To most Americans, a large group of black-clad individuals blockading the streets and harassing motorists who disobey their commands would, quite naturally, be considered a mob. This also would be an apt and reasonable name given to groups of people stalking and screaming at others dining in a restaurant, destroying public monuments, or throwing Molotov cocktails in protest of speakers at a college campus. After all, by definition, a mob is “a large and disorderly crowd of people,” especially those “bent on riotous or destructive action”; and, these incidents are such examples. As we lawyers say, res ipsa loquitur, “the matter speaks for itself.”
The problem is, the Mainstream Media and congressional Democrats are not most Americans. In their Liberal La-La Land, like at CNN, one dares not speak “the ‘M’-word” (“mob”) when commenting on events such as these. To these pundits, those roaming gangs and shouting crowds are not mobs, but merely concerned citizens understandably “motivated” by the dangerous actions of the Trump Administration.
Herein lies the existential crisis for Democrats, and the dirty little secret they refuse to acknowledge openly -- is mob rule what Democrats have become? And is it what our country is becoming?
Since their 2016 trouncing, Democrats have strayed far from their Party’s traditional bread and butter issues like education and civil rights; pursuing instead a strategy exclusively focused on stoking emotional outbursts from their base. We hear less and less from Democrats about specific policy solutions for how they will fix anything, and increasingly more paranoid shouting that “people will die” with every move Trump and the GOP make. Therefore, in whatever twisted logic now passes for strategy in the Democratic Party, if every Trump decision is a death blow to something or someone, then aggressive resistance is an appropriate, if not a “morally imperative,” response.
This sheer lunacy, echoed by elected Democrats back to unhinged activists who believe Trump is responsible for even the most petty of offenses (like a toddler being knocked over), not surprisingly has morphed into the political upheaval we see today. Refusal by Democrats to accept this reality is akin to Dr. Frankenstein losing control over the monster he created; but in this, the very real world of 21st Century America, their antics put real people and real property at great and immediate risk. This is no 19th Century novel or mid-20th Century Hollywood movie.
Scenes from the streets of Portland this month, where masked ANTIFA cowards took over the streets and battered motorists who dared defy them, were gut-wrenching to watch. More pathetic still was to see Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler roll-over and surrender to the mob overtaking his city. Unfortunately, Wheeler is not the first Democratic local leader trying to pacify violent leftists by giving them “space.” U.C. Berkeley let the mobs roam free without police intervention, as did the mayor of Charlottesville during the Unite the Right rally and counter-protests last year.
These protestors, however, as vapid as their political arguments may be, are not the stupid ones; Wheeler and his hand-wringing colleagues are. By abdicating their sworn duty to uphold the rule of law and protect citizens from mob violence, these poor excuses for elected leaders not only endanger their constituents but undermine the very fabric of a civilized society. The message their passivity conveys clearly to the mob is weakness and tolerance; which, as is well-understood by responsible parents, simply encourages more bad behavior.
The chaos countenanced by the Wheelers in positions of authority is made worse still when police chiefs order their officers to stand down and simply watch the looting and violence. Complicit also are local prosecutors who refuse to charge those responsible. How long before mobs shouting down United States Senators and their spouses at restaurants, in airports, or at their own homes, gives way to throwing objects instead of epithets?
Whether voters will be as stupid as these elected and appointed officials, remains to be seen; but we will learn much in answer to that question when the votes are in on November 6th. Nonetheless, the muted reactions to the goings on in Portland, the cheers a rant by Rep. Maxine Waters provokes, and the applause a childish antic by “Beto” O’Rourke receives, offer clues as to where many Democrat voters seem to be headed.
God help us if a majority of voters in key congressional districts, and in states with Senate seats and governorships up for grabs, vote with these mob enablers.