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“Election Interference” – How Did Democrats Come to Fear Such a Ridiculous Accusation [1]
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Date: 2025-06-07
The President was re-elected based partly on a few nonsensical accusations towards Democrats. The power of these accusations was to create moral confusion, and make dishonest claims appear to be good and in good faith.
Democrats were like deer in the headlights, unable to move or respond to being accused of evil which was in reality good and proper behavior.
One of the most absurd accusations repeatedly leveled at Democrats was the claim that they were morally bankrupt because of their “election interference.”
Let’s say the obvious. It’s the responsibility of all citizens to keep corrupt people from gaining power of both political office and indeed any position of responsibility in society.
Police, prosecutors, school administrators, corporate managers, camp counselors, clerics, and all manner of responsible adults must always be on the lookout for corruption and lawless individuals. They must do everything in their power to protect citizens, school children, employees, etc. from predators, con men, felons, grifters, etc.
They must keep them out of positions of authority where that can create great havoc and pain for their victims.
Giving them power and authority over others multiplies the harm they can cause.
For example, the failure of the Catholic Church to remove pedophile priests from positions of authority is an important example of such failure and the church has been and is still being roundly and justifiably condemned for this failure.
Democrats needed to keep the former President who is a felon, as serial abuser of women, a tax cheat, and narcissist, a compulsive liar and on and on from being re-elected.
They were being responsible citizens for resisting and condemning the former President.
But the President turned the tables on them by repeatedly saying they were in the wrong and that he was a victim of “election interference.”
Now Republicans have been experts at making unfounded accusations towards Democrats since the days of Newt Gingrich in the early 90’s. Roy Cohn, one of the President’s mentors, was also one of the advocates of this approach of hurling accusations toward the “enemy” political party, and prosecutors or anyone who stood in the way of their increased power. In the McCarthy era following Cohn’s advice, everyone who sought justice or fairness in congressional hearings became a communist and an enemy of the people. No evidence was required to support such accusations but they made for riveting political theater.
Republicans know based on their history that false accusations are a way to gain increasing support from their voters. As with lies about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, there is virtually no price to be paid for telling big lies or making false accusations.
The President’s “election interference” accusation implied that everyone has the “right” to run for election, which is completely false.
In fact, running for office is a privilege.
Demanding to run regardless of one’s negative or notorious reputation and legal status is a demand that should be ignored and probably condemned. The failure of the founding fathers to prevent felons from running for office is a serious problem and is now even a threat to the Constitution and the future of the United States.
So, stopping a felon or a crook from running for office is indeed a virtuous act of responsibility toward society like stopping a proven pedophile from being employed as a camp counselor.
The camp counselor could claim “employment interference” when being rejected for such a job but no one would listen to such an absurd defense or claim to victimhood.
Not so with the President’s baseless claim about “election interference.”
Instead of responding aggressively to the President’s repeated false claims of victimhood, Democrats seemed to say and do nothing. They allowed the President to claim to be the victim over and over again and even gain the moral high ground from such a claim.
Evil people get away with accusing the good of being evil because the good are confused and frozen with fear when they confront such evil. This seems to be the story of today’s political landscape.
Of course, the media love such accusations which generate strong emotion (and increased advertising revenue) and are happy to give the President a bullhorn to repeat his accusations. It is an uphill battle to respond to false or nonsense accusations and many but not all should be ignored.
In retrospect, little or no push-back by Democrats to such a central accusation of wrongdoing seems like political malpractice.
Can Democrats learn from these strategic mistakes and respond more forcefully in the future? That is an open question.
But the failure to realize and discuss such obvious mistakes and lost opportunities of the past does not bode well for the future of the party.
Many are strongly opposed to any criticism of the Democratic party and see such criticism as weakening it, but I am not one of them.
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