I had my say on “My Cousin Dean” (i.e., Dean Phillips) just before he announced his campaign to challenge President Biden for the Democratic nomination for president. I intend to leave it at that unless events transform the shape of the nomination contest — and the powers-that-be are doing their best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Jonathan Turley observes Dean’s treatment to democracy, Democrat style, in his Hill column “Democrats try to strip candidates from the ballot, in the name of democracy.” Though this is not unprecedented, for some reason or other it hasn’t received the coverage it deserves:

Henry Ford once promised customers any color so long as it is black. Democrats are adopting the same approach to the election: You can have any candidate on the ballot, as long as it’s Joe Biden.

This week, the Executive Committee of the Florida Democratic Democracy told voters that they would not be allowed to vote against Biden. Even though he has opponents in the primary, the party leadership has ordered that only Biden will appear on the primary ballot.

And if you want to register your discontent with Biden with a write-in vote, forget about it. Under Florida law, if the party approves only one name, there will be no primary ballots at all. The party just called the election for Biden before a single vote has been cast.

Professor Turley quotes Dean speaking in the spirit of the optative (or wishful) mood of ancient Greek verbs: “Americans would expect the absence of democracy in Tehran, not Tallahassee. Our mission as Democrats is to defeat authoritarians, not become them.”

The Democrats of course principally seek to treat Trump to democracy, Democrat style. That is the wish found in the optative mood of their actions. Professor Turley’s mockery of the Democrats adds some sugar to this lemon, but a lemon it remains, and I am grateful to him for turning his attention to it.