Analysis: 'We are not in the Old America any more'

FPI / August 16, 2023

"In the America in which we once lived, we didn't try to lock up political opponents."

Ben Weingarten, editor at large for RealClearInvestigations, wrote the above on June 23 after the Department of Justice's 37-count indictment of former President Donald Trump.

"This is the first such prosecution ever brought, on grounds never before brought and which may not even be applicable for presidents, emerging from a glorified document dispute, pursued in the most dubious fashion, further riddled by a level of prosecutorial chicanery that might even imperil the entire case," Weingarten wrote.

"Don't let the material trappings fool you. We are not in the Old America any more."

On Monday night, observers noted that Democrats and Democrat regime media were celebrating another Trump indictment and even insisting that the criminal pursuit of additional political opponents is necessary.

"Democratic leaders and Never Trump influencers today are cheering the vast Georgia indictment" of Trump for his contesting the 2020 election "and hope it leads to a larger case that takes down any Republican who questioned" the 2020 vote, Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted on Tuesday.

Never Trump leader Stuart Stevens proclaimed: “This is basically a Rico indictment of the Republican Party. As it should be. Every Republican elected official who refused to acknowledge the winner of the 2020 election is an unindicted co-conspirator.”

Democrat adviser Simon Rosenberg wrote in his daily memo to top officials following Monday's indictments: “We are now coming to understand that the vast conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election was a party-wide Republican effort, involving hundreds of prominent Republicans across the U.S., including the RNC chair. We need to be calling it now ‘The Republican Party’s effort to overturn the election’ and not just limit it to Trump, or ‘Trump and his allies.’ ”

Following DOJ special prosecutor Jack Smith's indictment of Trump, Rosenberg wrote: “We know the DOJ has already successfully prosecuted over 1,000 people for their role in the effort to overturn the election. The next 100-200 charged could be prominent Republicans across the US and in battleground states. For the effort to overturn the election was backed by the Republican Party itself, and Republican leaders in Washington (Lindsay Graham, etc) and across the US. This is serious stuff.”

Rosenberg added: “These crimes against our democracy are the most serious political crimes in American history, and all efforts to downplay, minimize, wish them away - ‘locker room talk’ - are a betrayal of our democracy and democracies all across the world. Our collective understanding now of what it means to be a ‘Republican’ will soon be:

• Lincoln - freed the slaves, saved the Union.
• Reagan - helped end Communism, ensured freedom and democracy prevailed.
• Trump/GOP Leaders Across the US - tried, unsuccessfully for now, to end American democracy and establish a fascist dictatorship.”

While Democrats and Never Trumpers seized on Monday's indictments to essentially push for outlawing political dissent, Washington Times columnist Rowan Scarborough noted how none of them were calling for the indictment of those who contested previous elections.

Scarborough noted in a social media post:

No one indicted.

Mother Jones: Rigged 2004 Election. Stolen by George W. Bush.

Vanity Fare. "Ohio's Odd Numbers."

CNN: Congressional Dems challenge 2004 results.

Jesse Jackson: Bush and Karl Rove stole Ohio election

UC Berkeley: Bush got extra votes in Florida. Bad Machines.

In a Tuesday op-ed in The Federalist, Charlie Kirk noted:

'The Democrat effort to criminalize their political enemies has reached its climax in 2023. Republicans have sat and watched as four separate indictments have come down from three separate prosecutors, all with the same purpose: imprisoning Donald Trump and as many of his political allies as they can get away with. Monday’s indictment out of Fulton County, Georgia, is the most extreme yet, seeking to ensnare not just Trump but 18 of his associates for the “crime” of contesting the 2020 election through the courts and legislative process.

"The goal of all these indictments is simple: rig the 2024 election in the court system before a single ballot can even be cast, and criminalize the MAGA political movement Trump has built.

"As our founders knew, and as Ben Franklin famously warned, maintaining a republic is not easy. The temptation is always there for tyrants to abuse their powers to nullify elections and make their hold on power permanent. One of the crucial checks on that abuse of power is that when there is overreach, other branches of government can push back. We understand this intuitively at the federal level. A president who grows too ambitious can be checked by Congress or by the courts.

"But that is not the only balancing force in the American system. There is another: When politicians are tempted to prosecute their political enemies, for political reasons, they must fear the same thing happening to them."

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