Democrats continue their hypocritical assault on democracy

Just a pro-tip for anyone observing American political developments: Don’t take partisans at face value, ever, on anything.

As a general rule, when politicians and political operatives repeat things over and over again across the country, it’s because they have ulterior motives.

Republican and conservative activists have fixed on wedge issues like transgender policies, for example, in order to try to score victories at the local and state level. Instead of talking about, say, how to improve educational outcomes or steering fiscal policy in a more sustainable direction, Republicans have calculated that certain culture war issues could give them an edge among swing voters or help bring out Republicans to the polls.

Similarly, Democrats have spent the last few years stressing how much they value democracy. You have no doubt heard how much democracy is under threat, that to vote for a Republican is to vote against democracy, and so on. While there are no doubt specific instances in which they well have a point — for example, we highly doubt it is in the best interests of any jurisdiction to have a paranoid MAGA Republican who truly believes our elections are all rigged to oversee elections — there are reasons to be skeptical about much broader, general claims.

For instance, we have seen Democrats across the country clamor for the removal of Donald Trump from state ballots. From the reaction to the Colorado Supreme Court to California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis to Maine’s Secretary of State unilaterally deciding to strike Trump from the ballot, Democrats are suddenly pretending to adhere to a strict, context-free reading of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment to strike Trump from 2024 ballots.

In actuality, they are attacking the “democracy” they claim to be defenders of.

We have likewise seen, for example, Gov. Gavin Newsom be on the right side of that particular debate. He has dismissed as a political distraction the effort by California’s lieutenant governor to strike Trump from the ballot. But on the other hand, Newsom and the Legislature are working hard to remove a taxpayer protection measure from California’s 2024 ballot, obviously because they fear what that it will prevail if approved in a direct democratic process.

Democratic lawmakers have also approved ACA 13 to undermine the taxpayer protection measure, despite it being a mirror image of an Ohio measure that Newsom and many other Democratic politicos condemned as anti-democratic.  “Whatever happens – or doesn’t – Newsom’s criticism of Ohio’s Republicans for trying to bend the rules mid-game is pure hypocrisy,” noted CalMatters columnist Dan Walters.

Democrats in California have long attempted to undermine direct democracy in California, calling democratic recalls undemocratic.

Those who are paying attention should take with a grain of salt any of the hyperbole from Democrats, especially in election season, about democracy being on the line. Because as we’ve seen right here in California, Democrats will say one thing very loudly and breathlessly but do the total opposite once they have power themselves.

Talk about “protecting democracy” isn’t really about protecting democracy. It’s about scoring political points in order to gain power.

If we’ve learned anything from the last several years, it’s that our institutions are resilient and can withstand assaults on democracy whether from the right or the left. Everything else is just hot air and bluster.