This being so, I do not want to hear a single thing from the Democratic Party about the “threat” that Doug Mastriano presents to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or to the republic in general. I am, from this moment on, not remotely interested in that case. Why not? Because the Democratic Party clearly doesn’t believe a word of it. When one truly believes that a given candidate is a threat, one doesn’t “send out mailers boosting him,” or spend $840,000 on television advertisements designed to improve his standing.

“For a party that claims to care about the fragile state of democracy,” Politico notes, “this is a risky strategy.” Indeed. But, quite obviously, the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania does not really think that the “state of democracy” is “fragile,” because, if it did think that, it wouldn’t have played Machiavellian games in a wave year.

This isn’t new. In 2016, it was imperative to stop Donald Trump from winning the election — but not imperative enough for the Democrats to moderate in order to win on-the-fence voters. Since Joe Biden won in 2020, the party has treated us to endless lectures about “our democracy,” while pursuing a wholly unsolicited partisan strategy that has led it into the electoral mire. Astonishingly, it is doing the same thing in Pennsylvania in 2022. If it turns out badly, as it may, I don’t want to hear a peep out of those who orchestrated it.