Below is a slightly expanded version of my Hill column on the widespread claims that democracy is in peril if the GOP prevails in the midterm elections. On the eve of the midterm elections, one would think that our constitutional system has only days to live. Indeed, on Fox Sunday, House Majority Whip James Clyburn declared “I’ve studied history all of my life. I taught history. And I’m telling you, what I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany. This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, when it elected a chancellor that then co-opted the media.” In other words, the Republicans are like Nazis about to overthrow democracy, an analogy to the rise of Adolph Hitler. It is notable that Democrats, including President Biden, are now arguing that the media is pro-Trump or coopted by the Republicans.
Here is the column:
If a single moment could sum up the growing hysteria heading into the midterm elections, it was the appearance of historian Michael Beschloss on MSNBC this week when he warned that, if the Republicans prevail, we could see “our children … arrested and conceivably killed.”
In other words, it is not gas prices, the economy or crime that once again are the top polling issues for voters. Instead, it is democracy or death, gas or grandchildren — you choose.
The drum major in this parade of horribles has been President Biden, who was widely criticized for an earlier Philadelphia speech that denounced his political opponents as fascists plotting to overthrow democracy.
Biden returned to this theme in what White House chief of staff Ron Klain called his “final warning” to voters. The president ominously cautioned voters who might be thinking of voting for Republicans that, “make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us.” In other words, be afraid, be very afraid.
President Biden and others have returned to that theme as Democrats appear to be losing ground even in traditional blue states. Among others, Hillary Clinton warned that the GOP is trying to “steal” the election and that “they’re going after democracy.”
The president’s attacks do not appear to be gaining much traction, with polls showing that most people view him as inciting political unrest. Nevertheless, on almost every network and cable news program, the mantra seems unrelenting: If the GOP prevails in the midterms, democracy could be lost.
Whereas the media once pushed a false Russia collusion claim in the 2016 election, this time it is pushing a claim that the GOP itself represents the threat to our liberties and very lives.
As Democratic alarm over a GOP win in both houses of Congress has increased with polling in the past two weeks, so has the alarming rhetoric. Beschloss, for instance, warned that not only may democracy have just a few days left but there may be no one allowed to record its fall: “Fifty years from now, if historians are allowed to write in this country and if there are still free publishing houses and a free press — which I’m not certain of, but if that is true — a historian will say what was at stake … was the fact whether we will be a democracy in the future, whether our children will be arrested and conceivably killed.”
The Democratic campaign against GOP candidates as extremists and election deniers is breathtakingly dishonest. Democratic leaders like Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), have been accused of deceptive practices in spending tens of millions to support the most conservative candidates in Republican primaries. Those candidates — now denounced by Democrats as “extremists” — prevailed in their primaries with the Democrats’ support and could now win in states like New Hampshire.
At the same time, Democrats and the House’s Jan. 6 select committee are pursuing those who engaged in similarly inflammatory rhetoric leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — just as the airways are filled with Trump-like warnings that the midterm elections are about to be “stolen.” Likewise, just as some on the left claim there may be no more real history books after the midterms, others are campaigning to ban books by figures like Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the name of protecting free speech.
What leaders like President Biden seem to forget is that our Constitution not only was written for times like this, it was written in a time like this. Federalists and Jeffersonians actually — not just figuratively — tried to kill each other with the use of laws like the Alien and Sedition Acts.
But James Madison crafted a Constitution for the worst of times — and the worst of leaders. He famously observed that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” So he created a system that contains a series of checks and balances to prevent the concentration — and the abuse — of power.
There has been a growing crisis of faith on the left as leaders and pundits have attacked our Constitution and its institutions, including the Supreme Court. These objections appear to be based not on the Constitution failing to resist extraconstitutional demands but on it failing to yield to such demands. These figures apparently are upset that the democratic process or the Supreme Court have not given them what they demand. Thus, the Constitution or the court must go.
Widespread references to Jan. 6 should inspire greater confidence in our constitutional system and dispel the doubts being voiced by President Biden and others. The Capitol riot was denounced by most Americans; Republican leaders like Vice President Pence and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) carried out their constitutional duties. Federal judges (including many appointed by then-President Trump) uniformly rejected challenges to the election; the Supreme Court, with six conservative justices, repeatedly ruled against Trump — including all three of his appointees.
The Constitution has weathered every storm in our history, including a Civil War and a “war” over civil rights. We’ve tackled everything from a depression to desegregation; we’ve faced periods of violence and vitriol that tore us apart. And yet, we remain.
The U.S. Constitution is not an elegant or poetic document, but it has one thing to commend it: It is designed to survive the worst of times and the worst of leaders, and it has done just that.
The Democrats’ democracy-or-death mantra is not just demagoguery. It is defamation of a constitutional system that has proven itself, time and again, to be up to any challenge. Democrats indeed may be in danger in this midterm — but democracy is not.
Jonathan wrote, “Whereas the media once pushed a false Russia collusion claim in the 2016 election, this time it is pushing a claim that the GOP itself represents the threat to our liberties and very lives.”
I have been saying for a while that…
I’ve also been saying for a while that…
The Democrats have gone full absolutist cult mentality, their patterns are anti-American and anti-Constitutional, it’s actually the modern Democrats that are the current threat to Democracy.
Related reading…
Who Is Assaulting Our Society’s Building Blocks?
Episode VII: Absurdity In The 21st Century Has Somehow Become “Normal”? e.g. Unwarranted & Unproductive Hate Of The Status Quo
That explains it…you have a blog. A ready-made furnace of cognitive dissonance.
The political right has shown its pattern of propaganda lies within their narratives so many times since 2016 that it’s beyond me why anyone would blindly accept any narrative that the political right and their lapdog media actively push? and
Here are the current conservative Republican four tenets of “truth”…
1. Republicans are right.
2. Democrats are wrong.
3. Wrong is evil.
4. Evil must be destroyed.
…that’s the dead end of the 21st century conservative Republican’s ability to think critically.
Fixed them for you. I would ask you to defend your thesis, but odds are you’ll just call me a troll. My field is barren…
When you put your head in thinking mode, are gas prices up? Is there inflation? Is there a war in Ukraine? Tell us what else the Democrats have done for us.
Are gas prices up because of the actions of Democrats or are they up because corporations/external factors have captured demand. Same applies to inflation. Ukraine – are we the Arsenal of Democracy or Isolationists? Give me details how Republicans will fix gas prices, inflation, Ukraine, etc. not some fact-free base pandering 11-point plan.
Both Obama and Biden were/are pushing the green new deal. Investment in gas and oil has been substantially less than previous years, with the Biden admin issuing the least gas and oil leases since the 1940s.
When Biden won the election, gas and oil companies knew the war on them was now on. Biden proclaimed he would put them out of business and made that fact clear on his first day in office by canceling the Keystone XL pipeline. Gas and oil CEOs pushed back against Biden’s call for them to increase output when he has made it clear he intends to put them out of business in the next decade.
And that was the start of our current inflationary environment.
Up until the COVID lockdowns, the economy was doing quite well. Inflation was low, and so was unemployment, especially for minorities. My 401k in 2019 did another double digit year. Note I saw the COVID lockdowns and economic effects coming from across the Pacific Ocean, I pulled my 401k investments out in early 2020, and back in SEP2020. I avoided a -16% loss and ended the year with a +23% gain. My best ever.
COVID hit and the whole world went nuts.
However, it was with printing of trillions of dollar in COIVD relief stimulus money (and the follow on printing) is what drove inflation. Some try to point out that inflation is occurring across the globe. It is. Why? The US dollar reserve currency and the petrodollar. Every time The Fed fires up the printing press, and in these cases with a turbo charger attached, and injects those dollars into the system, presto! Global inflation! I have to point out, the so called recovery was lead by Red States that Biden criticized as Neanderthal thinking. Blue states like CA and NY lagged in the economic recovery due to their strict COVID lockdown policies. Also please note the educational damage the COVID lockdowns, lead by the teachers unions had on our educational system.
Fact is our frenemies are tired of the US using the dollar to brow beat them into compliance. Wouldn’t you? Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt have all applied to join the BRICS. The BRICS are pivoting to create a multi-polar monetary system against the US/West lead uni-polar system. The war in the Ukraine is not about Democracy. Zelensky has put critics in jail, shut down news outlets and even forced opposition parties to fold and took their money. Zelensky is just as much a thug as Putin is. Difference is, Zelensky is the US thug.
What is the fix? Increase domestic production of oil and gas, get a peace deal in the Ukraine, get shipments of not only Russian oil and gas, but agriculture from both the Ukraine and Russia out to countries who rely on those products as fast as possible. If they dont, food insecurity will lead to civil unrest and even destabilization of nations and maybe even regions as people will leave their homes in search of food and even clean water.
There is talk that if nat gas and oil prices remain high, the EU just might deindustralize. Think about that one for a moment. German conglomerate BASF has announced they will move some of their production from Germany to China due to energy costs.
Well presented. Looks like bog-standard geo-politics. You are hired, when can you start.
The food insecurity issue is what has me truly concerned.
Not talking about just all those brown people “over there.”
I have been seeing articles from multiple sources of Americans, 1 in 4, unable to to afford a $100 Thanksgiving dinner.
If this past years crop harvest is going to be bad, and I think it is, things are going to get worse.
And if next years spring planting season is bad, or the drought continues, things will get even more worse.
Like, food riots in the streets. Here. In America.
The foolishness you are providing is excusable for a person who has difficulty thinking. There is a significant problem worldwide since petroleum products are used in many things including fertilizer which increases food production. The Germans are cutting down trees for wood and expanding coal mines. Your belly might be full while others around the world starve to death, but what do you care?
The US. has huge energy resources that the Biden administration has pulled back on. Biden is even draining the strategic oil supply. He created a mess that could be greatly resolved if the Democrats ceased to have power in Congress and the White House.
Well, it’s good that you are here to tell me how to think. Unpack your plan, be specific. Follow all statues and regulations. Stay within the bounds of Article II of the Constitution. No declaring Martial Law. No starting civil, regional or global conflicts. What will you do Mr. President?
Steve Witherspoon,
Good comment!
P.S. Your blog is impressive. Continued success.
Clyburn is a disgrace to the Constitution, and no friend of African Americans. He’s kept the welfare and its co-partner, dependency, going for generations, and the poverty and crime in that community has only grown. If Clyburn was ever a history teacher, he must have been a “diversity” hire, because he knows zero about 1930s Germany or 2022 America.
“This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, when it elected a chancellor that then co-opted the media.”
Uh, you mean kinda like how the DNC has co-opted most of MSM as their official mouthpiece, and are calling for censorship of anything or anyone that disagrees with them? Kinda like that?
Let us be humble and thankful on the this, the eve of one of America’s greatest victories in the eternal battle of good versus evil. Millions of people tomorrow will cast votes to support the current regime and will do so believing it to be right. Each of us at one time or another has been bamboozled by someone we trusted and believed but it was they, always they, who were wrong, not us. So, many of those good people who vote for Democrats tomorrow should not thereafter be scorned or ridiculed. By our example, they may become wise to their own gulibility. While tomorrow we differ, the next day we again are all Americans.
Goodwin’s law, Nazi comparisons, demogoguery, means the left is upside down.
When the fact’s aren’t on your side, pound the table.
It’s the pain guys, you brought it, when you leave, the pain leaves.
There is no GOP threat to democracy. This is a Democrat tactic designed intimidate and silence a specific legislature. The Pennsylvania legislature is controlled by the GOP, but the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general are all Democrats.
If Democrat officials violate the vote-counting laws set by the legislature, and the legislature challenges it in court, the Democrats will spin it as a “THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!!”
And my advice to Dr. Oz is to win big. If it’s close, the Democrats will game the rulebook and then use the media to shame everybody into silence. That’s their plan and–no surprise–it has nothing to do with defending democracy.
The Democrats and their media exhibit both sincere ideological extremism (those who believe what they say) and those who just mouth the words for the sake of partisanship, or money (like some well known presidential historians). The end result is the same- a purely ideologically driven party that has no intention and no ability to perform course correction, no matter how devastating the results of their policies to the country. My hope is that enough people will see through the lies, the facade and the insults to human intelligence to keep these people from obtaining a large enough legislative majority to permanently memorialize their standards long enough for the emergence of robust alternative sources of communication.
DEMOCRACY to the National Socialist WOKE Democrat Party means mob behavior.
They so hate the US Constitution.
True that Dr. Turley. It’s almost absurd to listen to these idiots make these insane comments. What Dems are really saying is if Democracy works then the one-party monopoly rule that Dems have over politics and the Press will dissolve. In other words, Dems love their semi-fascism and don’t want it to go away. It’s just that they have limited vocabulary, brains, and ability to tell they truth. Just their 3rd grade emotional outrage.
Clyburn is a fool. If he taught history as he claims he surely must remember that the Nazis he sees reincarnated in Republicans laid the groundwork for their takeover in large part through massive propaganda aimed at Jews as scapegoats for all of Germany’s economic woes. Change the subject, the decade and the target and it is exactly what the Democrats and their media lapdogs have been doing since before President Trump was elected. A constant drumbeat of charges, nearly all of them false, but calculated to stir up fear and loathing. The dishonesty is breathtaking. The January 6 event which lasted a few hours and resulted in no loss of life at the hands of the protesters and very little actual damage has been the daily subject of Democrat talking points and media commentary about its “threat to democracy.” But Biden, Democrats and the media skimmed, at best, the bloody and deadly riots instigated by the BLM frauds and Antifa organized criminals supposedly protesting the death of a career criminal. Remember the CNN “reporter” saying that the protests were “mostly peaceful” as he stood in front of a burning building? I do not recall Clyburn or any of his fellow travelers condemning either BLM or Antifa as they torched federal buildings, police stations and private property and even seized and held entire blocks of a city. In my opinion, what is a threat to democracy is a political party, its leaders and the media trying to destroy anyone who opposes them through any means available. To paraphrase Jefferson, free and open debate is the “natural manure of democracy.” Biden and the Democrats and the media have said “democracy is on the ballot.” It truly is because we will be much closure to losing America and its values if they win.
Great comment.
I am hoping for a Democrat Extinction Level Event (politically of course) otherwise known as DELE but alas, I will likely be disappointed. I will settle, hopefully, for control of the House and Senate, more governors and state legislative control. That way we can write up more Jim Eagle laws that so concern President Biden. It’s gonna be a long and wild ride tomorrow. Stock up on some ice cream today. Sorry about slipping back into my Georgia accent.
GEB—–GO DAWGS!
Actually the US Constitution is both elegant and poetic.
I think of Hillary and her reference to the “basket of deplorables.” Is it possible that there also is a correlative “basket of incorrigibles” who just. can’t. let. go. of political machination, dishonesty, false-flagging, and fear-mongering?
Hear hear
Hilarious. The left is losing it’s grip on their narrative and they are panicking. So what do you do? Summon Hitler.
How reasoned people could believe this off-the-hook rhetoric from our president, elected representatives and a formerly respected historian beggars belief.
The dems are cynically undermining our republic for political gain.
But tomorrow will show if Americans can see through these manipulations.
Let the lefties lie; I have faith in 65% of the American electorate.
Great headline! You’re welcome Dr. Turley.
Rather than write about a subset of progressive stupidity, maybe you should just aggregate links and have a weekly post of progressively stupid links? You can’t possibly address all progressive stupidity, and I would like to read about other topics. Thank you.
At this moment in time, what other topics? Climate change? Abortion for all forever? How about tax breaks if you buy solar panels? I’m guessing you are conservative. These comments from an old-school liberal from an Ivy League school is appropriate for the moment methinks.
The hyperbole of the left is the most extreme and dangerous that I have ever experienced. It used to be that calling your opponent a NAZI would ruin…you, now it is a daily occurrance.
Now get ready for Svelaz to add 100 comments telling everyone they are wrong. And I do mean 100 comments.
Not only were you one of the greatest hockey players to ever lace up a pair of skates, you have this exactly right. You took the words out of my mouth. I searched to find a harsher term then, “hyperbole” but that noun fits perfectly.