By Peter Lemiska

The Democrat Party, it seems, has always had the ability and propensity to exploit crises and catastrophes whenever and wherever they find them.

More than 10 years ago, as Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanual flaunted that concept, publicly admitting, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Later, his longtime friend, Hillary Clinton, echoed his words. And though Joe Biden doesn’t seem to remember much these days, he never forgot the Emanuel Doctrine or its corollary: One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity. While more than a million Americans were suffering and dying during the COVID pandemic, Biden called it an “incredible opportunity” to fundamentally transform the country. Biden and the Democrats still see pain and suffering as opportunities to further the Democrat agenda.

On Tuesday, Biden is scheduled to deliver his second State of the Union Address. Most Americans know something is not right with the country. A recent Marist poll indicates that 62% of Americans believe the union is no longer strong. Other polls show that 71% of the country is on the wrong track. But we won’t hear about that from Biden on Tuesday. Instead, his speech will consist mostly of political spin and distortion, flaunting America’s strength and his “successes” over the past two years. He sees success when things go from utterly untenable to simply terrible.

Biden certainly won’t talk about the flood of illegal immigrants invading our country, the anarchy spreading across our cities, the fentanyl poisoning our citizens, or the Chinese surveillance balloons meandering through our skies.

Looking at the invited guests, though, it’s pretty clear that there will be a healthy dose of the Emanuel Doctrine.

There were two human tragedies in recent months that captured the attention of a nation. On January 21, 11 people were killed and nine others injured during a shooting spree at a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, California. The perpetrator left the scene and arrived at a dance studio a few minutes away in Alhambra, brandishing the same weapon. There, he was subdued by an unarmed civilian, Brandon Tsay, who was, of course, celebrated as a hero.

Before that, an incident occurred that had an even greater impact than the Monterey Park shooting. On January 7, five black Memphis police officers, attempting to arrest a black motorist for no apparent reason, savagely beat him. His name was Tyre Nichols, and soon after, he died of his injuries. Not since the George Floyd case has the nation been so shocked and appalled.

Biden and the Democrats have invited Brandon Tsay and the family of Tyre Nichols to attend the State of the Union Address on Tuesday.

Tsay deserves to be honored and his heroism recognized, but we know Biden won’t stop there. He seizes on every opportunity that comes his way to talk about gun violence in America. He’ll likely use this shooting and those 11 deaths to call for more restrictions on our Second Amendment rights and to further advance his anti-gun agenda.

Like the family members of the Monterey Park massacre, the Nichols family is suffering unimaginable grief. But Democrats see it as nothing more than another opportunity. The question is, how will Biden exploit it? Reasonable people know that race was not an issue in Tyre’s death. Everyone involved was black. Still, incredibly enough, some race-obsessed fanatics have somehow tried to blame “white supremacy.”

No, Biden can’t use this tragedy to promote systemic racism or white supremacy. But he can use it to further demonize our police departments — even though the catastrophic impact of anti-police sentiment is already apparent. Nonetheless, he’ll probably still talk about more restraints on local law enforcement, and may even raise the issue of nationalizing the police.

The Constitution mandates that the president “from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” That’s the basis for the annual State of the Union Address. Of course, past presidents have also used that venue to promote their political agendas. But today’s Democrats see it not as an objective report on the state of the Union but as a propaganda tool and an opportunity to exploit the despair of fellow citizens.