Political Violence

Two incidents in the last week have the left up in arms against President Trump. The first was a series of bombs sent to prominent Democrats. There were at least 14 of these. None actually exploded and all were sent to people who have mail rooms that open their packages for them so these were almost certainly meant to intimidate rather than harm. Far more serious was a gunman who attacked a synagogue in Pittsburgh in one of the worst attacks against Jews in US history.

The left blamed President Trump for both incidents. While it's true that the bomber appears to be a Trump supporter, he also appears to be a nut case.

The gunman is both anti-Semitic and anti-Trump. Considering that Trump is our naiton's most pro-Israel president and his son-in-law and daughter are Jewish, as are the President's grand-children, there's just no way that Trump could have influenced someone who is violently anti-Jew. Regardless, the left has been blaming Trump regardless, accusing him of using anti-Semitic code-words and in raising the level of violence in general.

Here's the thing, most of the violence is from the left. Just this month someone sent ricin-laced letters to members of the Trump administration including the President. These did not actually have ricin, only ground castor beans which is enough to set off ricin alarms. So this was nearly identical to the fake bombs - both were designed to alarm people rather than actually hurt anyone. But the ricin letters barely got any publicity while the bombs were a top story for days.

But the ricin letters where just the latest in a long line of violence against Republicans. That includes a Bernie Saunders supporter trying to assassinate the Republican members of Congress and going back to more Bernie supporters physically disrupting Trump rallies in 2016. Someone attacked a Republican candidate with a knife. A different Republican candidate, a woman, had her arm twisted. Republican headquarters have been burned or had their windows smashed. I could go on but you get the idea. There are a disproportionate number of attacks against Republicans than Democrats. But the left doesn't even see this.

When condemning political violence, it's important to condemn all political violence. Otherwise you are saying that you support it as long as it's against people you disapprove of.

That's what's been happening. The left condemns the KKK and the Proud Boys but cheers on Antifa. They complain about Trump's violent rhetoric while ignoring actual violence against Republicans.

This shouldn't be a surprise. This is just an extension of the left's definition of hate speech. For years they've been claiming that hate speech is not free speech and should not be protected but their definition of hate speech usually comes down to any speech they hate. Now they've extended that to violence. If it's against Republicans then it's justified because the Republicans must have brought it on themselves (this was an excuse after the Republican softball team was attacked). In the few cases where Democrats are attacked then it is immediately blamed on President Trump.

There are a couple of special cases that should be mentioned. First, if the violent offender is Muslim then the conversation immediately turns to gun control.

The second special case is the left's growing antisemitism. I mentioned this to a far-left friend on Facebook a few months ago and was called a troll. But antisemitism is growing world-wide and it's mainly from the left. There is a direct relationship between colleges with active BDS movements and antisemitic incidents. Bernie Sanders had to assure people that he was ethnically Jewish but not a practicing Jew. A member of Washington DC's city council insisted that Jews control the weather. Louis Farrakhan maintains relations with many Democrats regardless of how anti-Jewish his rhetoric is. Linda Sarsour, co-organizer of one of the anti-Trump women's marches has similarly made anti-Jewish statements. England's far-left Labor leader, Jeremy Corbin, has alienated Jews in his party. And, of course, the gunman who shot the Jews in Pittsburgh hated Trump as well as Jews. But the American left refuses to see this. They like to think of themselves as loving diversity but they also have a growing hatred for Israel which spills over into a general dislike for Jews in general and practicing Jews in particular.