"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" was the question used in congressional hearings in the 1950s in what was portrayed as a witch hunt against leftists that blighted American freedom of speech. A new witch hunt is sweeping Washington, Silicon Valley, and much of the media based on the following question: "Do you currently have any doubts or have you ever written or said anything disparaging the vote counts of the 2020 presidential election?"

Anyone who questions the final vote of that election is now literally being derided as a traitor. Regardless of 65 million mail-in ballots (for which fraud is "vastly more prevalent," according to the New York Times), regardless of the last minute changes in election procedures in key swing states, and regardless of controversies about computer voting software, anyone who does not attest to the final proclaimed vote count  is finding themselves forever damned – or at least that is the intent of Democratic activists and social media companies.

The definition of treason has been vastly expanded in the past weeks to include members of Congress who filed a lawful challenge against the 2020 electoral tally. Even though Democrats vigorously challenged Republican presidential victories in 2000, 2004, and 2016 (Nancy Pelosi declared in May 2017, "Our [2016] election was hijacked… Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy"), any challenges to last November's results suddenly became intolerable. Forty-eight Democratic members of Congress have co-sponsored a resolution calling for expelling potentially more than a hundred Republican lawmakers who pledged to object to certifying the 2020 election results. The resolution claims that those Republican lawmakers are guilty of violating the 14th Amendment's provision prohibiting federal officeholders from having "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."