The Democrats refuse to learn from the errors of their Trump prosecution and persecution. They will learn the hard way in November.
Disclaimer: I grew up a Democrat in the county of Cook. I thought of applying to canvass north Chicago cemeteries to help the party. The first person for whom I voted was Walter Mondale, continuing the ways of my immigrant parents and grandparents who only voted for Democrats. And then, as Sheldon Adelson described it, “I did not leave the Democrats; they left me.” I still remember the desperate vote at the 2012 national convention to add a simple plank recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The rank-and-file crowd would not let it pass. The Democratic party keeps moving to the left, so even standing still, I found myself suddenly on the right. I voted for Obama the first time and then I registered as a Republican in Nevada.
On Fridays I go to the open-air “shuk”. It’s a crazy market and one has to keep on his toes so as not to get run over by a food cart or delivery truck. My experience is that some Americans love it, with the shouting, mayhem and bread still warm from the oven. Others, though, dream of Kroger and the perfect pyramid of tomatoes of even size and color sold there. While at the shuk, a very dear friend called and wanted to know how I could support Donald Trump, now that he was….”a convicted felon”. I told him that I would get back to him when I was safely away from the flying fruit carts.
I later wrote to my friend and asked him what issue or issues were most important to him in the upcoming election. The security of the US? Controlled immigration? The economy? The safety of Jews there? US support for Israel? Which of the two major candidates is the strongest on the topics closest to your heart? I argued that for each subject above, Donald Trump seemed to be the absolute winner as to his position on the same. Ignoring the incredible maneuvering that Alvin Bragg and other prosecutors have had to do to even get Donald Trump into a courtroom, let’s just start with him being a convicted felon. So what? Think of what people called him after the Access Hollywood tape or the “only twice impeached president” or orange man bad. I know that all of those on campus demanding that Jews here in Israel and elsewhere be killed in an "intifada revolution" are Biden voters; I want to vote with them? I asked my friend if he had a very special car and there was only one guy in Jerusalem who knew how to take care of it, and somehow he found out that he once did time for beating his wife, would he drop him and look for somebody less proficient?
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Donald Trump, like everybody else, is imperfect. But Donald Trump is the avatar for tens of millions of people who simply look at the US and see it going the wrong way. They cannot accept uncontrolled entry at the southern border, an incompetent military that cannot meet its recruitment needs, unstoppable inflation, unaccountable bureaucrats, and legal persecution of party enemies. J6 defendants are rotting in jail for little more than property damage and parading in the Capitol. Parents at school board meetings have been profiled by the FBI. Christians praying across from abortion clinics have had their houses overrun with agents with guns out. And then there is Donald Trump. Remember that New York had to pass a special law to allow for the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit because it involved purported events so long ago. Even Alvin Bragg had to transform misdemeanor business records falsification into felonies in order to be able to file his case. That one is able to perform legal magic and charge Donald Trump does not mean that one should.
And that is the point that the Democrats are willfully missing. Hilary Clinton ran out to sell “She Was Right” mugs. Hilary Clinton should stay off of the radar. Her routing of classified emails to a homebrew server served only her interests and those of the Clinton Foundation. She really should have been prosecuted for her mishandling of classified communications, but Donald Trump felt sorry for her. We just learned this week that Tony Fauci and his cabal over at the NIH did the same practice by intentionally misspelling words and also using private Gmail accounts so as to avoid FOIA requests. The people are peasants. Though the Freedom of Information Act means that they have the right to know, we, their betters, will determine what we will let them see. Donald Trump in the eyes of millions, including independents, is the antidote to this institutional hubris. While he may be a billionaire and a former member of the New York elite, he understands what bothers so many Americans. Those in charge believe that they are untouchable and that state of affairs in a Republic cannot stand.
Democrats would have been wiser to ignore Trump and let him make the gaffes and extreme statements that turn off independents and Romney-style Republicans. Instead, they turned him into a martyr. He hauled in $53 million in the twenty-four hours after the verdict, independent of the millions pledged to the Preserve America PAC by Sheldon Adelson’s widow, Miriam. Sentencing on July 11th can go from no jail time to a short stay to decades behind bars. The smart play would be to give the former president some type of non-jail supervision, but the Democrats can’t read the room and they are enthralled with their “victory”. If they give him any jail time, even though he will be out on bail and the verdict may well be overturned on appeal, the Democrats might as well send the U-Haul over to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to get the Bidens out prior to the Trumps’ return. The Democrats cannot stop themselves: Trump handcuffed and marched off to jail! They are scheduling their own political funeral.
Americans do not like anyone getting a raw deal. Caitlan Clark is being knocked around the WNBA like a pinata for her sin of being white and talented. Donald Trump is being prosecuted on charges never before brought against others. That does not sit well with Americans who believe that everyone should get a square deal. The Democrats would have been smarter to leave Trump alone, but they could not ignore all of the levers of power at their disposal. Some argue that Republicans should not do the same to their political opponents, but the only way to get back to the middle is to go to the extreme in the other direction. Biden’s pay-to-play activities during his time as vice-president need legal redress, as does his taking documents from the time he was senator. Once the Democrats have tasted their own medicine will there be a chance that we can once again get back to the old rules that worked for so long.
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