Dems Smearing ‘Extremist’ GOP Candidates Show What J6 Probe, Biden’s Fiery Speech Were Really About

Pennsylvania’s Democrat gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro is parroting rhetoric used by President Joe Biden and the partisan Jan. 6 Committee to cast his Republican opponent Doug Mastriano as a “dangerous extremist,” in a continuation of Democrats’ years-long operation to win elections by smearing their political enemies as unelectable.

During a recent interview on MSNBC, Shapiro claimed “without question” that Mastriano has made “tearing down” the country’s “democratic institutions the focus of his campaign” and that the Republican state senator has talked about “taking away [citizens’] right to vote.”

“We are the candidate and party of freedom,” Shapiro asserted. “We are the ones who are gonna defend our democracy.”

The Pennsylvania Democrat attorney general went on to criticize previous remarks issued by Mastriano, wherein the state senator pledged to review “voting machines” and “voting logs in the counties” as part of his bid to strengthen the integrity of the state’s election systems and ensure “free and fair elections.”

“Think about the chaos that that would bring not just to Pennsylvania, but the rest of the nation,” Shapiro said. “We each have a responsibility to defeat the kind of dangerous extremism that Doug Mastriano brings and defend our democracy.”

In addition to calling for an independent audit of the commonwealth’s 2020 presidential election results, Mastriano has also backed legislation in the Pennsylvania Senate that would “repeal no-excuse mail-in voting, mandate signature verification, establish an Elections Commission, [and] expand the number of poll watchers.”

As reported by Fox News, the governor of Pennsylvania is given broad authority over a variety of executive matters, including the power to appoint a secretary of state “tasked with overseeing and running elections.”

“Incumbent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s pick for the position has come under fire for moving key election deadlines ahead of the 2020 contest,” the report reads. “The appointee also has been accused of selectively urging Democratic-leaning counties in 2020 to apply for privately-funded grants for get-out-of-the-vote initiatives.”

The Fish Stinks from the Head

Shapiro branding Mastriano as an “extremist” isn’t the first one to use the strategy, and he won’t be the last. Several weeks ago on Sept. 1, America’s commander-in-chief gave one of the most horrifyingly divisive speeches by a sitting president in modern history. Biden proceeded to accuse former President Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans” of being “a threat to the very soul of this country” and proclaimed that “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution” or “believe in the rule of law.”

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic,” Biden said. “There’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”

A few weeks after the speech, a North Dakota man justified hitting and running over an 18-year-old teen by echoing the same “extremism” rhetoric Biden used to describe Republican voters.

As Federalist Staff Writer Jordan Boyd previously reported, “Shannon Brandt, 41, mowed down 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson early Sunday morning over what he later claimed was a ‘political argument’ over whether ‘the teen was part of a Republican extremist group.’” Brandt, who has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide, has since been released from jail after posting a $50,000 bond and was not “placed under house arrest or given a curfew.”

The Goal Is Ostracizing Conservatives from the Public Sphere

For the left, labeling Republicans as “extremists” isn’t just a short-term strategy to win elections, but a long-term one configured to dissuade any serious conservative from faithfully serving in government. Long before Biden’s September speech, Democrat politicians and their buddies in the corporate press were castigating anyone who dared to raise valid concerns regarding the administration of the 2020 presidential election, despite themselves questioning the legitimacy of elections they didn’t win for decades.

Another key part of the left’s efforts to further censor dissenting voices is the House Jan. 6 Committee. Almost immediately after assuming control of Congress last year, Democrats launched their Americanized version of Soviet show trials, which have served as nothing more than made-for-television soap operas designed to target, harass, and criminalize Republican thought and speech. In conjunction with the growing number of blatantly partisan actions taken against everyday conservatives by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice, the message from Democrats to Americans is clear: Fall in line or you’re next.

Whether it’s coming from individual candidates like Shapiro or America’s regularly confused president, the relentless smearing of any and all Republicans as “extremist” is simply just one part of the left’s years-long mission to delegitimize and disqualify anyone opposed to the ruling regime from contending their dominion of the country.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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