Political Violence

It seems only a couple of short weeks ago that I wrote an essay entitled, “Civil Discourse” that recounted the civilized debates and exchange of ideas between David Axelrod and Tom Cotton and between Roger Meyerson and Casey Mulligan.   In both cases, the opponents actually listened to each other, responded with reasoned and data backed retorts and were not subjected to catcalls, disruptions, or actual or implied threats from the audiences.   The debates were lively, engaging and entertaining and even laced with humor.

That blissful condition was shattered this as a deranged Bernie Sanders volunteer opened fire on a group of Republicans practicing for the annual Democrat/Republican baseball game.  As of this writing, Steve Scalise remains hospitalized, after having been seriously wounded.  A review of his social media accounts and his statements before the attack show that this was clearly a politically motivated attack and that it was only the Capitol police and his bad aim that kept the assault from becoming a massacre.

We are seeing an escalation in political violence, and it is coming from the Left.  And the Left does it in two ways—by actual violence or by disruption and threat of violence.   This week’s  is not really new.  The Left’s intimidation, threats, tolerance of violence and actual violence has been building for some time as its political power has been steadily eroding since 2010.  The new tactic seems to be, “If we can’t win at the ballot box, we will win in the streets.”  This modus operandi has been explicitly or implicitly supported by liberal politicians, higher education, and media and entertainment.

Universities have given a nod to political violence by permitting thugs to overrun their institutions and use force to silence points of view that run counter to liberal orthodoxy.   The Berkeley riots, the disruptions and threats against Charles Murray at Middlebury, and Heather MacDonald at McKenna College without repercussion demonstrate higher ed’s complicity in the shutdown, by force if necessary, conservative voices.   Most disturbing was the mob action against the professor at Evergreen State when he refused to go along with the student demands that whites leave campus for a day.  Higher ed has also hired former terrorists that should have been relegated to jobs at 7-11-- Bill Ayers and Kathy Boudin obtained faculty positions despite their connections with the Weather Underground (Boudin actually did time, which Columbia University whitewashed).

The media and Hollywood are in on this, too.  Undeterred by the shock of Kathy Griffin’s hideous ISIS-like pose with the head of Donald Trump, Madonna’s fantasy of blowing up the White House, and the performance in NY of Julius Caesar depicting the assassination of Trump, Johnny Depp joked about “the last time a president was assassinated.”  These are thinly veiled incitements hiding behind comedy and artistic license and go beyond anything we have seen before.   The Griffin episode was particularly disturbing since the image of a beheaded Trump  was unmistakably similar to the barbaric images we have seen from ISIS and, along with the black, face covered garb of Antifa, symbolically cements a relationship between radical Islam and the Left (think Linda Sarsour).  Even more disturbingly, Scott Pelley asserted that the assassination attempt on Scott Scalise was, “to some degree self-inflicted.”

Most shockingly, political violence on the Left has been encouraged by our elected officials through their statements….and sometimes through their silent assent.   Tim Kaine implored Democrats to “fight in the streets against Trump.”  Loretta Lynch asserted that the “most effective response to terrorism is love” but used phrases like “taking to the streets” and “bleeding and dying” when she talked about opposing Trump. 

Which brings me to Barack Obama and his tacit approval of political violence.  He piously called for “civility in discourse,” after the shooting of Gabby Giffords (even though we now know that rhetoric had absolutely nothing to do with the attack).

His embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood was unnerving.   But most disconcerting was his support of the Black Lives Matter movement AFTER they  openly chanted for the deaths of law enforcement officers (“pig in a blanket; fry ‘em like bacon,” and “what do we want? Dead cops.  When do we want it? Now.”).  Whatever their complaint about police officers, no group advocating violence should have been accorded respect by the White House.  

But an even more conspicuous indication of his support for political violence is what he didn’t say.  Barack Obama has never been bashful about sharing his views—whether it was about local incidents like the Cambridge police run in with Henry Louis Gates to the Trayvon Martin matter to the NCAA tournament.  And unlike most ex-presidents, he has been a vocal critic of his successor from the start. Yet when protests turned violent after November’s election, Obama stood silent.  And most tellingly, after the Scalise shooting, Obama was mute, not a word, a statement or a tweet (and none from Hillary Clinton or Chelsea either).  The man whose oft repeated phrase, “that’s not who we are” somehow could even find those words after the assault on Republicans.

When the Baltimore mayor gives rioters “room to destroy,” when a college like Middlebury or Evergreen State fails to take tough action against a mob, when leaders either in words or in action either encourage or fail to condemn violence, and when leaders embrace groups that use violence, we are headed down a slippery slope. 

And this is all coming from the Left. And it’s scary.