Lawfare Is Eroding Voter Trust

Democrats would say Donald Trump is a menace to society, but I suspect deep down many of them know they’ve weaponized the criminal justice system in a way that is unhealthy for a republic. They’ve undermined their own plot line about ‘saving democracy.’

Carl M Cannon (Real Clear Politics)

Donald Trump’s guilty verdict triggered “record shattering” donations – almost $53 million in 24 hours – which was kind of predicted by Eric Levitz’s observation in Vox last week: voters with low levels of trust in government and society are shifting rightward toward Trump’s “populist contempt” for the political system. In response, Democrats have vehemently defended America’s institutions; resulting in low-trust voters nominating Trump, high-trust voters sticking with Biden, and 75% of voters wanting neither man.

That’s on Biden, who’s done almost everything possible to lose the electorate’s trust. Promise to restore “dignity” to the office but prove to be a serial liar. Promise “normalcy” but father an overnight jump in prices of 30%, two new proxy wars, and 10 million new illegal immigrants – not “normal” to 75% of America (source: The Hill). And, it’s on him that Trump’s becoming a martyr. A clear-eyed leader would have allowed Trump – flaws and all – to ride off into the sunset.

By allowing Democrat prosecutors (and they are) to go after Trump, the President’s killing voter trust. Right now, only 35% of Americans view the DOJ in a positive light (source: NBC News). Even worse, the DOJ itself now reports that just 16% of Americans trust the government in Washington to “do what is right” – the lowest trust measure in seven decades. According to Levitz, a surge in low-trust voters is behind Biden’s bad polling numbers. That, and Trump left office almost 4 years ago.

Even RFK, Jr. – a hero to low-trust voters – gets this. He called Trump’s trial “profoundly undemocratic” and has acknowledged Democrat policies and positions that have lost everyday Americans’ trust: job-killing globalism, COVID mandates, an open southern border, and weaponized law enforcement. Who’s the “delusional” candidate, when NAFTA alone has cost 4.3 million US jobs (source: BLS)?

In 2020, Biden won 55% of working-class and 60% of 18-29-year-old voters. Thanks to his COVID mandates and Bidenomics, working-class voters now favor Trump by 8 points over Biden, and young voters are now 50-50. Both voting blocs were disproportionately hurt by Biden’s COVID policies; closed businesses killed service sector jobs, and closed schools left the young “feeling isolated” from friends and family. To call them “low trust voters” is an understatement.

65% of working-class voters say the are “worse off today than 40 years ago” and “the economy is controlled by the rich for their own benefit” (source: Brookings). If they trusted Biden, more than 7% of them would “care about January 6” (source: Harvard/Harris). 71% of young voters say COVID changed America for the worst. 64% say that “America is in decline” and only 7% DON’T believe that “nearly all politicians are corrupt and make money from their political power” (source: Democrat polling firm Blueprint).

Carl Cannon says (quote above), Democrats have tried to prove “Trump is a menace to society.” True, and too many complicated legal proceedings have created opinion clutter; thereby helping Trump’s clear and simple response – “witch hunt” and “rigged justice” – to resonate with low-trust voters (65.8% of America that believes Biden’s ruining their country, according to the RCP average). A pro-Trump friend just rattled off how Democrats have erred.

Start with the now-infamous Steele dossier, covertly hatched and funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign, because it resulted legally in a $100,000 fine from the FEC in 2022. Plus, the horrible optics of the Democrats pressing the Trump-Russia investigation. The DOJ’s (resigned) Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie worked at the law firm that hired Steele. The FBI’s (fired) Andrew McCabe’s wife Jill ran for office as a Clinton Democrat. The FBI’s (fired) Peter Strzok and (disgraced) Lisa Page were illicit lovers and authors of seditious emails.

And the “crooked” Democrats’ double standard: Hillary and Joe get cited for mishandling “classified and top secret” national security documents, but only Trump gets indicted. And the character flaws of Trump’s prosecutors: DA Fani Willis’s (D-GA) affair with co-prosecutor Nathan Wade, and impeachment czar Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) many documented false claims. Plus, Hunter’s money and Joe’s unraveling alibis.

That explains low-trust Republicans, but the real problem is that 75% of Americans don’t want either Biden or Trump as president. When three out of four citizens don’t trust America’s party system, it means our country is close to becoming un-governable. Just look at the RCP approval ratings for our most powerful political leaders (chart below).

Across the board – regardless of party – that’s 66% disapproval; a crisis that transcends Biden v. Trump. We the people have lost faith in the political system, which is why the Journal’s Peggy Noonan bemoans “outrageous and dehumanizing discourse” online, riots broke out in 29 cities after Trump’s 2016 election, and January 6 happened. Still, my eyes are drawn to Trump’s list-leading approval and a question: who’s the bigger “menace” to America?

Town Hall’s Guy Benson exemplifies millions of decent Americans hoping to do the right thing on Election Day. “After the Capitol riot of January 6, I called Trump’s conduct impeachable and wrote that the GOP would be ‘demented’ to nominate him again. I’m grappling now with whether the appalling lawfare so brazenly employed against Trump in this case is more dangerous than anything Trump, and his worst excesses, represent.” Me too, Mr. Benson.