Democrats kept saying that they were laser-focused on "affordability." It was the all-purpose excuse for not answering a tough question.

"Voters don't care about Hasan Piker; they just want affordable groceries." 

Affordability was the theme, and it was a good one. The country's mood was sour, and gas prices were one of the biggest reasons why. Tariffs and the Iran war both drove prices up, and we can argue about whether the juice was worth the squeeze, but one thing is clear: Americans blamed Trump for inflation. 

But as the returns came in, everything shifted, and the Democrats pulled their Darth Vader "Pray I don't alter the deal any further" bait-and-switch. One message, and one message alone came through loud and clear: "Lawyer up, we're coming for you!"

It's a message that didn't surprise those of us who have been paying attention to what Democrats tell each other. I've written several times about the Democrats' lawfare plans, because, as is so often the case, the evil geniuses don't hide their plans; they just don't advertise them to the normies. 

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Susan Rice and others have been telegraphing that the Democrats have an agenda not just to "hold accountable" Trump and his "minions," but to punish any business that cooperated with Trump on anything, even making a donation to the ballroom. 

Even as the votes were being counted, prominent Democrats were going down the list of enemies they want to destroy, and that list begins with Elon Musk, but is as long as Michael Jordan's arm. And the main criteria will be: 1) did you cooperate with Trump in any way?  And 2) Will your pain and destruction serve as an object lesson to others?

I had Grok compare Democrat posts thanking voters for the victory with those promising retribution, and it came up with a doozy. Robert Garcia, who will run the House Oversight Committee, had one post celebrating victory, and the other was the 'LAWYER UP' post:

Garcia's own victory post promised to "take on corruption and make life more affordable for working families." It got 17K views, while his LAWYER UP post got 6.39M (post)

Democrats aren't hungering for lower prices; after all, they supported Joe Biden and trudged out to vote for Kamala Harris, who presided over inflation about 3x what we have right now. They are hungering for REVENGE. 

It's hard to predict the exact shape of the Democrats' strategy for revenge, since there will be hunger for impeaching Trump, but Kara Swisher's strategy of going after everybody under Trump is the smarter play if you want to do maximum damage. My guess is that Swisher will get her revenge tour on Trump associates, but the radicals will get a shot at impeachment as well. 

Elissa Slotkin was bragging, even before the returns came in, that their plan was to come down so hard on anybody who was associated with Trump that young Republicans would want to stay as far away from politics as is humanly possible. A CIA operative giving the nod to the Stasi, as seems so appropriate in the 21st century. 

Others in the Democrat orbit think that she isn't ambitious enough. They want executions. 

Scott Galloway calls Elon Musk a "traitor to the West" and invokes the executions of the Rosenbergs after WW2.

"We lined up the Rosenbergs against a wall. This is a traitor to the West, and he should be held to the same standards as every other traitor in the West."

*Applause*

These people are absolutely unhinged.

There is a whole genre of leftists calling for the seizure or nationalization of SpaceX, spanning the farthest left to the NeverTrump (former) conservatives. Paul Krugman supports it, and the Bulwark crowd does too. 

The funniest thing is that for all the talk about Trump canceling the Midterms, seizing ballot boxes, using the military to stage a coup, the Democrats obviously never believed a word of it. They don't fear Trump acting like a tyrant, and they shouldn't. He isn't one. 

You don't fight autocrats with subpoenas, and you don't telegraph that you intend to put all his allies in jail if you win an election because in autocracies, elections don't matter. It was all performative, and it strokes the erogenous zones of liberals who believe that victimhood is the greatest status symbol. (That's why the most privileged celebrities in the world trot out their sob stories.)

Trump not only accepted the election results, contrary to everything the Democrats said he would do, he also offered to work with them. 

Fat chance, of course. Democrats, not fearing that he is a tyrant at all, plan to do him and anybody around him in. That was their strategy after 2020, when they went after everybody around Trump and sent the FBI in to fondle Melania's underwear, and that's what they plan to do this time. 

All of this is frustrating and dangerous in and of itself, but what makes it vastly more dangerous is that the media are eager to help the Democrats in their "destroy everybody around Trump" project. 

In a functioning society, the media would hold both sides accountable, but if that were ever the case before, we are long past that time. The media are as eager as the Democrats to start the witch trials and burnings. 

There are guardrails in the American system, of course, and we will soon find out how strong they are or how weakened they have become. Madison's system of checks and balances has served us well in the past. Let's hope that it's winning streak continues far into the future.