“Yes, But…”

The American Left's desperate crush on revolutionary violence

The American Left’s healthcare reform plan: terrorism and assassination

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Supposedly, the threat of political violence comes from what progressives are pleased to call the “far Right,” which apparently comprises everybody to the right of Elizabeth Warren. But the record reflects otherwise.

While running for president, Donald Trump was twice targeted for assassination, and it may be presumed that the “far Right” was not responsible for those attempts on his life, the first of which came within millimeters of blowing his head off.

In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, an assassin was caught stalking Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh, and it seems reasonable to assume that the “far Right” wasn’t responsible for that one either.

Just the other day, Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, was assaulted by a trans activist, who surely was not a member of the “far Right.”

And, of course, the horrifying assassination of a corporate CEO on a New York City street cannot be put down to the “far Right.” No, the assassin was an advocate for that signature cause of progressivism, healthcare reform. Somehow it did not seem surprising that the shooter, Luigi Nicholas Mangione, is a child of privilege with an Ivy League education.

So if there’s a problem with political violence in America, it’s bipartisan, with a definite tilt to the Left.

The murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was greeted with cheers from the online leftie fever swamps. In that quarter, there’s a genuine appetite for blood. Thompson got what he deserved, you see, because private healthcare insurance companies are monsters of evil. People can be pushed only so far before they lash out!

Now, this is the kind of vicious crap that we’ve come to expect from progressivism’s online mob, a cabal of garbage human beings. But surely, we’re entitled to expect better from high-profile public figures—right? Alas, no It turns out that there are prominent people who have no problem with justifying murder: that nasty little twerp, Taylor Lorenz, and even more egregiously Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts.

This loathsome human being’s remarks on Brian Thompson’s murder deserve to be reproduced in full and broadcast widely, to ensure that she receives the full measure of the scorn and contempt she has earned:

The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system. Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far. This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change They lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone. (Emphasis added.)

Everything after the but in Warren’s statement constitutes a justification for terrorism and murder. And her vile comments fit the template of the American Left, which has a long history of valorizing revolutionary violence.

In the 1930s, the American Left praised the Stalinist Soviet Union as the world capital of socialism, leading humanity into a Radiant Future—though of course the purges, the executions, the Gulag, were regrettable necessities. Forty years after that, white liberals and progressives thrilled to the murderous exploits of such revolutionary sociopaths as Hewy Newton, George Jackson, Bernardine Dohrn. Four years ago, Democrats and progressives were not short of excuses for the violent rioting, looting, and vandalism that followed the death of George Floyd. And right now, Democrats and progressives are turning a blind eye to the harassment, intimidation and violence visited on American Jews by “anti-Zionist” activists.

There are, no doubt, many on the broad Left who regard this strain of revolutionary violence in their ranks with dismay. But with a few exceptions, they lack the courage to denounce it openly. They fear—and it’s a rational fear—that any protest, however mild, would bring down on their heads the wrath of those online mobs that embody the shock troops of postmodern progressivism.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is, therefore, no renegade estranged from the Democratic Party. She’s a leader of its progressive wing, which dominates the party as a whole. When she speaks, she’s speaking with the authority of that leading position. And there’s no doubt that many Democrats, not to mention many people farther to the Left, share Warren’s view that Brian Thompson got what was coming. In the days after his assassination, wanted posters bearing the names and photographs of other CEOs of healthcare insurance companies began to appear around New York City: an all but open call for more murderous violence.

When Donald Trump used the word bloodbath to describe what he claimed would befall the American auto industry if he were not reelected as president, the comrades pounced, falsely claiming that Trump was promising to launch bloody purge of his political opponents if elected. This was not only a blatant lie but a prize specimen of hypocrisy. For though it’s true as noted above that political violence in America is a bipartisan problem, at this moment its epicenter is to the left of where I’m sitting.