Better in their words…

The $355 million fine against Donald Trump, for a “crime” that even the judge issuing the ruling admitted hurt no one, a bridge too far?

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul seems to think so, which is why she rushed out to say that other people doing business in New York have nothing to fear: “Law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are businesspeople have nothing to worry about because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior.”

What she should have said is: “if they are different from Donald Trump and his political views.”

Because nothing about this case, or the multitude of other unprecedented legal attacks against the former president — the attempts to kick him off ballots, the two bogus impeachments, the Russia hoax, the endless stream of media mis-reporting — has anything even remotely to do with “upholding the law” or “protecting Democracy.”

We should make it clear at this point that we’ve never been huge fans of Donald Trump. During the 2016 primaries, we weren’t sure he was even conservative. And while he went on to deliver several tremendous victories for conservatives (which we detailed in this space), his term in office wasn’t without its flaws. He failed to get the border wall built, for example. He made some serious mistakes in his appointments. He botched the handling of COVID-19.

Plus, as a general rule, we’d rather all these old timers — Trump, Biden, Hillary, Bernie, McConnell, etc. — would step aside and let the next generation of leaders get time in the sun. As the few who bothered to watch the Republican presidential debates saw, there is a lot of young talent in the GOP (talent that is notably lacking among Democrats, but that’s another story).

Having said all that, we’ve now reached a point where even if you hate Trump’s behavior, despise his temperament, think he isn’t a pure-enough conservative, or would prefer someone else less toxic carry the conservative banner, the choice is clear — either support Trump or condone the anti-democratic, extra-legal, election-integrity-destroying tactics of the left, which will forever poison the American political system, and will mean the end of conservatism in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.

Those who think this is just about Trump, or that Trump is a special case, or that once we get Trump out of the picture civility will return, are deluding themselves. If Mister Rogers ran as a conservative he’d be just as viciously attacked.

The affable Ronald Reagan was pilloried during his time in office as a warmonger, a hater, a doddering old fool and, of course, a fascist.

The milquetoast, barely conservative George W. Bush was said to have “begun to implement the 10 steps to take down a democratic nation.” The New Republic published a 3,600-word “case for Bush hatred.” A Nobel Peace Prize recipient declared that “right now, I could kill George Bush” and was feted for bravery.

If you want more recent evidence, look at how the left started treating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when it looked like he might give Trump a run for this money. We wrote about it in Sept. 2022 – “The ‘DeSantis Is Worse Than Trump’ Campaign Begins”.

The only difference between then and now is that the left’s previous campaigns failed. Reagan and Bush won reelections by substantial margins. And, despite the left’s best efforts, Trump managed to win in 2016.

What’s been happening since has been a public display of the left’s new, scorched-earth strategy for dealing with the political opposition. It started in the run-up to the 2020 election. As Time magazine so glowingly reported in early 2021, there was a “cross-partisan campaign” to defeat Trump, or as Time put it, “protect the election.”

Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump’s conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction.

Since then, the left has added lawfare to its arsenal, which has now reached peak absurdity for the simple reason that Trump refuses to give in. But make no mistake, scalping Trump will only whet the left’s appetite for more scalps.

And who will be there to stop them?

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board