By Peter Lemiska

Democrat politicians endlessly warn us about the “threat to our democracy” posed by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans. Of course, that claim is patently absurd on two fronts. First of all, as most Americans know, we live under a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

But, putting that technicality aside, presumably they’re talking about “democracy” in general terms, as opposed to a monarchy, oligarchy, or dictatorship. They’re claiming that MAGA Republicans somehow threaten our democratic way of life, and all the benefits associated with it, including the precious right to freely elect our leaders.

From that perspective, do Trump and his supporters really pose a threat to our democracy?

Democrats inevitably point to the incident at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2001. They’ve managed to hype it as an armed insurrection, an attempt to overthrow our government, led by Donald Trump himself. But during that so-called insurrection, only one shot rang out. It came from a panicked Capitol Police officer who shot and killed an unarmed female protester, an Air Force vet.

Rational minds have always known that the incident was no insurrection. It was a protest by passionate Americans, outraged by the unresolved voting irregularities witnessed in the 2020 election — irregularities that were caused by last-minute, unconstitutional changes to voting laws by Democrats.

And in the months after the protest, other underhanded Democrat maneuvers, aimed at affecting the election results, were exposed. There was that letter signed by 51 former intelligence officers, all committed to Trump’s defeat. It was intended to help Joe Biden’s campaign by discrediting evidence of his corruption. After the election, we learned that the letter was conceived and orchestrated by Antony Blinken, Joe Biden’s campaign advisor at the time.

And there was evidence of government censorship. The contempt for President Trump at the upper echelon of the FBI was made crystal clear by Peter Strzok and others. So it was no surprise to learn that the bureau abused its power by enlisting social media to help suppress the evidence against Biden’s corruption.

It all suggests that, except for a few agitators with various motives, the participants in the January 6 incident were not insurrectionists threatening our democracy but protestors defending the democratic concept of free and fair elections.

What about the four years of Trump’s presidency? Did any of his policies suggest a threat to our democracy? On the contrary, his “America First” agenda made our country stronger. It was manifested through secure borders, energy independence, and a robust economy.

Now consider Joe Biden and the Democrats.

When Biden took office, one of his first acts was the elimination of our border security. Like a power-hungry dictator, Biden simply decided to ignore our immigration laws. His catastrophic border policy resulted in untold millions of unidentified foreign citizens from around the world pouring into our country. Its impact is now being felt in cities across the country. The worst is yet to come.

Likewise, he alone decided to systematically shut down our fossil fuel industries. It immediately increased gasoline and home-heating prices and contributed to across-the-board inflation.

And what about the student loan forgiveness program, another decree by Biden? It forces working-class families to pay off student loans accrued by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s a brazen effort to buy votes using taxpayer dollars and can hardly be called democracy in action.

Then there were the shutdowns and the arbitrary suspension of our constitutional rights — the right to peacefully assemble and to worship freely — all in the name of an exaggerated health emergency.

Those actions, all taken in defiance of public opinion and without congressional approval, can hardly be called democratic. But arguably the most egregious affront to democracy is Biden’s perversion of our justice system.

As President Trump faces four criminal indictments, Democrats are utterly bewildered by his continued support. There’s a simple explanation. His supporters see Trump not as a criminal but as a victim of corrupt politics. It was apparent when, after surviving two reckless and failed impeachments, a man with no prior criminal record was charged with four successive serious criminal indictments. It was obvious because all the prosecutors are Democrats who hate Trump, and because other Democrat politicians who engaged in the same crimes for which Trump is charged were never prosecuted. It was made clear by the Democrats’ frenzied effort to exclude Trump from the 2024 ballot.

Their aggressive, relentless, and unwarranted pursuit of President Trump has only succeeded in shredding the credibility of our justice system and uniting Trump supporters.

Biden and the Democrats have seemingly abandoned even the pretense of equal justice and adopted the very same tactics used by authoritarians, tyrannical regimes, and third-world countries.

But it’s not just Biden’s tyranny that threatens our democracy.

The Democrat Party now seemingly views socialism and communism not as adversarial systems of government but as paradigms, something worth trying here. Some within their party openly embrace China’s brand of communism. One of Biden’s current senior advisors, Anita Dunn, once praised Chairman Mao’s political philosophy. It cost her her job during the Obama administration. But times have sure changed. In 2021, Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal delivered a speech at an awards ceremony hosted by a Communist Party affiliate. But while most Democrats still try to distance themselves from hard-core communism, a poll conducted just a few years ago showed that 57% of Democrats actually had a more positive view of socialism than of capitalism.

But whether it’s socialism, Marxism, or Maoism that captivates Democrats, their endless attacks on our Constitution, our Supreme Court, and our traditional values reveal a deep disdain for our democratic way of life.

They may call themselves Democrats, but they have long ago abandoned the democratic principles that made America great. It’s control and power over the people that they crave, and given the opportunity, they rule by fiat, censorship, and intimidation.

Yes, there is a clear, well-established threat to our democratic way of life. But it doesn’t come from Donald Trump or the Republicans.