While waiting for Trump to name his vice presidential pick at the Republican Convention, followed by the inevitable dumping of Joe Biden, it’s an excellent time to identify the issues the new Democratic ticket will run on. One might think the economy, including inflation, the border, and the decline of many cities with rising crime and homelessness. Still, you’d be wrong—troubles abroad, with wars in Ukraine and Gaza with the attendant rise in antisemitism, not so much. The new candidates will finesse all these, saying we will reevaluate our positions on these issues.

Of course, Kamala Harris isn’t eligible for this option as an integral part of the Biden administration. Hence, she will follow Joe off the ticket. Rather than draw attention to Democratic failures, the area of attack besides abortion is fear of that monster, Donald Trump. They tell us the ex-president “will be a dictator on the first day” of his return. Democracy as we know it is over-Political opponents charged with various crimes—executive orders flying in every direction. The future of our “Democracy” is now a significant election issue.

Unfortunately, Democrats aren’t the only ones seeing attacks on democracy. Republicans, already suspicious of election-voting shenanigans, have seen their candidate subjected to “lawfare” on an unprecedented scale. Had the Supreme Court not declared the president immunity for presidential acts, a New York court could’ve sentenced Donald Rump to prison just before the convention declared him the Republican presidential candidate.

While Democrats claim Trump will take revenge on his political opponents, everyone can see the progressives are already doing it to him. Putting a presidential candidate in prison is the stuff of banana republics.

Upset about their collapsing lawfare attack, the Democrats are now threatening the Supreme Court with investigations and packing for having protected present and future presidents from being imprisoned by their opponents. Who is attacking democracy?

Still, Trump’s continuing unpopularity with the majority of the public is the only line of assault; the Democrats and their media allies have to find something new to strike fear in voters’ hearts. They are basing their latest offensive on “Project 2025,” a proposal compiled by the right-leaning Heritage Foundation suggesting how a second Trump presidency should proceed.

The legacy media pictures the 900-plus-page collection of ideas as the sequel to Mein Kampf. Like Hitler’s plan, they claim “Project 2025” is Trump’s roadmap to destroy democracy. Exposing this nefarious plan is excellent journalism.

After looking into the “Project 2025” controversy, it isn’t so much solid journalism that comes to mind as Professor Henry Higgin’s assertion that a pool hall is bringing trouble to River City in the beloved American Musical The Music Man. By ginning up a non-existent crisis, he sells many musical instruments for a boy’s band he never intends to teach. Henry Higgins is the quintessential con man.

According to the Wal Street Journal, the “plan” centers on four areas: abortion, government, immigration, and the Federal Reserve. Strangely, the proposals contain little or nothing new. Are we shocked to find Republicans are for “..the most robust protections for the unborn?” There have been anti-abortion planks in the Party’s platform for as long as I can remember. Trump proposed a change in this year’s plank, leaving abortion to the states in line with the Supreme Court rather than following the plan’s recommendations.

Making government more efficient by eliminating or combining departments goes back to the 1947 Hoover Commission. Critics are horrified by a proposed elimination of the Education Department. Again, this is a familiar idea. Since the Department’s inception, our educational results haven’t improved, even though the Department has spent billions and billions. Using this money to provide school choices, especially for the disadvantaged, is a well-documented, better option. Could the progressive panic over this course be that it will diminish the teacher’s unions, a key interest group?

Identifying and even training new government appointees when Republicans take over would make them more effective from day one in achieving administration goals. That’s just good planning, but that scares the left wing.

One of the major problems facing the U.S. is that it is almost impossible to build anything. From railroads to solar farms, it takes forever to do anything. Even people on the left recognize this fact. By reversing the Chevron decision, the Supreme Court has opened the door to reform; we need to walk through it. Of course, this frightens government employees, a group mainly supporting the left, but the government is supposed to work for us. Is it too much to ask the government to get things done for which we voted?

What does anyone have against a merit-based system of legal immigration? We need an expanding population to grow our economy and fund entitlement programs. Vetted people who can immediately add to our society are the way to go if we can continue to attract them. The masses pouring across our border from everywhere with our having no idea who they are is putting us in a crisis. It’d be a crime to refrain from suggesting changes.

A realistic look at the history of inflation under the Federal Reserve vs. before 1913 reveals an institution with less reason to exist than the Department of Education. This chart says it all:

A bunch of elites sitting around determining the price of anything flies in the face of experience. The Fed is no different, setting the cost of money (interest rates), and the record shows it. How can an institution print money and show significant losses? Somehow, the Fed has accomplished this feat. Given its record, isn’t it proper to question why it exists?

Think tanks exist on all sides to tackle various issues and give politicians ideas. Populated with members of previous administrations, they’re nearly as numerous as pool halls in 1912. To claim either is evil and a cause for alarm for doing what they’re in business for is plain silly.

USA Today quotes a Democratic representative blasting the work of right a center think tank’s “Project 2025” at a left-wing think tank. “It’s not just radical policy changes. It’s not just regime change that we might never recover from,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Tuesday during an event hosted by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. You can’t make this stuff up.

Why make such a foolish attack? Just like Harold Hill with the poolroom, it’s all they have. Democratic policies have horrible results, so they can’t run on their record. All they have to offer in the future is more of the same. It’s better to find anything to scare the hell out of voters.

Just remember, Professor Harold Hill sold a lot of trombones. The new, younger Democratic ticket is about to do something similar.

Note: Just as I finished this post, we got word of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life. At first, I thought I’d scrap it, but I quickly realized it was correct and on point. If you constantly characterize your opponent as evil incarnate, you shouldn’t be surprised some people believe you and act to “protect Democracy.” Taking something as mundane as a think tank’s suggestions for a possible incoming administration and blowing it up into a pathway to dictatorship shows how out of proportion the coverages and campaigns have become. We shouldn’t be surprised by what happened. I’ll await further information before commenting further.