The Myriad Projections of the 2024 Campaign - Victor Davis Hanson

If you don’t want what the people want, you have to project.

Projectionism

• Projection is a Freudian psychological term. It describes a particular defensive mechanism, when people, often unconsciously, attribute their own (usually undesirable) behaviors to others who do not have them.
• These mental gymnastics are intended to alleviate one’s own guilt or sense of inadequacy at the expense of another.

Sound familiar?
But in the political sphere, projection involves more overt dissimulation. 

• It is increasingly common for leftist candidates or political parties to falsely accuse their opponents of the very destructive behaviors and unpopular agendas that they themselves embrace, but out of political necessity must deny...