Liberals Were Just Dying to Share This Talking Point Last Night
The Crusty Commies Are a Joke
Barack Obama Doing This Behind the Scenes Confirms Again That Kamala Was a...
Lawn Gone Liberty: The Update
Deportation Dysphoria in the Press, and MSNBC Loses Its Star Statistician
Jeffrey Goldberg Congratulates Himself All Over PBS
Shut Down the Department of Education ASAP
Why National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Will Make Americans Safer
Self-Destructive Democracies
The President Who Set the Precedent Against a Third Term
Roadmap to Reform CDC -- Currently the Centers for Disaster and Confusion
Progressives Are Well Organized, Patriotic Americans Have to Do It Even Better
Supreme Court’s Getting Busy
Lawmakers Shouldn’t Let Bad Actors Get Away With Harming Children Online
Where Are the Left’s Protests Now?
OPINION

Calls for Violence Must Be Denounced

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Of all the voices being raised against the specter of mob rule in this country, few carry more weight than that of Steve Scalise.

That’s because Scalise, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, knows first-hand what happens when violent words turn into violent action.

Advertisement

Last June, he was shot and seriously wounded by a man named James Hodgkinson, who turned up at a practice session for a charity baseball game in Washington, D.C.-- and started shooting. Scalise wound up in intensive care, underwent multiple surgeries, and even had to relearn how to walk.

And all because Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter described by his own lawyer as "a very irascible, angry little man,” was so furious over the election of President Trump that he moved to the D.C. area to protest.

Well, I think we can all agree that there’s a huge gap between the all-American tradition of protesting, and the criminal activity of trying to maim or murder those you disagree with.

At least I hope we can agree on that. After all, when you have Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, caught on tape telling his political teammates, “When they go low, we kick them,” you have to wonder.

Especially when Holder’s advice follows viral videos of Brett Kavanaugh protesters ambushing lawmakers in hallways and elevators and being verbally abusive, not to mention accosting others in restaurants and even at their homes.

You’d think that the Scalise shooting would have made everyone wary of ratcheting up the rhetoric too much. And sure, some did speak up against it – at least a little bit. Sanders said he was “sickened by this despicable act,” and Michelle Obama has famously said, “When they go low, we go high.” Even Holder felt pressured to walk back his advice as something not meant to be taken literally.

Advertisement

But these calls for civility have been far too few in number. And as the fight over Kavanaugh proved, they obviously haven’t made much of an impression.

Indeed, many on the Left have made a point in recent weeks of denouncing calls for civility. In angry posts on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere, they insist that this is nothing more than an attempt to muzzle them. Faced with a president who is alleged to be such a monster, they claim they have no choice -- that they must resort to profane rhetoric and physical confrontation. That those who support the president will have “no peace.”

As Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., put it: “If you see anybody from [the Trump administration] in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd! … Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”

Well, there’s another name for angry crowds: mobs. The Left doesn’t like the “m word,” but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s accurate. And when you keep demonizing your opponents, no matter how justified you may think it is, don’t be surprised when – having let the genie out of the bottle – things get ugly.

Just ask Steve Scalise. “I’m concerned that you are seeing an increase of this,” he said recently. “I’d like to see the mainstream media asking both Republican and Democrat leaders to stand up against this kind of rhetoric, this kind of violence.”

Advertisement

That, he adds, is why “we’ve got to keep shining a light on this, to make it clear that this isn’t what politics is about in America. It’s not what the founding of our country was about. It was about freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Not violence against anybody.”

Contrast that with Hillary Clinton, who recently said, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” And what would she suggest instead? Oh, “civility can start again,” she says – once her party is back in power.

Such threats are unconscionable. Those who support such a belligerent agenda don’t deserve the reins of power. It’s un-American. And it’s wrong.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos