Democrats should fear ‘lawfare’ tactics being turned against them

Former President Donald Trump is getting dragged through the courts via the “lawfare” charges manufactured against him — and seemingly millions of liberals and Democrats are ecstatic. Chaos, turmoil and pain such as this can feel exhilarating when it’s the other side’s ox being gored.

But what happens if, in but a few short months, it is their ox being gored? Or they themselves?

Will they cheer? Will they take to the streets in celebration? Of course not. They will scream out their innocence as they label the attacks “partisan” while demanding impartial justice.

Unhinged partisan politics is quickly propelling our nation down the path of the normalization of the weaponization of law to take out a political opponent — a path that is destructive to all.

New York Times columnist David Brooks said the quiet part out loud recently while on left-of-center “PBS Newshour”: “if you look at democracies in decline, then it is a pattern that people in office use their power to indict and criminalize and throw in jail the people who were in office before them of the opposing party. And so we are a nation, democracy in decline.”

While he may have been trying to project such unethical and illegal behavior onto Trump and the Republicans, it perfectly defines what the Democrats are now trying to do to Trump.

As I write this, the Biden White House, the Democratic National Committee, Democratic politicians, most of the mainstream media, most of academia and most of Hollywood seem thrilled that Democratic district attorneys, attorney generals, special counsels and judges such as Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Fani Willis, Jack Smith, Arthur F. Engoron and Juan Merchan are seemingly working as one to bankrupt Trump, keep him off ballots, wound his campaign — or send him to prison.

But what if that poisonous partisan shoe is soon switched from a Republican foot to a Democratic one? Even with the endless lawfare being waged against Trump, more and more people are anticipating that he will be the next president of the United States. Then what?

There has already been open speculation by conservative and Republican pundits that red state attorneys general, district attorneys and prosecutors should employ the exact same tactics the Democrats are using to go after Trump to investigate Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and President Biden.  

Many on the right believe former President Obama has a very interesting history in Chicago; that Hillary Clinton has a very interesting history with hard drives; that Biden has a very interesting history in Ukraine and China. Especially under a GOP administration, how easy would it be for Republicans to either file charges against Clinton, Obama and Biden, or to “reinterpret the law” to rule against them? 

As counterintuitive or sacrilegious as it may seem to most on the left, Democrats need to defend Trump against this lawfare so they can protect themselves in the near future. Whether they see it or not, there is a massive storm brewing and coming their way. A storm whose clouds were seeded by the Democrats. 

So here’s a crazy idea. Instead of creating a Frankenstein lawfare monster that will surely turn against them, why don’t the Democrats simply try to beat Trump fair and square at the ballot box? A very logical — and American — concept, which acclaimed ESPN sportscaster Stephen A. Smith recently articulated on his talk show:

“To my liberal friends out there, all you’re doing is showing that you’re scared you can’t beat [Trump] on the issues and the merits … And so for me, I find myself ashamed of the Democratic Party for their lack of a competitive fervor …You had since 2016 to come up with somebody else, and you still can’t do it? That is pathetic. It is pathetic. And there is no excuse for it whatsoever … tens of millions of people see what extent the other side is willing to go through just to keep him out of office because they can’t beat him on their own merits.”

For the last few years, it seems the game plan the Biden White House blessed was to preach that Trump was a “threat to democracy” ad nauseum. But to do so, they also seemed to completely buy into a Machiavellian “the end justifies the means” strategy by rolling out anti-democratic, un-American tactics. 

But again, that often-corrupt strategy can quickly be turned against them. How much better to simply take up the challenge from Stephen A. Smith and attempt to beat Trump at the ballot box.

Trust the will of the American people. Why does that option frighten them so?

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.