NOTE: This piece seems to have been a bit too strong for Townhall but I fully stand by it and believe it's one of the most important columns I've written. Anything you can do to push it out would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
American leftists are facing a political earthquake. Their policies are crashing and burning on the ground and in the polls. They see populist conservatism sweeping through previously leftwing strongholds like Italy, Argentina, and the Netherlands. And, as we enter a critical election year, Democrats are stuck with the least capable, least intelligent, least popular, and most corrupt chief executive in American history as their presidential candidate. For the left, therefore, the unthinkable now seems likely . . .
So presto: “Trump is Hitler” histrionics have sprung far and wide from leftist quarters. This is not surprising; it’s crunch time and Hitler-mongering long has been the left’s go-to play. Many on the other side undoubtedly will dismiss this Pavlovian response as something between ludicrous and hallucinogenic – and with good reason. But more than anything, this “Hitler, Hitler, Hitler” stuff begs the question: Do these fearmongers actually believe their own sound bites? Is Joe Scarborough truly so overcome by Trump Derangement Syndrome as to think that this man – who, after all, has a 4-year on-the-job track record – will “execute” his political opponents if reelected? Could Claire McCaskill pass a lie detector while sternly warning that Trump is “worse than Hitler”?
Doubtful.
So what is this Hitler nonsense really about? Ironically, although Hitlerian analogies rarely are appropriate or useful, a different reference to the Nazi era may go further to explain today’s Hitler-mongering than mere TDS. As Dennis Prager has observed, most contemporary Americans likely believe – or at least hope – they would have cheated to prevent Hitler’s Nazi party from winning the 1932 election if they’d lived in pre-war Germany and had the chance to do so. Although there may well be sufficiently hysterical talking heads today who actually think Donald Trump would, if reelected, destroy American democracy just as Adolf Hitler did in Germany after winning its 1932 election, the Scarborough and McCaskill types seem to be up to something more sinister. These demagogues, rather than advancing serious arguments, appear to be intentionally signaling to millions of frantic leftists that, because Trump is Hitler, it’s ok – in fact, it’s their moral duty just as it would have been when Hitler’s Nazi party was on the ballot – to cheat in the upcoming presidential election. Their message is clear: Trump must not win – at any and all cost – as this would have the same disastrous result as Hitler’s victory did in 1932 Germany.
Democrat leaders know, however, that organized top-down cheating would be harder to orchestrate this year than it would have been in 2020, when an unprecedented avalanche of mail ballots – widely acknowledged to be the least secure method of voting – was unleashed into our electoral system by Democrat-litigated executive and judicial fiat. This unconstitutional debacle overwhelmed any serious effort to authenticate the millions of mail ballots that ostensibly elected our current president. Indeed, under those circumstances, it would not have been difficult to methodically inject into a handful of Democrat fiefdoms such as Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Phoenix the forty thousand or so fraudulent mail ballots – out of nearly 160 million presidential votes cast – that would have swung the 2020 election from Trump to Biden.
But since then a number of battleground states have strengthened their ballot integrity protocols. In response, Democrat mouthpieces like Scarborough and McCaskill seem to be using Hitler-mongering to spark a “guerilla”-type election fraud campaign where millions of Nazi-triggered partisans are induced to unilaterally aid anti-Trump cheating in any small way they can. After all, a manufactured ballot for Biden (or whomever) here, and a lost Trump ballot there, could add up to millions of fraudulently changed votes – maybe even enough to swing the election. For this reason, we should expect Democrat Hitler-mongering to continue into 2024 – and to intensify as we approach November.
As Professor Alan Dershowitz wisely has emphasized, it is essential that Americans across the political spectrum trust the reported outcome of the 2024 election – perhaps more so than ever before in American history. In light of this reality, how should citizens who value the democratic norms upon which our Constitutional republic is based react to these anti-democratic machinations?
Unfortunately, there’s no secret sauce here; simply put, we must be unwaveringly vigilant and resolute. Universal mail ballots, ballot harvesting, and absurdly long voting windows are baked into our election system – at least for now. In 2024, therefore, Americans across the country must demand that their states employ the most rigorous ballot integrity protocols available – particularly for the millions of votes that, once again, will be cast via inherently insecure mail, drop box, and harvesting – and Republicans must closely and carefully scrutinize every step of the vote-counting process. Fortunately, there’s still time for any necessary election integrity legislation in potentially vulnerable red and purple states – blue states will do what they do – and, as we enter 2024, Republican legislators should view election integrity as their single most urgent state-level issue. To ensure they do, Republican governors should demand an immediate top-to-bottom review of their states’ ballot integrity protocols and promptly address any apparent shortcomings.
Americans understandably are apprehensive about the state of our beloved country over the days and weeks following the coming election. Whatever this may look like, it must not reflect widely-held doubt about the integrity of the reported result. America is strong – but maybe not that strong.