Psychological projection means that people who think and act in a way even they would admit is wrong project those same motives and actions on others, rather than acknowledging them in themselves. In 2022, Democrats in politics and the media have elevated projection to an art form, which helps account for the license they grant themselves and the brutal crackdowns and insults they reserve for conservatives.

The latest and, in some ways, the vilest act of Democrat projection took place in Philadelphia last week when Biden, relying on the risible theory that events on January 6 (“J6”) were a real insurrection, appeared against a blood-red backdrop with Marines behind him and spoke about how Republicans are a danger to democracy. Biden barked that MAGA Republicans are violent Americans threatening democracy. Worse, they are fascists.

Frankly, rehashing J6 as an insurrection has gotten so old. How many more ads do we have to hear in which Democrat legislators tremble as they recall the scariest hours of their lives? What type of privileged people do the Dems (and some Republicans) send to Congress? Try managing the evacuation in Afghanistan, being a cop during the Dem’s war on cops, crossing the Rio Grande, or living in a Democrat-run city. Fifty-five people were shot in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend.

Image: Joe Biden. YouTube screen grab.

We can’t understand Biden’s speech as just one given by a man who is the spokesman for cowards and hypocrites, all of whom crow that Biden’s Philly performance was securing a midterm sweep. (More likely this was a CYA operation because Grandpa Biden is in self-protect mode after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the FBI was running interference in the 2020 election, ensuring that reports about Hunter’s activities in Russia, Ukraine, and China, along with Joe’s cuts, would be treated as misinformation.)

The correct filter is projection. Because Biden can’t come clean about or even acknowledge his and his party’s activities, he’s projecting: Hey, he effectively says, look over here at the danger to democracy from extreme Republicans denying that Biden is a legitimate president. Joe’s obviously banking on Americans having short-term memory loss. Democrat legislators, most democratic voters, Biden, Harris, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Karine Jean-Pierre all maintained Trump was an illegitimate President, something that persisted even after the two-year investigation into Russian collusion turned up empty.

In addition to projection, it seems obvious that Biden and the Democrats are hoping that the absurd accusation that violent Republicans are a threat to democracy will incite Republicans to violence. Biden probably hoped the House’s J6 show trial or the raid on Mar-a-Lago would have lighted that flame. However, because Republicans refuse to riot, it was time for incendiary rhetoric.

Biden doesn’t want the Republicans to respond to his enticement with bare faces and armed only with flags and MAGA hats as they did at the J6 “insurrection.” He needs them to be armed, violent, and murderous and wearing masks as the BLM rioters did. After all, that’s the telegenic violence that moves voters. In 2020, the Democrat-aligned media, with its flair for propaganda, managed to use BLM’s violence to attack Trump. They’ll find it easier to use Republican violence, should it occur, to enshrine Biden.

Still, Biden’s strategy is flawed. It’s the nature of Republicans to embrace the rule of law. Biden calling on Republicans to condemn J6 ‘outlaws’ shows how out of touch Democrats are. True conservatives want nothing to do with white supremacists—they are racist hoodlums just like the BLM rioters that Democrat politicians cheered on and let go free.

Republicans should know that their comparisons between J6ers and BLM rioters are a real sore point for J6ers. They are right to be outraged because the Democrats’ hypocrisy is outrageous. To the Biden administration, J6 was a mercifully failed “insurrection,” while BLM threw the election to the Dems and they deserve congratulations.

BLM did the Dems’ dirty work by terrorizing America for 100 days with rage directed at traditional American institutions, Trump, and Republicans. In the midst of the terror, BLM was negotiating with the DNC to shape the latter’s platform. During the negotiations, BLM co-founder Cullors promised that BLM would “get Trump out of office,” and would continue fighting the American Revolution—like a real insurrection. BLM did so until election day, even as they boasted about the necessity for violence.

There’s no question that BLM went all in for the Dems. When it came time to pay the piper, Biden exceeded the writ. He ensured the ongoing pleasure of BLM while discrediting the soul of America by issuing a blanket authorization to fly the Marxist BLM flag atop America’s embassies.

The latest Democrat tactic—accusing the flag-waving, constitutionally-aligned Republicans of being democracy destroyers—is a change from the past. Under Obama, the trend was to paint them as pathetic. You know, calling them “a basket of deplorables” or insulting working-class Americans for clinging to guns, religion, and racism.

Democrats have also doubled down on projecting their policies and practices onto the Republicans. Which party hires people based on their identity rather than treating all people equally? Which party has made the rule of law optional? Which party is trying to make it easy for noncitizens to vote and take a torch to federalism by changing the Constitution to nationalize elections; promoting an end to the separation of powers by packing the Supreme Court; implementing race-based quotas and special concessions just for BIPOC (non-whites); affording unique rights to non-citizens, like offering them sanctuary; and advising social media companies to censor opposing positions or those that compromise Democratic politicians and their families?

With control of the mainstream media, it’s been child’s play for the Democrats to convince their captive audience that Republicans are assaulting democracy, promoting violence, and endorsing racist policies when it’s the Democrats. To understand how dangerous this is, think about how Putin and his lapdog media have convinced Russians that Ukrainians pose an existential threat to Russia or how China’s tightly controlled media have emphasized the danger of political pluralism and the diversity of ideas. America’s mainstream media, like the journalists at Pravda and Xinhua, have developed a flair for fanciful propaganda. No doubt, they will be rewarded with another leak from the Justice Department.

Biden and the Democrats are right: Democracy is under siege and, contrary to their sometimes silly, sometimes terrifying projection against Republicans, it is they who are the ones threatening it, with everything from election interference to behaving like fascists who censor the opposition. They also know the destruction of democracy is a platform for losing votes, so they are projecting that onto Republicans.