The past few weeks have been extremely troubling for those who value democracy, freedom, human rights, and civil liberties within the United States of America.

Democrats have made unprecedented power-grabs.  If left unchecked, democracy will wither away in favor of a sinister police state.

Recently, Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified that a Disinformation Governance Board has been set up to counter disinformation coming from Russia, China, Iran, the cartels, and other hostile actors, rebutting their misleading information.  Critics have rightly slammed this as Biden's Ministry of Truth.

In recent days, Mayorkas didn't state the specific powers the board may have; he only said the board would "tackle the threat, not only to election security, but to our homeland security" and would work with platforms to stop it.

Will they be able to prosecute people for spreading "disinformation"?  Will this board be restricted to focus on social media only as its tool, or will the powers also apply to "right-wing media" directly?  We do not know.

That is not the only concern.  There have been other assaults on democratic values.

CNN published details of correspondence that occurred from Election Day 2020 to Biden's inauguration day between President Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and myriad other people.  These conversations were obtained by the January 6 Committee.

On April 15, CNN published text messages Meadows had with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.

On Friday, CNN published text exchanges between Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo and Meadows.

On Saturday, CNN carried details of more than 80 text messages between Meadows and Fox News's Sean Hannity.

CNN also published never-before-seen text messages from Ivanka Trump; Jared Kushner; Donald Trump, Jr.; White House officials; Cabinet members; campaign officials; Republican leaders; Jan. 6 rally organizers; and Trump allies.

There are also text exchanges among Meadows and more than 40 current and former Republican members of Congress, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin leaked a recording allegedly between House minority leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Most of the mainstream media have feverishly covered these leaks in great detail. 

The coverage has two underlying themes. The first was to portray those involved in text exchanges as dangerous anti-democratic insurrectionists.  The other theme was to portray President Trump as the captain of a sinking ship whose crew members were abandoning him and badmouthing him behind his back out of disgust.

There is nothing wrong with the thoughts or ideas expressed in the leaks.  During private conversations with friendly colleagues, people often think loudly or place all options on the table.  It may not necessarily be something that they intend to do.  We have to remember that the situation was tense, so at times people either lose their nerve or go overboard.

In a democracy, people are punished for actions and not thoughts.

If similar taps are to be conducted in Biden's White House, the contents are likely to be infinitely more startling. 

The midterms are approaching in November, and the Democrats know they are likely to receive an emphatic drubbing.

The Democrats know that they have lost in the arena of ideas.  Under their watch, inflation is at a 40-year high; the borders are open, causing an influx of potentially dangerous illegal aliens; and there's a supply chain crisis and an energy crisis that are likely to affect citizens.

Since the Democrats do not have solutions to people's problems, they resort to sleazy maneuvers such as setting up disinformation boards and leaking private texts hoping it will scupper the GOP.

We must hence not fall into the Democrat trap of debating the contents of the leaks.  The focus should be solely on their assault on democratic rights and values.

Leaks that intend to accuse individuals of thoughtcrimes and eliminate the presumption of innocence, and the Disinformation Governance Board, where governments function like overlords sitting in judgment of the utterances of citizens, have no place in a democracy.

If the media had any values or morals, they would have refused to publish this privates messages leaked by the Democrats.  But it would be wrong to think of the news media and Democrats as separate entities.  The current mainstream media are the propaganda arm of the Democrats.  These leaks must therefore be thought of as information circulating among departments and published.

In a democracy, citizens have the right to express themselves freely without fear of being judged or monitored.  Privacy is a human right.

In a democracy, citizen rights are inherent — i.e., a right, not granted to a citizen by governments.  It belongs to a citizen.  Hence, no government may trespass upon these rights, irrespective of the circumstances.

This is why there are strict rules when law enforcement wants to initiate surveillance even on suspected criminals.  Requests for surveillance have to go through the courts, and warrants have to be obtained.  If any conversations are looked at as part of an investigation, the right to privacy for citizens still prevails.

The important question to ask is, if they can do this to Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Maria Bartiromo, and Sean Hannity, what hope do regular people have?  As a citizen, you have no option but the presumption that every word you say is being monitored.

The Democrat record on democracy is looking very poor.  How ironic it is that this group of totalitarians call themselves Democrats and frequently talk about the importance of protecting democratic values.

But the self-righteous seldom have self-awareness.  Perhaps they are brazen and no longer care how they appear.  Perhaps they are doing what they usually do, doing exactly what they claim their opponents do.  The Democrats are the real insurrectionists, who relentlessly gnaw at the root of democracy when they are about to lose electoral contests.

When the GOP campaigns during the midterms, the importance of ensuring that the U.S. continues to function as a democracy must be placed at the center of its message.

When the GOP comes to power, it is essential that the sources of these leaks are found and punished.

Sitting in judgment of the utterances of citizens and leaking conversations of political opponents occurs only under Soviet-style dictatorial regimes but emphatically not in one of the world's leading democracies.

The Democrats must not be allowed to get away with this.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of Pixabay and Momentmal via Needpix, Pixabay, Pixabay License images.