There is an aphorism many are familiar with that defines the contemporary term “projection”: Whenever you are pointing a finger at someone, four fingers will be pointing back at yourself. It is a succinct way of describing the deflection technique of accusing another target of behavior you yourself are guilty of undertaking. We are seeing this playing out this election season on the broadest of scales.
From the moment Donald Trump announced his third effort at running for the presidency, we have seen the Democrats, and especially the compliant media industry, leveling accusations about what an inherent threat he poses against this nation. As his stature has risen and his polling has only become stronger, these claims have risen to levels bypassing hysteria and reaching hyperbolic.
If you watch MSNBC with any regularity (not something suggested without psychological oversight) you become accustomed to the bleating of dystopian nightmares promised. According to the assured totalitarian threat that Trump will destroy all facets of this nation, along with all normalcy in our lives, and these brave souls sounding the clarion today will be jailed or tossed into encampments or summarily executed.
The amusement found while absorbing this onslaught of dystopian forecasting is that at the same time the Republicans/Conservatives are said to be trafficking in fear this election cycle. In response to one such impacted claim - that made by NPR’s David Folkenflick - I gave a rundown of dozens of examples I collected showing the press and Dems in fullscale mongering of fright.
These pre-election promises from the press about Trump’s plotted demise for the nation fall into categories. He will attack constitutional rights, he will end elections as we know them, and he poses an inherent threat to democracy in total. The glaring aspect is that Joe Biden and the Democrats have spent nearly four years doing these very things. We are told to be fearful of what Trump might do, all while ignoring what Biden is currently enforcing. Let’s take a look.
The Constitution
Biden has long been a proponent of attacking the 2nd Amendment and has never slowed from that quest. (Ironic, given his own son’s inability to follow Dad’s protocols.) Just this week it took the Supreme Court to uphold gun rights concerning bump stocks. In commenting on the Court overturning this Trump-era legislation, Biden (the White House) said, “Americans should not live in fear of this mass devastation.”
On the First Amendment, Biden is no better. Both his campaign and the administration - as well as government agencies - have been exposed as complicit in silencing citizens via the Twitter Files. A judge has even made a ruling that mandated that the Biden administration suspend its work with social media companies, due to the efforts to silence the voices of some on those platforms.
Trump’s potential threats against journalists feel vacant in light of what is happening during the Biden term. After testifying about those Twitter files, Matt Taibbi was threatened with jail time by Congressional Democrats. In similar fashion, Catherine Herridge is facing mounting court fines for contempt, as she is being forced in a federal case to reveal a source used for a report back in 2017.
If you want a shining example of targeting the press we look into the case of reporter Steve Baker, recently taken into custody by federal marshalls for the DOJ. Baker, who has been critical of government agencies the past few years, is charged with multiple counts stemming from the January 6 riot, where he recorded events that day. Someone not arrested is Luke Mogelson, at The New Yorker. Mogelson also recorded events that day, but since he has been appropriately critical of Donald Trump, he managed to avoid charges – despite his video showing him gathered in the violent mob and even recording himself breaking into the Capitol through a window.
The Elections
It is rather amazing the gaslighting we endure from the press about how a Trump victory will mean the end of elections as we know them. We do not have to explore too deeply the blatant hypocrisy of wailing over affecting elections as a presidential candidate is facing five separate court cases done to cast Trump in a criminal light. Then we have states that attempted to have Trump thrown off of the ballot entirely. Is there a stronger word than “hypocrisy?!"
The Democrats have spent boundless energy perverting the voting process, from expanding mail-in ballots, voting drop boxes, and rampant suspicious counting practices. Battling against voter ID requirements is the regular fight from the left. In Georgia the Democrats legal pit bull Marc Elias sued the state for racial targeting with ballots – a new rule was an absentee ballot request needed to be signed by the applicant using a pen. Then there is the mounting denial of the verifiable fact that illegal immigrants have found the ability to vote – but sure, it will be Trump ruing elections for us.
We saw the usual duality of election ethics at play when the subject of redrawing election district maps is covered. The way it works is when Republican state houses enact this, it is the evil and racist practice of “gerrymandering." When Democrats commit the exact same thing, somehow, it is a cagey gambit of “redistricting.” As California lost House seats due to fleeing residents, it was called a smart play when it divided districts by ethnicity to bolster representation.
Then to show one example of the real threat to our venerated electoral process, we are vastly familiar with from which side of the political aisle the regular calls to rescind the Electoral College originate.
Democracy
It can be said many of those election maneuvers threaten the foundation of our republic, but there is so much more. From his first days in office, Biden stripped away rules to protect our southern borders, despite a constitutional mandate. He has sued states over their own enforcement in efforts of self-preservation.
The hysterics over Trump targeting political opponents are used to avoid what Biden has been doing - arresting political opponents. Apart from the Trump trials and along the lines of the Stave Baker arrest, we have a recent sentencing of a 75-year-old abortion clinic protestor (suddenly protesting is not a sacred act), charges brought against a doctor exposing a Texas hospitalperforming gender-affirming surgery on minors (include the words of doctors no longer being sacred), and the suspension of FBI agents who dared expose corruption at the Bureau (ditto the suspended sacredness of whistleblowers).
Try to imagine the press reaction if a Trump-sanctioned FBI warrant served against a man threatening him led to the citizen being shot dead. We doubt that story would be as lightly reported on and dropped, as that Utah case has been.
There has also been the jailing of Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon over contempt of Congress charges, as they refused to capitulate with the January 6 Kangaroo court in the House. Meanwhile, Merrick Garland essentially investigated himself and then cleared himself of contempt of Congress charges. This multi-level lawfare is not concerning for the media complex in the country.
Then there is the open hostility towards the Supreme Court, which appears to be a boundless enterprise for Biden, the Democrats, and the media. There was talk as he was elected that Biden might resort to court-packing. Along with Biden’s attacks on the Bill of Rights listed above, he has openly flouted the SCOTUS ruling on college debt relief, defiantly bragging how he is defying the Court.
The Dems and the press have demonized the court in general, as well as specific justices, claiming the conservatives have flung SCOTUS into a realm of invalid activism. Now we have various Democrat members of Congress stating they need to step in and issue restrictions on the Court. This either done in defiance of or ignorance about the separation of powers.
And just as an addendum to these threats taking place, let us look at the open threat of antisemitism that is racing through this country. Just a few years back during the Trump administration, select instances were always broadcast as “proof” that he was ushering in a growing tide of anti-Jewish intolerance. The examples were as rare as they were strained while being applied. (These also ignored Trump having immediate family members who are Jewish.)
Yet following the October 7 attacks in Israel, waves of examples of Jewish hatred and violence erupted across the country, yet Joe Biden elides responsibility on the matter. There are probably more college protests exhibiting antisemitic behavior than there were specific examples during the Trump years. Thousands have risen up against Israel with constant protests exhibiting calls to eliminate the state and supporting Hamas terrorism.
The press has been largely silent on the matter. Despite numerous cases of blatant Jewish hatred seen across the map, we have yet to see anything approaching the kind of pushback seen just a few years ago. Yet as the cancerous hatred is permitted to give root in this country, it is being said a return of Donald Trump is what assures us of mutual destruction.
The fact that Trump served without ushering these events is not addressed. But when Biden actually delivers on most of his promised threats, they completely ignore it. They want you to focus where their one finger is directed, and demand we not notice four others are pointed at the very same time.