Politics of wrath: Zombie apocalypse vs. MAGA, part II

OPINION:

Hell hath no fury like a Democrat scorned.

Long bankrupt of a hopeful vision for America or any productive ideas, Democratic politicians in Washington are left selling nothing but fear and vindictiveness.

That’s why President Biden is tapping Hillary Clinton to help him in his doomed reelection campaign. Nothing says “hope” and “change” like Hillary Clinton, queen of the zombie apocalypse. No matter how many stakes American voters drive into her political heart, she keeps charging back with crazed eyes and flashing fangs.

Hillary Clinton gives nightmares nightmares.

Now Democrats are freaking out because former and future President Donald Trump is vowing to be “your retribution.”

Seriously? These are the people who put their political enemies in actual, real-life jail for trespassing through the Capitol. And they are upset that Donald Trump vows to be the “retribution” of the people? Against the overreach of government?

And their immediate solution to this threat of “retribution” is to hurry up and put Mr. Trump in actual, real-life jail?

Amazing.

As always, the problem with Donald Trump in this broken world is not that he is a narcissist or a fabulist or says mean things about political opponents. It’s that he does it openly, without apology, and so much more effectively than all the politicians in Washington who have been doing the exact same thing for decades.

He’s a narcissist! Really? Have you ever met a politician?

And they just kicked George Santos out of Congress for being a liar and a thief. If that is the new standard, Washington is going to turn into a ghost town.

Hello, tumbleweeds. There will be nobody left in the nation’s capital for armed 13-year-olds to carjack.

The media in particular have been apoplectic over Mr. Trump’s vowed retribution. Yet they report not a word about Mr. Biden’s Department of Justice locking up Trump supporters for trespassing inside the Capitol instead of teenagers carjacking innocent citizens driving the streets of D.C.

As the reality of a Trump return to the White House settles into the minds of people around here, they have agreed upon their new line of attack. Mr. Trump is a threat to democracy who will rule as a dictator and throw his enemies in jail.

Forget for the moment how uninspiring this line of attack is and forget for the moment that it is Democrats who are doing the very thing they are warning that Mr. Trump will do.

This line of attack is most obviously absurd because voters already know exactly how Mr. Trump will behave if he gets into the White House: exactly as he behaved the last time he was in the White House.

Let us, for the moment, consider the case of Hillary Clinton, queen of the zombie apocalypse. 

During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton belonged in jail for her nefarious deeds spanning a long, corrupt political career. He said publicly that if it were up to him, she would be jailed. And during massive campaign rallies, Mr. Trump savored thunderous chants to “lock her up” from his supporters.

Being merely a candidate for president of the United States, however, Mr. Trump did not jail Mrs. Clinton. He did not have the authority.

In that election, voters drove the biggest stake into Mrs. Clinton’s political heart. Mr. Trump became president.

As president, Mr. Trump may have had the raw power to jail Mrs. Clinton and his other political enemies. But he wisely understood that it would be reckless political persecution. It would destroy the country.

So, Mr. Trump did not lock up Hillary Clinton.

Everything Mr. Trump touches turns to gold, including the toilet on his Boeing 757. He has excelled at real estate, celebrity self-promotion, reality television, golf, parenting and presidential politics.

Finally, we have found something the former and future president is not very good at: being a dictator.

• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.