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Are Democrats so scared of their own that not one will dare stand up to their party’s inauguration of America’s third-world political era, or will the entire party ask for another Jan. 6?

Democrats just spent the last three years fearmongering that Donald Trump’s White House return would mark the coronation of a forever dictator hell-bent on dismantling democracy to stay in power. It’s a message Liz Cheney summarized in her recent memoir: “As a nation, we can endure damaging policies for a four-year term. But we cannot survive a president willing to terminate our Constitution.”

But the nation reached a new inflection point Thursday when the Democrats officially captured the top item on their policy agenda with the criminal conviction of their sworn opposition chief. President Joe Biden has now become everything Democrats claimed Trump would be, with far more in common with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yet no major Democrats have come out to condemn the latest institutional stress test. Instead, Democrats are “giddy.”

Out of the three — Trump, Biden, and Putin — who’s rigged an election by imprisoning his top political opponent? Who has deployed federal censors to suppress political dissidents? Whose storm troopers were even authorized to kill his chief rival when raiding the opposition’s residence?

American democracy is on a collision course with totalitarianism. No, we should not have had a riot at the Capitol after the last election. We also should not be making prisoners of our political opponents, which is far more threatening to the republic.

The turbulence at the Capitol was an hours-long episode of unrest brought about by pro-Trump constituents who believed the 2020 election was stolen. The criminal conviction of the incumbent regime’s primary opposition leader alone will convince voters that another contest is being stolen. And while our institutions held following the Capitol turmoil, they failed Thursday when the judicial system folded into a weaponized instrument of far-left lawfare.

The Democrats had already been rigging the fall race by doubling down on censorship and installing their own election monitors. Last year, the Honest Elections Project (HEP) and the John Locke Foundation published a report on a new coalition of activist groups seeking to “systematically influence every aspect of election administration.” The $80 million dollar project includes the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a Mark Zuckerberg-funded group that poured tens of millions into administering elections four years ago with the effect of ginning up Democrat turnout. The CTCL is also training election workers for the upcoming races after 28 states saw enough conflict of interest to ban “Zuckbucks” from the administration of contests.

Long before the first ballots are cast, however, Democrats have effectively rigged the contest by keeping the president from even campaigning. Trump isn’t just constantly gagged by activist judges from speaking out about the Soviet-style show trials. Trump has been pulled off the campaign trail and holed up in courtrooms while Democrats seek to bankrupt and imprison him.

Trump’s absence from his signature campaign rallies is no small deal. The crowd-pleasing spectacles are a hallmark of the 77-year-old’s White House appeals where he showcases an energetic message directly to swing-state voters while the campaign collects critical data. Here’s how Reuters described the former president’s team leveraging his rallies as a primary vehicle to turn out voters:

The Trump campaign uses the rallies to collect and analyze attendee data, in the hope of turning it into votes. People register with the campaign, providing email, cell phone number, zip code and state, in return for a text message which serves as a ticket.

After the rally, attendees are flooded with text messages, including fundraising appeals from Trump.

Trump’s rallies are also important to volunteer recruitment efforts while attracting local press coverage. By taking Trump off the trail and gagging him in a courtroom, Democrats have prevented their top challenger from even making a challenge. Yet the same party denying Americans a fair election will still go on to smear Republicans with objections as “election deniers” to justify Orwellian censorship.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.