens hostage.
Trump’s 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, spent his first term referring to him as “illegitimate.”
‘Threat to democracy’
Democrat partisan state Attorney General Tish James fulfilled campaign promises by waging lawfare against Trump in civil court, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is inventing crimes in criminal court all to defeat a rival who their team is afraid to face at the ballot box.
President Biden, who promised to restore “honor and dignity” to the White House, leads the way in debased and dangerous language.
Last week, Biden called him a “loser” on X and reportedly told donors, “It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”
This language is beneath the presidency and is not new. At his Independence Hall speech in Philadelphia last summer, Biden targeted Trump, and also made clear that he disdained Trump supporters — millions of the very Americans he governs:
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
He drove the point home: “There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
At first, Biden spoke of “MAGA Republicans” who “do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law.”
But then he switched to “forces,” saying: “MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”
Referring to Americans who did not vote for you — but who in a functioning democracy you still must answer to — as “forces” and a “threat” does not restore honor and dignity, but brings shame to the highest office in our land.
It is un-American.
‘Evil’ bandwagon
The worst part is Democratic politicians everywhere take note and emulate this kind of talk.
After the 2022 Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, guess who Nancy Pelosi blamed? “The MAGA Republicans are cruelly undermining the safety and well-being of our transgender community,” she trumpeted. She’s called the former president “dangerous” and “evil.”
Just this month, California Rep. Adam Schiff declared that this election “is about whether this country remains a democracy, whether we veer off into some kind of pseudo-dictatorship.”
And, of course, who can forget Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who thinks people with ideas she does not like are engaging in “stochastic terrorism”?
Demonizing Republicans is apparently good politics for radical leftists, but it’s bad for our great country. And it’s dangerous. Presidential candidates and everyday Americans deserve better.
Maud Maron is a city public school parent and president of the consulting firm ThirdRail.