On Wednesday night, the Democrats' leader tried again to rally the faithful. He did not do as he did the day before, i.e., claiming he went to a historically black college (he did not) or that his son died in Iraq (he did not) or that he met the inventor of insulin (he did not) or that war in Iraq provoked the current crisis (it is Ukraine). Instead, he claimed democracy itself is under attack. It is not.
We know democracy is not under attack because President Joe Biden and the Democrats used $45 million to fund the candidates who they claim are attacking democracy. We know democracy is not under attack because the Democrats have made no effort to calm the currents of contretemps rushing through the nation.
Were democracy actually under attack, Democrats would have sought consensus instead of contentiousness. They would not have rushed to force schools to accept boys into girls locker rooms. They would have relied on federalism. They would not have rushed a massive spending bill through Congress that provoked inflation. They would have worked with Republicans to narrowly craft a package. They would not have focused on abortion with no restrictions and Jan. 6. They would have focused on the economy and not wrecking it.
In August of 2021, Biden withdrew American troops from Afghanistan. Former President Donald Trump wanted the same outcome but was smart enough to listen to his advisers and delay the withdrawal until the winter, when the Taliban hunkers down in the mountain snows. We now know with certainty that Biden's advisers told him not to withdraw during fighting season but wait for winter. Dogmatically, Biden demanded a withdrawal during the fighting season and the Taliban swept into Kabul while we were still there, even as Biden said they would not.
Thirteen Americans died and hundreds of Americans were left behind. For the first time in a very long time, an American president abandoned American citizens behind enemy lines willfully, knowingly and expressly against the advice of his advisers. Then he lied, blamed others and denied it. The American people saw a president who lacked the empathy he claimed to have. He had promised a soft-hearted normalcy and instead provoked more international drama, just without mean tweets.
Biden's polling never recovered. Time and time again, when given the opportunity to correct, Biden and the Democrats instead insisted either the American public must side with them or democracy itself is under attack. At every opportunity, instead of empathy, Democrats expressed antipathy. After Terry McAuliffe lost the gubernatorial race in Virginia to now-Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Democrats should have learned two things. First, do not make the 2022 midterms about Trump. Second, work like hell to reverse their policies on schools.
Instead, Biden doubled down about "ultra MAGA" Republicans and hugged the teachers unions so close one would have thought Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, was a teenage girl. When the parental backlash began, the Democrats claimed parents were domestic terrorists, like Republicans, but worse. Then they walked it back, pretended it never happened, and lied -- claiming they were really the ones who wanted schools reopened. Much like Democrats now claim they were always the party of freedom, and the Republicans were always the party of slavery, Democrats now claim they were always the party of open, maskless schools and Republicans were the ones who shut it all down.
Nothing has worked. The Supreme Court handed them a gift with the Dobbs decision, ending Roe v. Wade. Women started returning to the Democrats. But then Democrats got ghoulish, insisting there could be no limits on abortion ever, a position that polls as more extreme than the Republican position. Women's and children's educations were at stake, their 401(k)s looked like Rome after the Visigoths entered, and suburban communities rang out with gunshots. They pivoted to the GOP.
So here, at the end of the midterms, Democrats return to screams about democracy. They funded many of the supposed threats to democracy that will beat them. They will learn nothing and forget nothing. After all, it is you, not them, that is the problem.