September 18, the day after the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, which created the federal system, the front page of The New York Times print edition shouted, "DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED."

(Worth noting, neither The Times nor the Biden administration took note of the anniversary of our basic document of federal governance — perhaps because the factor of the states' involvement in our government has become inconvenient for the Stalinists, as indicated by the very overlong "DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED" article.)

Complete with an image of a fraying and butchered American flag, the online title of the piece is "A Crisis Coming: The Twin Threats to American Democracy[.]"  (Do the headline writers at The Times compete to see who can be the most polemical?)

The subheading in the political propaganda section — "news" is no longer apposite in this case — reads, "Twin Threats to Governing Ideals Put America in Uncharted Territory[.]"  What are these "twin threats"?

First, the "growing movement ... of ... the Republican Party ... to refuse to accept defeat in an election."  The second, "The power to set government policy is becoming increasingly disconnected from public opinion."  (Translation: The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.)

As of September 21, the midterm elections are just seven weeks away.  This four-page propaganda spiel, credited to David Leonhardt, amounts to, how else to put it, a hysterical cry: "The Republicans are coming; the Republicans are coming.  Take arms."  Harvard government professor Steven Levitsky is cited for the warning — our election method, once nonpartisan, now "tilts" towards the Republicans.  Why?  Because the Electoral College facilitates the large, leftist populations of a few big states like California and New York to see their votes "wasted," because a presidential election is based on the combined electoral votes of the states, not on the popular vote.

Leonhardt opened the concluding paragraph of this four-page screed with this assertion: "The makeup of the federal government reflects public opinion less closely than it once did."  Omitted is that the federal government would not have been established, 235 years ago, but for the Electoral College compromise, giving the small states an off-setting power to elect a president.

The argument of the Stalinists is essentially with the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, not with the Republican Party.

To read "DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED" — an odd title, given that the Founders created a republic, not a democracy — is to understand that the Stalinists refuse to accept the election of Republicans — that is, they refuse to accept the idea of a two-party system, and they won't end their assault on the Constitution until they gain full control over all facets of governance in the U.S.  If The Times were held to a truth-in-reporting standard, the article would have carried this umbrella title: "The Two-Party System Challenged."

For the Stalinists, to question the result of the 2020 presidential election is to state "a big lie," not merely to express an opinion.

Consider, however, Leonhardt's assertion that Republicans have refused "to accept defeat in an election."  Does this suggest that Republicans will, in future elections, try to defeat the Democrat candidates?  Yes.  Does this state as fact that any Republican has overturned an election?  Of course not.  Leonhardt's insinuation that Republicans would overthrow a duly elected Democrat (as the left tried to overthrow President Trump) is the "big lie."

Leonhardt ignored the debunked lie that President Trump was a tool of Russia, as well as the suppression of Hunter Biden's scandalous conduct, recorded on his laptop computer, that might have derailed his father's election in 2020.

The Leonhardt article, augmented by another article in the September 18 "Sunday Opinion" section — which was titled "The Greatest Threat to Democracy Is a Feature of Democracy" — suggests that the Democrat campaign program for the midterm elections does not focus on dealing with the economy, illegal immigration, or a nuclear Iran.

There are two elements, and two elements alone, to the Democrat political handbook this election season:

1. The Republican Party must be destroyed by transforming our system of government.

2. Citizen Trump must be sent to prison for the rest of his life.

The first element is inferred from the Leonhardt article.  The second element is indicated by the opinion piece asserting that the Republican opposition to investigations of Citizen Trump represents "not just political cover to subvert the rule of law [emphasis added] but also the power to create their own alternative reality."  Apparently, Donald J. Trump is to be investigated without end by leftists living in their own alternative reality.

Of Citizen Trump the authors would screech, "Lock him up!" — indicated by their assertion that the January 6 hearings "established a forensic record of a deliberate effort to undermine a peaceful transfer of power[.]"  (Let's pause here.  Those hearings represent an illegitimate partisan effort to undermine the 2022 congressional midterm elections.)  The authors next announce that "the only way to confront a seditious conspiracy is to prosecute the criminals" — note the absence of the word "alleged."  (For Stalinists, an indictment is a conviction.)

The authors continue, "If that means indicting Mr. Trump if there is sufficient evidence for possessing classified documents [at Mar-a-Lago] and lying about it and barring him from political office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, so be it."  How desperate the Trump-haters are to grasp at straws to put Citizen Trump on trial — and to get him barred from serving a second term as president.  Now a questionable raid by the anti-Trump FBI should yield a criminal charge.  Why don't Illing and Gershberg cut to the chase and declare, "Damn the Constitution's ban on bills of attainder; throw the scoundrel in a dungeon?"

This observer infers that the title of this effort at political propaganda would blame the democratic system of democracy for demagogues who become tyrants (as Hamilton warned in Federalist Paper No. 1).  Surely some of the blame should go to the leader who spouts political hate in front of Independence Hall, while professing to urge unity throughout the land.

Image: Free image from Pixabay, no attribution required.