Mob Rule and the Resistance By Carl M. Cannon
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/21/mob_rule_and_the_resistance.html
My friends and colleagues in the media, particularly at CNN, have taken offense to the idea that the self-styled “Resistance” to Donald Trump can ever be characterized as “a mob.”
It’s an unflattering description, but is it unfair? Are violence and physical intimidation now part of the Democrats’ playbook? To weigh that question, let’s do a thought experiment. The following actions all have taken place in the past two years. As you read about them, substitute the words “left” for “right,” “liberal” for “conservative,” and “Democrat” for “Republican.” As you do, consider how CNN, the New York Times, and the rest of the mainstream media would cover these events if the labels were reversed:
January 21, 2017: Addressing the crowd at the Women’s March, featured speaker Madonna says she’s thought “an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” Actress Ashley Judd compares Trump to Hitler and those who attended his inauguration the day before to Nazis.
June 14, 2017: James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old Democratic activist from Illinois shoots up a baseball diamond where Republican members of Congress are practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Apparently intending to kill several GOP House members, including Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who was grievously wounded, Hodgkinson had volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, and belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
October 28, 2017: At a parade in Annandale, Va., Wilfred Michael Stark III, 49, is arrested after trying to block the van carrying Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie. Although Stark identifies himself as a journalist, he was there on behalf of a website run by Democratic Party activist David Brock, which Brock purchased for the stated goal of electing Hillary Clinton president.
November 3, 2017: Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is tackled from behind without warning by next-door neighbor Rene Boucher, breaking six of the senator’s ribs. The assailant claims he lost his temper because of an ongoing dispute the two men had about yard trimmings, but he was known by other neighbors as a partisan Democrat who attacked Republicans on social media. “May Robert Mueller fry Trump’s gonads,” he once posted.
March 15, 2018. Wilfred “Mike” Stark is arrested again, this time by U.S. Capitol Police on a charge of simple assault for shoving Department of Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift to the ground.
May 18, 2018: A man later identified as Clifton Ward phones Republican Rep. Diane Black, leaving a voice mail that police consider a death threat. He does it again on June 12 and is subsequently indicted on felony charges.
June 23, 2018: Speaking after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and her family were refused service in a Virginia restaurant and senior administration aides Stephen Miller and Kirstjen Nielsen were hounded at restaurants, Rep. Maxine Waters calls for Democrats to “create a crowd” whenever they see a Trump official in public “to tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Apparently, she means even their own homes, which is where Nielson was also accosted. “No peace” for Republicans, Waters says. “No sleep!”
July 2, 2018: The Republican Party headquarters in Lincoln, Neb., is vandalized. A brick was thrown through a window. “Abolish ICE” was spray-painted on the sidewalk.
July 6, 2018. Martin Astrof, 75, drives to the Long Island campaign headquarters of Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, confronts a campaign worker, threatens to kill Zeldin and Trump, then nearly runs over the aide in his car. Astrof is arrested on suspicion of endangerment and making terroristic threats.
July 7, 2018: A Democratic Socialist spots Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell eating lunch at a restaurant in his hometown of Louisville and summons a flash mob on social media. Leftist demonstrators swarm him as he leaves, shouting ominously, “We know where you live!”
September 6, 2018: A Republican Party office in Laramie, Wyo., is torched two days after local college Republicans are added as tenants. A window bearing a “Make America Great Again” sign was broken. Authorities say the fire appeared to be arson.
September 9, 2018 (New York): Asked about a “Trump 2020” banner unfurled during a curtain call for the Broadway musical “Frozen,” 94-year-old actress Carole Cook, replies, “My answer to that is, where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him?” It’s a stark reference for a thespian, considering that Abraham Lincoln’s assassin struck during a theatrical performance. Yet Cook, accompanied by her husband Tom Troupe, is apparently being literal. When asked, “So we need to kill President Trump?” she replies, “Why not?” Her husband adds: “Someone should.”
September 9, 2018 (California): At the Castro Valley Fall Festival attended by Republican congressional candidate Rudy Peters, 35-year-old Farzad Fazeli makes disparaging remarks about Trump and Republicans before pulling a switchblade on Peters. Fazeli has trouble opening the knife, and ends up grappling with Peters before running off. He’s arrested soon thereafter.
September 20, 2018: Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, the incumbent Peters is challenging, mocks Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins over threats she’s receiving during the Brett Kavanaugh nomination fight. In one voice mail, a male caller threatens to rape a young female staffer in Collins’ Senate office if her boss votes for Kavanaugh. Swalwell’s response? “Boo hoo hoo,” he writes sarcastically in a since-deleted Tweet.
October 7, 2018: Eric Holder, U.S. attorney general under President Obama, contradicts Michelle Obama’s famous dictum about remaining classy. “Michelle always says, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ No, when they go low, we kick ’em!” Holder says. “That’s what the new Democratic Party is about.”
October 9, 2018: Hillary Clinton adds that Democrats “cannot be civil with the Republican Party” until they take back Congress. “That’s when civility can start again,” she says.
October 10, 2018: William Davis, spokesman for Minnesota’s state Democratic party, writes on Facebook that the day after Election Day, Republicans should be brought “to the guillotines.” Although Davis is suspended for a week without pay for this joke, by the time the week is up, two Minnesota Republicans are physically assaulted while campaigning. State Rep. Sarah Anderson is punched in the arm by a man who was destroying GOP yard signs and who screams at her, “Who don’t you go kill yourself?” Republican legislative candidate Shane Mekeland is sucker-punched in the face while talking to voters.
October 16, 2018. Mike Stark is arrested for a third time and jailed in Las Vegas on a charge of battery after witnesses told police he grabbed Kristin Davison, campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt. Stark is on the payroll of American Bridge 21st Century, a political action committee run by David Brock and funded in part by liberal billionaire George Soros. Witnesses reported that Stark told them, “I do this for a living.”
So how did political thuggery become a regular thing? Democrats blame Trump for encouraging protesters to be roughed up at political rallies in 2015 and 2016 – even promising to post their bail. He still says such stuff. At a Thursday rally in Montana, Trump praised Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte for body-slamming a newspaper reporter last year, calling the congressman “a tough cookie.”
This was appalling, and not only because Gianforte apologized long ago, but because the whole world is watching how Trump responds to the apparent murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Still, emulating the behavior of a guy you claim to despise is pretty weak. The original Republican president said this best. “There is no grievance,” Abraham Lincoln asserted in 1838, “that is a fit object of redress by mob law.”
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