As I watched Joe Biden the other night giving his “Speech From the Gates of Hell” shaking his fist, with a grimaced face and using an often-growling voice, I thought to myself, “Is he actually listening to himself”. Here he was acting so angry that he could spit, accusing his political opponents of spreading anger. Here he was calling 10’s of millions of Americans fascists and traitors and putting targets on their backs for government condoned violence while condemning THEM of encouraging violence. Chuck Schumer did the same thing to Justice Kavanaugh when he gave his “Reap the Whirlwind” speech on the steps of the Supreme court. Are we surprised that there was an assassination attempt against Brett Kavanaugh and his family even before the Dobbs v Jackson decision?
I was asking myself, what is it called when someone accuses someone else of doing exactly what they are doing? It is call projection, and the Democrats have turned it into an artform. The technical definition of Projection is, “unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits that you don’t like about yourself and attributing them to someone else.” This fits perfectly with the Democrat strategy with the exception that it is not “unconscious”. It is intentional, which makes it even more pathetic and sinister.
Another example of political projection is the “defund the police” movement. The list of Democrats who called for defunding the police or defunding ICE is long and distinguished and includes the likes of Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and AOC. And until recently, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were so weak in their support we can call it nonexistent. Kamala even helped raise money to post bail for criminal rioters in the summer of 2020. But now, since the defund the police idea has revealed itself to be a complete failure, they are suggesting that it was the Republicans who initiated and drove that campaign despite the fact that they can’t find a single Republican who actually spoke those words.
And then, as if their intentional projection isn’t bad enough, Democrats combine their projection with a magician’s technique called “misdirection”. They suggest that Republicans support defunding the police because they all voted against the American Rescue Plan and the $350 billion earmarked for state and local governments. What they will not tell you is that, not only did that bill not require those funds to be used to fund local police departments, but the words “police” or “law enforcement” do not even appear in the text. Republicans voted against The American Rescue Plan because they thought the $1.9 Trillion price tag was too large and would only drive inflation higher. They also feared that those funds would be used to bail out long-mismanaged state and local governments. Not a single Republican said that they voted against this bill because they did not want the funds to be used for local law enforcement. Do not be deceived by their projection or their misdirection. Defunding the Police is a Democrat position and doctrine.
Democrats also suggest that many Republicans believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump because of voter fraud. That claim is true. Many Republicans do question the 2020 election results. But the problem with their criticism is that they make that suggestion while claiming some sort of imaginary moral high ground for themselves in this area. Hillary Clinton, while conceding to Donald Trump the day after the 2016 election, changed course almost immediately to suggest that the election was stolen from her. Stacey Abrams still thinks she is governor of Georgia and Maxine Waters demanded Trump’s impeachment before he even took office.
And Democrat hypocrisy runs even deeper in the area of questioning elections. A third of Democrats in Congress refused to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration and former Democrat President Jimmy Carter declared that Trump was not the legitimate winner of the 2016 election. Jamie Raskin, Congressman from Maryland and member of the January 6thcommittee, challenged Florida’s delegates in the 2016 election. Maybe he should have recused himself from Jan 6th committee and investigation. Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, tweeted at the time that Trump stole the 2016 election AND Brian Kemp stole the Georgia Governor’s election from Stacey Abrams.
Democrats have questioned elections even more broadly as a party. The Washington Post did a survey in 2021 and found that 29% of respondents said that Joe Biden was not the legitimate President of the United States. That’s terrible, you say. But the Washington Post did the same survey in 2017 and found that 42% of respondents claimed that Donald Trump was illegitimate. Both parties were represented in both polls, but who do you think was calling Donald Trump illegitimate. I’ll leave that judgement to you.
The point is, despite Democrats’ suggesting that they are pure in this area, they are not. The 2020 election was extraordinary in many ways due to the pandemic. Election laws were changed and 24-7 unmonitored lock boxes were used to accommodate voters. Was there fraud? Of course there was. Was there enough to change the election? Bill Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, doesn’t think there was. The reality is that there is no going back at this time. Joe Biden is our President and all we can do in the future is to ensure that our voting laws walk that fine line between ease of access and voter integrity.
Just remember, however, as you listen to Democrats accuse Republicans of doing terrible things, it is usually something they are doing. While they have one finger pointing at Republicans, they have three fingers pointing back at themselves. Also, remember the old joke (or maybe it’s an axiom) – How do you know when politicians are lying? When their lips are moving!