Days of Rage Redux

The Democrati Party has embraced the radical Left and its insurrectionary program

An anti-ICE warrior is arrested

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The Democratic Party has joined the radical Left in a declaration of war on federal law enforcement.

Violent interference with the enforcement of federal immigration law is escalating rapidly—encouraged, no doubt, by the incendiary rhetoric of Democrats including the House minority leader, the chair of the House progressive caucus, numerous senators and representatives, and elected Democrats at the state and local levels.

This is a situation rich in irony and freighted with hypocrisy, given the narrative of insurrection and lawlessness that Democrats and progressives have pieced together concerning the events of January 6, 2021. That was indeed a day of shame and those who participated in the invasion of the Capitol, enabled it, or encouraged it, have earned the condemnations and condign punishments that have come their way. This includes Donald J. Trump, whose refusal to concede the 2020 election to Joe Biden and false charges of electoral fraud did much to incite his more oafish and irresponsible followers.

Having said that, I think it’s reasonable that Trump’s fiercest critics on the broad Left be held to a higher standard. And as far as I’m concerned, they’ve flunked that test, for their jihad against ICE and border security is nothing short of an insurrection.

Sad to say, the radical head cases of the Left spearheading this insurrection are beyond redemption. The toxic ideology they’ve imbibed has destroyed any semblance of a moral compass. They are nihilists who worship power; they desire not reform but an orgy of revolutionary destruction. These impulses are fanciful, of course; the “proletarian masses” have no desire to rally to the red banner. The danger they pose lies in the fact that they’re contagious. Having infected the infected the Democratic Party, they’re now in the process of destroying it. When the chairman of the Democratic National Committee can’t bring himself to put some daylight between his party and a radical socialist who hates Jews and America, and supports genocidal terrorist groups, that’s a tell.

The extreme rhetoric emanating from supposedly mainstream Democrats, going so far as to denounce federal immigration enforcement officers as Nazi stormtroopers, and the theatrical antics of some of them, have surely played a part in the escalation of violence such as was seen this week during a raid on two illegal cannabis farms in Southern California. A large mob attempted to turn away the federal officers, and the confrontation quickly became violent. Numerous protesters were arrested for obstruction and one other, who allegedly shot at the officers, is being sought by the FBI. That makes the third time in two weeks that leftist insurrectionists have fired on federal agents engaged in immigration enforcement.

Not incidentally, of the illegal immigrant workers arrested during the operation, ten were minors, eight of whom were unaccompanied.

Among the elected Democrats who are whipping up the mob against ICE, one of the most egregious offenders is Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, who acts like she’s the prime minister of an autonomous city-state. She has demanded an end to immigration enforcement operations in her city, calling them “unacceptable”—as if she has a say in the enforcement of federal law. Bass has decried the paramilitary character of those operations, conveniently overlooking the fact that the city’s refusal to cooperate with federal authorities, and city officials’ encouragement of violent anti-ICE protesters, necessitated the mobilization of National Guard troops.

In short, the Democrats are playing with fire. They‘re encouraging protests that have the declared aim of preventing the enforcement of federal law: the very definition of insurrection. That those protests are growing increasingly violent only underlines the point. Sooner or later, someone’s going to get killed—a federal agent, a protester, an illegal immigrant, an innocent bystander. And as detailed in a recent Axios article, there are some in the Resistance who want bloodshed: “While other Democratic lawmakers said their discussions haven't gone that far, nearly every one who spoke to Axios cited examples of voters' panic and fury fueling demands to adopt brute force tactics.” (Emphasis added.)

These demands make a mockery of Resistance claims to be the defenders of “our democracy.” The call for “brute force tactics” and the hysterical Nazi shouting betrays a contempt for democratic norms and institutions, a desire to destroy Trump and MAGA “by any means necessary.” Peaceful protest hasn’t worked, impeachment hasn’t worked, lawfare hasn’t worked, elections haven’t worked—so what is left to the Resistance besides violent insurrection?

I’ve mentioned more than once that Donald Trump is fortunate in his enemies. It’s an interesting dynamic, really. His own mercurial temperament and manifold character flaws seem perfectly calibrated to bring out the very worst in those who hate him most. In terms of cynical political calculation, the greatest gift from the Resistance to Trump would be a rising tide of violence across the country. They shouldn’t proffer that gift, it would be bad for the country and a disaster for the Democratic Party, but I have an uneasy feeling that the comrades just won’t be able to help themselves.

America, I fear, may be in for a replay of those days of rage that disfigured the Sixties and Seventies.