The Threat to Democracy

The public has heard repeated the mantra, “threat to democracy.” The Democrats exclusively use the phrase as one of their tactics to beat Donald Trump in the upcoming election. They claim if he is elected, his policies will destroy the republic and turn it into a dictatorship. Aware of his opponent’s rhetoric, Trump answered them directly when he spoke at last Saturday’s rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, by saying,  “I took a bullet for democracy.”

Few people realize that the real threats to democracy are falsehoods and dishonesty. When governments want to control your life, they do it with lies. There are so many examples to cite from the past, such as the deceits surrounding COVID, but we do not have to go that far back to make the point. Two stories from the past week show conclusively that we live in a world that has embraced falsehoods as the norm and that the consequence of this type of public discourse is the real threat to democracy.

Yesterday, the Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, dug her heels in and refused to resign after the attempted assassination attempt on Donald Trump. She was subpoenaed to a hearing on Capitol Hill in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to answer questions about the failure of her agency to protect the President and rallygoers adequately.

During her testimony, Cheatle repeatedly rebuffed bipartisan committee questions. She stonewalled with almost every question, frustrating Democratic and Republican Congress members. Even the New York Times couldn’t spin her testimony favorably. The frustration came because nine days after the assassination attempt, Cheatle claimed she could not answer specific questions because she was waiting for a final report. She refused to answer the most straightforward questions, such as, “Was a rifle found on the roof?”  Exasperated, lawmakers asked her when she thought the report would be completed. She answered in 60 days, a time frame unacceptable even to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and pushed Cheatle to be more “forthright” because the “stakes are too high.”  

The dishonesty of Cheatle is one of omission, equally a threat to our democracy.  She willfully tried to mislead the public with her silence by refusing to answer questions. It is incredible to believe that the Director of the Secret Service does not know the answers to basic questions that have already been reported in the media. Hardly top-secret information that could compromise the investigation. The omission of the truth is as much of a falsehood as a verbal one.

The next real threat to democracy has been unfolding for months, if not years, and finally came to light this past weekend with the decision of Joe Biden not to run as a candidate for president again. The result of Biden leaving the race was not a big surprise to those who update themselves on current events, even though the way he bowed out might have been a surprise. After three and a half years of looking at the man walking and talking, an informed person knew this man had medical and mental issues.  Those who knew were often labeled as rabid partisans attacking the President. The lie the Democratic Party perpetrated on the public was directed at low-information voters, making up the vast majority of voters.

Unlike Cheatle, who lied through omission, the Democratic Party and their propaganda arm, the mainstream media repeatedly lied through commission by telling the public Biden was fit and very able to hold on to the nuclear football.   Vice President Harris, soon to be the Democratic Presidential candidate, previously dismissed the notion that Biden was too old or not mentally competent to do his job.

Then there is the famous line from Biden’s Press Secretary, hoping the public will not believe their eyes when they see a demented man. Don’t believe what you see; they are cheap fakes, meaning the video is taken out of context or selected and edited by Biden’s opponents. 

The mainstream media perpetuated the lies, and even though they have less influence than in the past, they still have a considerable amount, especially with low-information voters.  The Democrats, the Biden Administration, and the liberal media often lied about the health of the president. It wasn’t until the nation saw the truth in Biden’s debate with Trump that all had to come clean.

In two recent examples that happened within a week of each other, the actual threat to democracy is untruthfulness, either through omission or commission. Democracy is built upon the premise that citizens and representatives adhere to one basic principle: telling the truth. Without a basis of truth, a country claiming to be self-governing, a democracy, cannot function for long.  

The real threat to democracy is what we all just experienced: a constant flow of lies and falsehoods supported by unscrupulous politicians and the corporate media who believe more in power than truth. In every instance when countries fall into tyranny, the first thing to fall is the truth.