You might have heard: former President Trump was shot at a recent rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

But it is not enough to say that Butler did it. Let’s examine the facts, such as those gathered by Susan Crabtree, an investigative reporter at RealClearPolitics.

Secret Service assets were re-routed to an event featuring Jill Biden.

Former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden’s opponent in the upcoming presidential election this November, was the target of an assassination attempt.

Only after Trump was shot (and many months of continuous pleading) did the Biden administration grant RFK, Jr., a likely third-party candidate, a protective detail.

There may be as many as three third party candidates this go ‘round, with RFK, Jr. joined by Cornel West and Jill Stein.

Which is why the Biden administration and the Democratic National Committee have formed a team of operatives specifically charged with countering any and all third-party candidacies. This team is trying to keep any and all potential Biden rivals off the ballots in as many states as possible.

You read that right: Off the ballots. As in, they don’t want people to have the opportunity to vote for them instead of Biden or now probably Harris. If needed, the team is expected to engage in deep dive “opposition research” and orchestrate media campaigns to portray the third-party challengers as nothing but GOP-financed straw men being used as tools to assure Trump prevails.

Biden and his DNC henchmen continually smear Trump and his supporters as dangerous fascists, domestic terrorists, far-right extremists, etc., etc., who must be “eliminated.” They try to jail their political opponents. The aforementioned rhetoric has almost certainly led to an attempt on Trump’s life, one that missed by less than an inch. And their state-media sycophants cheer them on and/or cover for them every step of the way.

And now we know they want to keep as many potential rivals off the ballot as possible, by extraordinary means. All this in order to “save our democracy.”

Does this sound to you like a pro-democracy party … or an anti-democracy party?

The past couple of decades have made it abundantly clear that at least one-third of Americans can no longer be reached with reason or persuaded with facts and logic. Therefore, it is imperative that the rest of us take nothing for granted, stay vigilant, and do our duty. No matter what.

Image: logo, via Wikipedia // public domain