The horror! After that SCOTUS ruling, now the Dems will have to beat Trump at the ballot box, not in the courtroom. So will their last weapon - President Orthopedic Shoes - be enough, asks JOSH HAMMER

Josh Hammer is the syndicated host of 'The Josh Hammer Show' and senior editor-at-large at Newsweek 

Democrats' worst fears have finally been realized.

They're being forced to win the 2024 election at the ballot box – not in the courtroom.

Oh, the horror!

'Ultimately, it'll be up to American voters to save our democracy in November,' despaired Colorado's Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Monday, just hours after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected her harebrained scheme to boot Trump from the state ballot.

'I do believe that states under our Constitution should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrectionists,' she whined.

Too bad nine justices – appointed by Republicans and Democrats – disagreed. They concluded that a 'patchwork' system of 50 political appointees unilaterally picking and choosing who Americans can and cannot vote for would be an anti-democratic abomination.

But Democrats and their anti-Trump accomplices were never going to let common sense get in the way of a good time.

Remember when conservative lawyer-turned-CNN green room squatter George Conway confidently predicted that Trump had no chance at the Supreme Court?

'He lost, it's over,' Conway puffed in a December experts' panel.

Or how about former J. Michael Luttig, the once-respected Fourth Circuit judge who recently developed a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome?

'Ultimately, it'll be up to American voters to save our democracy in November,' despaired Colorado 's Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Monday, just hours after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected her harebrained scheme to boot Trump from the state ballot.

Democrats' worst fears have finally been realized. They're being forced to win the 2024 election at the ballot box – not in the courtroom. Oh, the horror!

'[The] decision by the Colorado Supreme Court was masterful. It was brilliant, and it is an unassailable interpretation of the 14th Amendment,' he grunted in defense of Griswold's plot.

So 'unassailable' that it failed to garner a single vote at the Supreme Court?

Your Honor, let the record show that you are more legally unhinged than both Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Take a bow!

Today, listening to the lunatic left was like watching the liberal body politic struggle through an abbreviated five stages of grief.

There was denial.

Democrat Jamie Raskin pledged to 'revive legislation' to ban Trump from holding office. (Didn't you try that once already?)

There was anger.

Perennially deranged Keith Olbermann opined that the High Court 'betrayed democracy' and must be 'dissolved'. (You have to destroy democracy to save it!)

There was acceptance.

'I know it's probably the right decision,' conceded Whoopi Goldberg on 'The View', 'but I don't like that we've normalized this man.'

Of course, that's what this is all about. The left believes that they alone can defeat Trump and by any means necessary – whether it's through the courts, state governments, Russian collusion investigations or Pink Pussy Hat marches.

But, to date, every effort – whether they were legally justified or not -- has completely and utterly failed.

The federal prosecution of Trump for allegedly mishandling of classified documents at Mar-A-Lago is stalled.

A special counsel probe into the former president's behavior on January 6th has been delayed beyond the November election.

'I do believe that states under our Constitution should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrectionists,'  Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (above) whined. Too bad nine justices – appointed by Republicans and Democrats – disagreed.

Remember when conservative lawyer-turned-CNN green room squatter George Conway confidently predicted that Trump had no chance at the Supreme Court? 'He lost, it's over,' Conway puffed in a December experts' panel.

And in Fulton County, Georgia, far-left District Attorney Fani Willis' blatant corruption has derailed her election interference case.

Other trials may have hurt Trump financially but politically, they've only helped him by providing rocket fuel to his campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's indictment of Trump over alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels tracks perfectly with the date that Trump's popularity in the Republican primary started rising like a rocket ship.

Now, with these ballot-banning stunts in Colorado, Maine, Illinois and elsewhere declared dead on arrival, Democrats must come to grips with the fact that they'll have to win an actual election. And for them, that's a horrifying prospect.

Their octogenarian candidate is currently losing badly to Trump.

A new Bloomberg/Morning Consult survey showed that Trump is now beating Uncle Joe in every major swing state: Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, and Michigan.

This week's New York Times/Siena College poll had Trump up by five points over President Orthopedic Shoes. Three in four voters think the country is moving in the wrong direction. And more than twice as many say Biden's policies have hurt them as believe they have helped them.

Perhaps, most jaw-dropping of all, an incredible 73 percent of registered voters say Biden is 'just too old to be an effective president.'

I'm no 'George Conway,' but this looks bad for them.

Perennially deranged Keith Olbermann opined that the High Court 'betrayed democracy' and must be 'dissolved'. (You have to destroy democracy to save it!)

In the Democratic primary in Michigan last week, 100,000 voters cast a ballot for 'uncommitted' instead of their party's incumbent president. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley picked up her first win in Washington DC's Republican primary this week.

Only 2,000 people showed up to vote. That tells you all you need to know.

The Trump train rolls to the Republican nomination – and Biden limps.

Yes, the Democrats are in full crisis mode.

So, expect them and their media enablers to keep on undermining democracy.

Joe — who bravely emerged from White House hospice to give a softball interview to The New Yorker—is now claiming that Trump won't accept the results of the 2024 election.

He's a threat to democracy!

Well, what else do they have?

Biden can barely complete a sentence, let alone work the stump. Americans can expect another basement-dwelling campaign – just like we got in the dark days of the COVID election of 2020.

It doesn't get more 'anti-democratic' than that.