Could both sides be right that the other side is the biggest threat?

Obviously, both sides can’t be right. One side or the other is the biggest threat. But if you watch MSNBC, CNN, FoxNews or loads of other media, you’ll discover that both sides believe that the threat comes exclusively from the other side.

Here are some examples

Steve Bannon is “attempting to insert a lit bomb into the mouth of American democracy.The Five Biggest Threats Our Democracy Faces: from the Brennan Center for Justice.Waking up to the woke threat by Barry Ziman in Washington ExaminerBad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy by Batya Ungar-Sargon.

It’s tiresome. Annoying. Repeated ad nadeem. And wrong. Here’s the truth: You can find threats to democracy from both sides, serious ones. But you never, ever hear that said in this politically poisonous atmosphere.

Yes, Jan 6 posed a threat to democracy. As we’ve been reminded over and over again by the hyper-partisan, Democratic-controlled “Select” House committee. And yet, that committee itself is a threat to democracy,

Jan. 6 and its aftermath confirm there are degrees of threats. Whoever tried to stop by extra-legal means the confirmation by the Electoral College of Joe Biden as president posed a threat. That’s the truth, whether they did it by inciting a crowd of blockheads to invade the Capitol or by the individuals who menaced legitimately elected officials carrying out their constitutional responsibility,

That’s why I”m for a full exposure of anyone who did that, including former President Donald Trump, the goofy Proud Boys or any freelance rioters. Preferably, the job belongs to a special counsel who is insulated from the obvious left-wing, Democratic bias in the Justice Department that now hobbles the true application of justice. If that means the indictment and trial of a former president, so be it.

As for the “mob” that had marched to the Capitol, as if their lemming-like minds were somehow controlled by Trump: If they didn’t force their way into the Capitol, fight the police and engage in specific law-breaking activities, their peaceful protests ought not to be a threat to democracy. It was their right to assemble, petition the government and speak, or shout, their minds.

And yet…

The Jan. 6 committee is itself a threat to democracy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cast aside centuries of precedent by not allowing the minority party (GOP) to select its own members for the “select” committee. She has brazenly excluded the voices of elected representatives of a specific group of people–Republicans in red states–in pursuit of a partisan goal. She has created a show trial by refusing to allow the accused (and already convicted) to cross-examine the witnesses. Pelosi would have been right at home at the Cuban show trials conducted by Fidel Castro.

Castro’s show trial. Maybe the defendants were guilty, but democracy was trashed by holding a show trial in a sports arena with a cheering crowd,

Let me go on. While universal access to the ballot box is an essential element of democracy, the Democratic war against election security is itself a threat to democracy. Claiming that having to have an ID to vote is an effort to deny the vote to black voters is a dangerous charade. Voter fraud is truly a threat to democracy; to ignore it is to reveal crass political motivation.

Now for Trump: He’s a threat to democracy because he doesn’t seem to understand democratic principles. To think that Vice President Mike Pence could single-handedly stymie the Electoral College is a clear symptom that Trump is either ignorant or a true danger. His ego stands in the way of self-government as prescribed in the Constitution, laws, judicial caselaw and deeply ingrained tradition. He ought not run again.

But on the other hand…

One of the biggest threats to democracy was the “Russian hoax.” Democrats, such as Rep. Adam Schiff of California, concocted out of whole cloth a fantasy about Trump being in cahoots with Russia. It wasn’t just an unconscionable attempt to subvert Trump’s election. It involved the political corruption of the FBI, intelligence agencies and the FISA court. (Why hasn’t that court held anyone in contempt for lying to it?)

Speaking of elections. The damage done to their credibility has been extensive thanks to Trump and (to a lesser extent) Stacey Abrams, the defeated Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate. I think there’s plenty of evidence of election fraud, but whether there was enough to overturn an election, I don’t know. And how, for heaven’s sake, would an election be overturned now?

And now for the media: No, Washington Post, while “democracy dies in darkness”–your slogan–thanks to you and your left-wing legacy, corporate, mass and social media colleagues, democracy is dying in ignorance.

Too many examples of destructive bias are available to go into any depth here. By denying, discrediting or ignoring legitimate issues raised by conservatives, Republicans or other people you’ve already judged to be wrong, if not despicable, the left-wing media’s threat to democracy is enormous,

The tilt is obvious to just about everyone, except for the practitioners of what used to be called journalism. As a former journalist, I cannot adequately describe my loathing for how they have corrupted what once was a proud and essential profession. What the hell are they teaching in journalism schools these days? Where the hell are my former “old school” colleagues who understood and tried to practice objective, fair journalism? Do you truly accept this corruption or have you been so cowed by the woke among you that you’re in hiding?

There are more threats to democracy, but I leave them for now to make a plea for an end to the–what?–evilization of politics. Respect is an essential ingredient for a functioning democracy. Ability to listen and.compromise is too. America is, or at least should be, the best example to the world that democracy works. Autocratic regimes in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and elsewhere are determined to prove that democracy doesn’t.

If we continue on the present path, they’ll be right

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