As Algernon Swinburne so aptly observed, even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea. We might very well observe as well that even the most committed liberal political figures, when they've had their faces rubbed in the political mess long enough, may wind somewhere safe to realize just how messy things have gotten.

Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s erstwhile running mate, has apparently had her face rubbed in the lawfare mess long enough.

I'll admit I used to kind of roll my eyes when people claimed that President Trump was being "persecuted." I was looking at it through the distorted filter of the media. Well, I just completed my first cross-examination in our second New York Ballot Access case, where the… pic.twitter.com/7zTfi4FQ6K

— Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) August 27, 2024

Elon Musk made a typically terse reply.

Yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2024

How many more liberals are being — and I never use this word, but it applies — awakened by this obvious and egregious lawfare against a presidential candidate? This isn't the first time Nicole Shanahan has spoken out on this matter, either, and frankly, what the Democratic Party pulled in shouldering aside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy and then anointing Kamala Harris, the recipient of not one single primary vote, ever — that was just shameful. 

Politics is and always has been a dirty business, but today's Democrats seem to want to make it dirtier than it's ever been.

See Related: Former Democrat Mega-Donor, Now RFK Jr.'s VP Candidate, Says the Party ‘Hates Democracy’ 

Nasty: Nicole Shanahan Lays Out Just How Far the DNC Has Gone to Sabotage the Kennedy Campaign

Note that I use the term "liberals" and not "progressives." The people I remember as liberals, like the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, were big-government types, but they weren't crazy, and for the most part, they weren't vindictive. Ronald Reagan was reported to regularly have enjoyed after-house drinks with Tip O'Neill at the White House, observing that they were "friends after five o'clock."

But boy, howdy, things have changed, and the 2016 election of Donald Trump seems to have kicked the "progressive" hate and lawfare machines into high gear. From sham impeachments to trumped-up (hah) lawsuits and criminal charges, never in the history of our republic has so much effort been spent on taking out one man. And, I remind you, this is a man who was a registered Democrat for most of his life. This was a man who had Bill and Hillary Clinton as guests at his wedding to Melania. This was a man who people like Oprah slobbered over on television. Donald Trump was a darling of Democrats and the left — right up until the moment he descended that golden escalator and committed the unforgivable sin of announcing he was running for president as a Republican.

Nicole Shanahan gets it now. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has seen what the Democrats have become as well, as has Tulsi Gabbard, and who knows how many people who, until recently, considered themselves moderate Democrats. 

Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump, one thing is clear: His very presence has stripped away the mask. He isn't playing the game as he is supposed to, so he has to be removed.

There's a word for regimes that have their political opponents jailed. It's called autocracy.