OPINION:
The casual way Democrats threaten to throw Republicans in prison or prosecute them for supporting President Trump is alarming and indicative of exactly what they will try to do if they win power on Nov. 3.
On “The Bulwark Daily” podcast Monday, Kara Swisher blithely speculated that if Kamala Harris had won the presidency in 2024, Elon Musk might already be in jail and that he “knows what’s coming for him” if Democrats win control of Congress in the midterm elections — though they would not hold that power until the next Congress is seated in January.
“If Donald Trump loses the House and the Senate, I would worry. I’d be worried if I were him,” Ms. Swisher said. “So they’re going to start investigating again. You think he’s not on the list? He’s at the top of that list.”
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Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Democrat, tried to scare young Republicans from entering public service at an Oct. 13 event at the University of Chicago, saying Democrats would focus on the aides who enabled Mr. Trump’s alleged corruption.
“I want young people coming out of school to say, ’Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds like fun. I might get an opportunity.’ I want them to be like, ’Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent,” Ms. Slotkin said.
After the clip surfaced this week, Ms. Slotkin doubled down, defending her comments as “manufactured outrage” from conservatives who want to deflect from tight midterm races in places such as Michigan and Kansas. If only that were the case. She accidentally said the quiet part out loud: Democrats plan to weaponize the government if they win power, in the hopes of deterring young Republicans from serving in office.
On Wednesday, Ms. Slotkin suggested that the Trump administration may attempt to change the outcome of the midterm elections. “Right in the last two weeks, they somehow will come up with a national security incident only they can protect us from,” she said, sowing public distrust in both our electoral system and the Trump administration.
The day before Ms. Slotkin made her comments, The Washington Post reported on a “small group” of anonymously sourced “national security officials” who were “discreetly advising state governments and congressional lawmakers on how to prepare for the possibility that the Trump administration would attempt to interfere in November’s midterm elections.”
“Their efforts are motivated not by political bias, they say, but a growing sense of alarm that President Trump will harm American democracy by undermining the integrity of the vote to keep the Republican Party in power,” The Post reported.
Jenna Pounds, a Utah software engineer known as DataRepublican on X, sifted through various Democratic Socialists of America and left-wing think tank and nonprofit materials and concluded that the left was preparing its own “color revolution” in America and laying the groundwork.
Sowing distrust in our institutions and Republican leadership so that youths will view both as “illegitimate” is the first step. If Democrats do not win by a landslide on Nov. 3, it must be because of the nefarious actions of Republicans. Ms. Slotkin’s remarks and The Post’s reporting said as much.
A color revolution starts with a series of mass civil protests aimed at replacing perceived entrenched or corrupt leaders, as we are seeing in France. Those that occurred in post-Soviet states in the early 21st century aimed to replace communism with a Western-style democratic government and were sparked by tactics developed and deployed by U.S. intelligence agencies at the time.
America’s color revolution will be the reverse: American communists seizing power through democratic means and then consolidating it for themselves. A color revolution usually follows disputed or falsified elections, so it is essential for these Democratic Socialists of America revolutionaries to sow distrust in our electoral system beforehand.
How coordinated and sophisticated is this effort? It is hard to say, though it is undeniable that Democratic Socialists of America candidates have growing power and influence within the Democratic Party.
It is also undeniable that Democrats have no fear of weaponizing the government against their political opponents. You need to look no further than special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation, in which he obtained personal information and data on at least 639,000 Republican donors, voters and supporters, according to a memo from Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.
Mr. Trump’s two previous impeachments, the sham House Select January 6th Committee and Mr. Trump’s four criminal indictments while he served as a private citizen were all initiated by Democrats.
Democrats are promising more of the same if they win the midterms — though the consequences would not be felt until the new Congress takes power in January. Republicans will go to prison, whether deserved or not. Democrats are already running the playbook.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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