Top Democrats would be demanding that President Joe Biden step aside if they believed that former President Donald Trump was actually a "threat to democracy," tweets Hugh Hewitt.

The threat is that the word "threat" would be used to do what an election is to do.

Yelling "threat" about an opposition candidate is at best a lowest-political-denominator campaign strategy. That any candidate for office represents a threat to the nation as a functioning republic is a serious charge that carries significant ramifications and requires a serious burden of proof. Overuse of it is problematic because it reduces the sensibility to actual threats.

Voters vote in elections, and elections select leaders. Calling a candidate a general threat to our system of government goes beyond policy disagreement. Such a case should be precise and made only when warranted.