As I keep saying, it's less about the "what" than the "who."
Investigating your political opponents? It's protecting democracy and proving that "nobody is above the law" when it is a Republican who is the target; it is a threat to democracy and should be avoided, even if the target is guilty of breaking the law, if that person is a Democrat.
There are literally two sets of rules and norms: one for Democrats and one for Republicans.
We're seeing this play out again in Washington State, where Governor Ferguson is activating the National Guard to protect polling places and ballot drop boxes.
I actually agree with that decision for a simple reason: there have been arson attacks on drop boxes, and hundreds of ballots have been destroyed. And while that destruction is unlikely to change the outcome of the election, it really IS an attack on democracy and people's right to have their voice heard and ballots counted.
Rantz: After a year of trashing ICE, Bob Ferguson now wants National Guard stationed near Washington drop boxes https://t.co/tb6l0BYGLf
— Jason Rantz on Seattle Red (@jasonrantz) October 26, 2026
The thing is, the same is true when illegal aliens get to cast ballots illegally. Their votes cancel out legitimate voters' votes, and polling shows voters are concerned that illegal voters are participating in our elections. That's why voter ID polls so highly. Contrary to the Democrats' claims, their refusal to clean voter rolls and implement ballot protection measures undermines faith in elections at least as much, or even more, than the burning of a few hundred ballots.
In a letter to county auditors, Ferguson offered to activate the Guard as an “Election Neighborhood Watch.” Personnel would “inconspicuously monitor ballot drop boxes or other high-traffic areas where voting occurs,” according to the letter. They wouldn’t wear uniforms or interact with voters. They’d act as “eyes and ears on the ground” and alert local authorities if something went wrong. Thurston County already accepted.
Ferguson points to real threats. In 2024, an incendiary device torched a Vancouver ballot box. His letter also cites the white powder letters mailed to officials in recent days, including one addressed to the Secretary of State.
So the governor wants someone posted near drop boxes to respond to threats. Funny. Democrats have spent the year insisting federal officers can’t be trusted with that job, even as ICE agents in Washington arrest dangerous criminals for a living. But unarmed National Guard members will keep the peace.
Ferguson only trusts the right people
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that ICE would show up at a polling place only in narrow circumstances.
“The only reason why we would be at polling places, if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” he said. “ICE’s job is immigration (and) custom enforcement.”
Democrats reacted like it was the opening act of a coup. Ferguson, who declared in January that “ICE is completely and totally out of control,” has joined local Democrats and activist media in treating routine ICE arrests like an invasion. Yet his Neighborhood Watch borrows half of Mullin’s job description. Watch the ballot box. Respond to a threat.
The difference is who they answer to. An ICE agent answers to President Trump. A Guard member on state active duty answers to Ferguson. That’s the entire objection.
Governor Ferguson's decision to deploy the Guard is the right move, but so is Trump's musing about deploying ICE to places where voting by illegal aliens is suspected.
Democrats cry "voter intimidation," but that's like claiming that a policeman on a corner is participating in "criminal intimidation." Of course it is, in the sense that the police and ICE are both there to discourage criminal behavior. I want illegal aliens to be scared to vote, and citizens have no reason to feel intimidated.
It might even encourage people to bring an ID to prove they are citizens.
Just sayin'.
Ferguson has an odd relationship with deploying the Guard and with ICE in general. He refused to deploy the Guard to suppress anti-ICE riots and attacks on federal officers, and even mused about deploying the Guard to defend AGAINST ICE, carrying on the Walz theme of war with the federal government.
Obviously, Ferguson's, and by extension other Democrats who take a similar line, is not opposed to deploying law enforcement and even the military for their own purposes; it's just that none of those purposes is protecting Republican voters from having their votes canceled out by illegal voters.
It's not just the hypocrisy that chaps my...rear end...it's the fact that the way our concerns about ballot integrity and the fairness of elections don't matter a damn, but any time a liberal concocts an outlandish scenario where a single person might not feel warm and fuzzy about an election, it is a national crisis and democracy is at stake.
Democrats are, as I write this, darkly warning about how this election might be stolen, and the media echoes their concern.
Republicans bring up voter fraud? It's an attack on democracy and the return of Jim Crow.
Every interview you see on TV between a Democrat and a reporter is a love fest; every interview with a Republican is a hostile interrogation.
As I said, it's not the "what;" it's the "who."