AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Most people don’t know the origin of the term “Left” or “Leftism” in politics.
It comes from the time of the French Revolution, describing the simple fact that the Jacobins and other radicals sat to the Left of the presiding officer in the French Parliament.
In other words, Leftists have always been advocates of using force and political violence to get their way; it is in their DNA. Their propaganda is filled with sunshine and puppies, and their philosophy is that power begins at the barrel of a gun.
In the United States, the gun used most often is government power, although we have seen enough violent demonstrations to remind us that if the Left doesn’t get its way through the manipulation of nominally legitimate means, they will resort to other means. Most big cities in America still have scars from the riots of 2020.
What is common to all Leftist political tactics, using government force or street violence is a complete disregard for the rule of law. They know what they want to achieve and will resort to almost any tactic to get it.
During Trump’s administration, the Left used illegitimate lawfare and blatantly dishonest propaganda to get their way. They rewrote election laws on the fly, likely cheated in collecting and counting the ballots, and lied about COVID to manipulate the electorate. The intelligence community colluded with Big Tech to censor Americans–violating our constitutional rights–and the MSM “debunked” obviously true stories to get the electoral outcome they wanted.
What they wanted was so amazingly awful that 2024 may still turn out badly for them, so they are turning to a new kind of lawfare: keeping Donald Trump off the ballot.
There is a lot of speculation about why, exactly, the Democrats are going down this path. On the one hand it’s clear they have it in for Trump and want to hurt him as much as possible, so the explanation can be as simple as “because they can.”
On the other hand, there is no prospect that they will accomplish this sort of thing in a competitive state, although they may try. If they can’t, then technically speaking, these moves won’t actually move the electoral count.
California, for instance, is likely going to try to kick Trump off the ballot. Now, California has the largest number of electoral votes in the country, but if Trump has a shot in California, then he will walk into office without breaking a sweat. The state is solid Blue.
A third possible reason they are doing this is the one a lot of anti-Trump Republicans are assuming: the Democrats want to ensure that Trump supporters and most Republicans are enraged, ensuring that Trump gets the nomination. This would require that Democrats are certain they can beat Trump, which is now far from a sure thing.
Or it would assume that their attempts at lawfare post-election would tie Trump up in knots should he win.
Democrats may believe one or another of these things, but it seems like a dangerous bet to me. In 2016 it was rational to assume that Trump couldn’t win; nobody expected it. In 2024? The numbers aren’t so daunting, and Biden has a record that nobody approves of. Trump is not a sure loser, and the Democrats have so many legal cases to use against Trump that these moves to disqualify him from the ballot only play into his hands, proving the point that all the cases are pure politics.
This brings me back to my original point: this is likely just Leftists being Leftists, ignoring legal niceties, and using whatever underhanded means they can think of to harm Trump. Leftists do all sorts of impractical things to lash out. The revolutions of 1848 were doomed to fail. The domestic terrorism of the 70s had no chance of success. Antifa riots didn’t establish a utopia.
And kicking Donald Trump off the ballot won’t guarantee Leftists retain power in 2024.
In other words, this is likely an expression of rage, not a well-thought-out strategy. Kicking Trump off the ballot in Colorado or California will accomplish nothing practically, but it pleases the Leftists to score a pyrrhic victory.
They hate Democratic processes except when they can manipulate them to ensure victory. Otherwise they just strike out.
