Former President Trump was convicted last week by a New York City jury of 34 felonies. These “Frankenstein” felonies, created from misdemeanor offenses past their statute of limitations and the suggestion of federal election law violations, were unprecedented and designed to target one specific individual: Donald J. Trump. Given the extraordinary power and reach of the government today, all the state needs are a few facts and a couple of tax returns, and they can produce criminal charges tailor-made for anybody. And they will win.

Whether you think the trial was a political witch hunt depends largely on your political affiliation and your opinion of the former president. However, the details of this prosecution and conviction of a former president are in plain view and now part of the judicial record. The conviction of Donald Trump in New York should make every American citizen -- liberal and conservative -- uneasy about what is unfolding now in our justice system.

Many people who oppose Trump like to pretend that everything that the media and Democrats in government throw at him is a completely unique crusade, a special circumstance acceptable only because Trump is so “dangerous.” We are constantly being told that Trump is an unprecedented threat to our democracy, and therefore, by extension, any means employed to eliminate him are permissible.

But Trump will either win or lose this election, and then in a few more years, he will fade into memory. What will not fade, however, is the precedent set in this case, if it is allowed to stand. The American people, Democrat and Republican, must reject the use of our legal system to target the unfavored. The only reason Trump was charged in this manufactured prosecution is because he is running for president again. But make no mistake: this conviction has now placed anyone who falls out of favor with the state in legal jeopardy. It’s in the judicial record now, a roadmap on how to target someone who has run afoul of the reigning government authorities.

What liberal Democrats celebrating this victory miss is that the next target might not be a “unique” individual like Trump, or even another Republican. Once we start down this road, it won’t be just the obvious liberal bogeymen that are targeted. It will eventually be used against anyone who isn’t part of the inner circle of government power. Maybe it will be a liberal who isn’t liberal enough on the latest issue, like transgender rights. Maybe the target will be someone standing in the way of a more “up to date” politician. Or maybe somebody in power just wants what somebody else has. If you think it can’t happen to a Democrat, look at what the powers-that-be did to Bernie Sanders a few years ago to clear the way for Hillary Clinton.

The playbook now is to take someone out through the courts if you don’t like them. You just need an ideological prosecutor, an activist judge, and a pliable jury. Of course, this is exactly what happened to the J6 defendants in ultra-liberal Washington, D.C., where the prosecution creatively applied obstruction felonies to get long jail sentences. Those convictions will be reviewed soon by the U.S. Supreme Court. Political prosecution is the new wave, and it will be done again unless it is stopped. In the Soviet Union and Communist China, leftists used the “justice” system to destroy their political rivals and opponents. The desire for total power or ideological purity can become an irresistible attraction, or vice, creating an environment where ultimately nobody is safe.

One potential target might soon be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. An old school Democrat, Kennedy has condemned the trial and conviction of Trump, citing his father’s instructions to his staff as Attorney General that his office would ignore political affiliation on prosecutorial decisions. That impartiality has been the pole star for the American justice system since the founding, making our legal system the envy of the world. If fair-minded Democrats like Kennedy and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Trump, can see the ominous portents in this verdict, who then are these people pushing the Trump persecution and the new Democrat agenda?

Independent voters need to understand these are not typical Democrats. This is a whole new breed, whose desires go far beyond winning elections based on the good for the country. This breed of Democrat that has taken over the party doesn’t talk about the good of the country anymore. They promote niche issues like abortion or transgender rights designed to boost turnout, and global issues like climate change, but very few issues that align with the priorities of everyday Americans as found in the latest polling.

The little secret laid bare in the trial of Donald Trump in New York is the Democrats’ inability to contest in the realm of ideas. They cannot effectively counter Trump’s policies, and they cannot advance a coherent agenda that appeals to a majority of Americans. On immigration, they swing open the borders and lie about it, blaming Republicans; on inflation, they spend recklessly and lie about the inflation rate (Biden recently claimed inflation was 9 percent when Trump was president), fiddling with the employment and core inflation numbers.

The new breed of radical Democrats can’t talk about their real priorities, which plainly is to transform American society and traditions, and they can’t lie about it forever, so they have only one option: shut down the opposition. Shut down their most formidable opponents. This isn’t just a one-off about Trump. It’s the new plan to eliminate anyone who stands in the way of the total transformation of American society that is pushed by today’s far-left Democrats.

That’s the new playbook. And all Americans, even Democrats, should be worried about it. Eventually, the purity police come for everyone.

Image: Udo J. Keppler, Library of Congress