American Progressives Have Gone Completely Bonkers!
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) telling her supporters to harass Republicans in public with a call for mob action.
Washington Post / YouTube
The American Left has become certifiably insane! One can only conclude the spectacle of Donald Trump making progress on his agenda and actually improving the economy is shredding their sanity. You could consider their astounding hyperbolic reactions somewhat amusing, were it not for all the dangerous implications.
The Descent of the Democratic Party
The frequency of fanatical outbursts by Democratic Party members is increasing. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who began calling for President Trump’s impeachment from the time he took office, is increasingly becoming the face of the Democratic Party. Lately, Democratic politicians have focused on opposing Trump’s policies on border security. After Trump cited violent immigrant gangs, such as MS-13 (justly calling them “animals”), and drug smuggling as reasons to enhance border security, Rep. Nancy Pelosi misrepresented his comments. She claimed he was referring to all illegal immigrants, not just to violent illegals like MS-13.
In addition, at least nine Democratic politicians have called for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in order to support illegal immigrants. The calls began with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), continued with the New York mayor Bill De Blasio, newly nominated House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and echoed by Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Mike Capuano (D-MA). Although Democrats are justifying such a stance as opposing the separation of immigrant children from their families, there seems little doubt what they really want is to continue Obama-era “catch and release” and open borders.
You know the hatred of progressives for Republicans has reached a fever pitch when they are not willing to tolerate Republicans in public places. First, the Homeland Security secretary was forced to leave a D.C. Mexican restaurant by a mob on June 19. Members of the Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists crowded into the restaurant and began taunting Kirstjen Nielsen. One yelled at her, “In a Mexican restaurant of all places! The fu**ing gall!” Below is a video posted on Facebook recording the incident.
Then came the widely noted ousting of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family from a Virginia restaurant by its co-owner. The co-owner of that restaurant, the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., told the Washington Post she threw out the Sanders family because she believed the Trump administration to be “inhumane and unethical.” Later, Sanders’ father, the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, told Fox Business News,
In fact, a little known part of this story, is that after Sarah and her husband left and the family relocated to a restaurant across the street, the owner of the Red Hen then organized an effort to go and scream at them from the sidewalk at the other restaurant. . . . Finally, one of Sarah’s in-laws, who happens to be very liberal, it’s her brother-in-law, went out in the street and said, ‘Look, Sarah’s already left. She didn’t stay for obvious reasons. She’s had all she needs tonight. The rest of us are trying to have dinner. I’m a liberal. I’m not a Trump supporter. But you guys aren’t helping our cause.’
The final incident of note was when the Republican Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was harassed while she and a friend attended a movie. The impression her harassers gave her, expressed in the interview below, was they wanted to entice a violent fight.
That is three incidents within a single month. This is beginning to look like a trend. Indeed, Maxine Waters, as seen in the video below, is urging every progressive to emulate these incidents to make the life of every Republican a living Hell.
How did this incredibly uncivil environment come about? Throughout my entire life, progressives and neoliberals (aka “conservatives”) have greatly disliked each other’s points of view and policies. Yet it has never been this bad (with the possible exception of the Vietnam War period), verging on the edge of violence. At least not until recently.
I first noticed how bad the political atmosphere was becoming during the Obama administration, with the increasing number of insults thrown between the two parties. On top of that, however, were a growing number of Democratic Party attempts to suppress “conservative” opinions. Further evidence of the hostile polarization was provided during the 2016 campaign by Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” speech. In that address she claimed
you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables’. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.
With the defeat of Clinton at the hands of Donald Trump, the Democratic Party found a great need to explain how their progressive candidate could possibly fall before such a greatly bombastic, uncouth individual. Part of the attempted explanation was the Trump-Russia collusion myth. Yet another part was the expanding meme that not only Trump supporters, but Republicans in general were racists and fascists. As there are no two groups hated more in the United States than racists and fascists, progressives are required by their beliefs to hate Republicans (and indeed any other “conservatives”) with no constraints.
Needless to say, most Republicans do not recognize themselves in the cartoon caricatures drawn by progressives. Since they are accused of being totally evil, one should not be very surprised if Republicans begin to return the hate.
Effects on the 2018 Elections
Probably, such displays of irrationality on the part of progressives are a gift to the Republican Party. Such extreme expressions of hatred have usually alienated voters in the past, especially the independents. These emotional demonstrations have certainly provided Republicans with considerable ammunition. Consider the GOP attack ad below. It was modified by a gentleman by the name of Gary Franchi to add some historical context.
But in addition to giving ammunition to their enemies, Democrats are finding it hard to support a vision for alternative policies. They have given such a vision, which they call their “Better Deal”. Nevertheless, almost all of their energy, time, and funding has been devoted to persuading everyone what an awful, evil, stupid man Donald Trump is. It does not help their case that Donald Trump is only partially awful, not really evil, and only occasionally stupid.
Yet another influence on the coming elections was identified in an essay on The Federalist website, entitled The Left Has Cried Wolf On Republicans So Long Trump Is Immune. Progressives can shout out inaccurate accusations only so long before non-progressives start to ignore them.
Democrats lost the 2016 general elections for much the same reasons that gave the dirigiste elites of Europe their own populist revolts. Part of the American populist revolt was motivated by the pain of economic stagnation. The economic secular stagnation touted by Keynesians has been endemic throughout the West in recent decades. The remaining major source for the populist rebellion, both in the United States and Europe, has been the flood of illegal immigrants. A recent YouGov poll of 1,500 Americans, conducted between June 17 and June 19, shows a large majority of the American people concerned with the problem. Only 19% favored Obama’s policy of “catch and release.” Even Democrats were against it: Only 30% of Democrats as a whole, 33% of Hillary Clinton voters, and 36% of self-described “liberals” were for it. Only 17% of independents and 7% of Republicans would support it. Of four policies for dealing with illegals offered by the poll, the most popular was “holding families together in detention centers until an immigration hearing at a later date.” A continuing Democratic insistence on re-instituting “catch and release” will almost certainly be a loser for them at the polls this November.
Is Civil War Now More Likely?
The increasing incivility of our public discourse has increased speculation recently that a second American civil war might break out. Although most of this increasing incivility is the result of progressives’ “total resistance” to Trump and the Republicans, one can expect Republicans and other neoliberals to contribute eventually to the bedlam. Hate almost always generates an answering hatred.
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll, published June 27, shows 31% of likely U.S. voters believe the U.S. will be in a second civil war sometime in the next five years. Even more Democrats (37%) than Republicans (32%) believe this likely. Of the independents, 26% believe a civil war is near. A year ago, I noted in the post How Probable Is A Second American Civil War? that these fears are all too rational.
In that post I showed the following Pew Research Center charts.
Pew Research Center
As of April 2016, majorities in both major parties for the first time viewed the policies of the other party not just unfavorably, but very unfavorably. What exactly this means can be seen in the Pew Research bar charts below. In them, the responses in April 2016 are displayed both for all partisans of both parties and for those partisans with high political engagement.
Pew Research Center
The numbers are very similar for both parties; strong majorities among the politically committed are frightened by, angry with, and frustrated by the policies and views of the other party. Fear and anger fused together equals hate. That hate is amplified by frustration.
In this incendiary, polarized political environment, we are only a spark away from a tremendous catastrophe. The hostility of Democratic politicians is not helping.
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