Once upon a time a couple of generations ago Democrats were off the mark, but still not that far off the mainstream. That ended in 1972. Republican ace Colin Reed elaborates.

Reed: The sight of protesters invading the private homes of Supreme Court justices should alarm Americans across the ideological spectrum. So should the Biden administration’s collective shrug of the shoulders, despite the mobs violating a federal law criminalizing attempts to “influence” federal officials on the outcome of a court case. Sadly, the tactics are not all that surprising, given the left’s pattern of weaponizing the federal government against their political opponents.

After all, who can forget last year’s mysterious leak to ProPublica disclosing the private financial information of some of the nation’s top earners? U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse seized on the opportunity by issuing a red-faced letter demanding an investigation into the “tax avoidance schemes” of the “nation’s wealthiest individuals.”

The duo was willing to look the other way on the incredible breach of decorum because it created a political opportunity to advance their divisive class warfare.

The episode was not an isolated incident at the Internal Revenue Service, either. During the Obama years, a previously obscure agent called Lois Lerner became a household name when she was forced to apologize for inappropriately singling out the applications of conservative groups for tax-exempt status.

Another favored tactic of the left is using official congressional committee hearings to attack their villains du jour. Last fall, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna hauled the nation’s top energy company executives before the House Oversight Committee. In a nod to the eco left that drives and funds today’s Democratic Party, the purpose was a public flogging for the companies’ purported role spreading, “climate disinformation.”

Ironically, when Khanna repeated the charade six months later, his message had shifted. No longer was he browbeating the companies for destroying the environment – now they were guilty of producing too little oil and gas. The only thing that changed in the intervening six months was the politics. As the party in charge, Democrats were taking it on the chin for the record gas prices that hit new levels by the day. They desperately needed a villain to shift the blame and pass the buck. No better setting than grandstanding before the cameras using official congressional hearing.

But as President Biden’s political free fall continues, so too do the odds of his party controlling the levers of government after November. The clock is ticking. Never one to miss a political opportunity, the aforementioned Senator Whitehouse recently convened a hearing to rail against another bogey man of the left – so-called “dark money.” It’s a favorite topic for the Rhode Island Senator, notwithstanding the hypocrisy of dark money that benefits causes simpatico to him and other liberals.

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Naturally, Whitehouse’s solution involves a combination of more government and a further empowerment of the IRS, which should be a terrifying thought, given their track record. His real goal is exposing and harassing those who wish to exercise a right that the Supreme Court has deemed constitutionally protected…

Don’t expect much in the form of leadership from the administration. With his presidency careening from one catastrophe to the next, President Biden lacks the political capital to stand up to his own base. He knows that getting crossways with the base could yield protests outside the White House and add to his growing list of political headaches. In a moment in time that cries out for strong leadership, we have none – all because the party in charge has been hijacked by its most extreme elements.