Forgiving Violence

By most accounts the Democrat Party is less a “party” than it is an amalgamation of a number of special interest factions.  For the longest time it was dominated by organized labor even to the point where the labor chieftains declared that they would determine the presidential nominee for the Democrats in 1968 and thereafter selected former Vice-president Hubert Humphrey (D-MN).  A split between the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters found the latter supporting President Richard M. Nixon (R-CA) and beginning the slide that has relegated private sector unions impotent in the Democrat Party and led to the rise of the public employee unions (NEA, AFT, SEIU, AFSCME, etc.)  Still that section of organized labor has a significant role in the Democrat Party principally as its financial arm.

The Democrats embraced the anti-war elements in the 60’s and seventies and likewise the Civil Rights movement.  Then came the women’s rights movement captured by the National Organization of Women which was promptly subsumed by the progressive wing of the party which made taxpayer funded abortion on demand the standard for women’s rights in lieu of employment rights.  Then came the gays and lesbians (followed by the entirety of the sexual identity cadre of the LGBTQI) which were again subsumed by the progressive wing so long as you were progressive before you were gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, transgender or interested.  And now they have embraced the socialists, the anti-Semites in the Muslim community, the Black Lives Matter thugs, and the anarchists of the Antifa movement.

And all along the way the Democrats have given tacit approval to the violence occasioned by many of these groups.  Let me show you how it works.  When I was in college and law school I would work highway construction during the summers.  During that period of time there was a labor strike and for the first time I witnessed the violence that often accompanied such strikes.  It wasn’t violence towards a person rather it was violence in the form of routine but expensive damage to equipment and facilities.  And each and every time the union leadership would state that “they did not condone the violence, but they certainly understood the frustration of their members that led to the violence.”  Later when, as a part of my private law practice, I became counsel for the Montana Association of General Contractors, the Montana Motor Carriers, and the Montana Automobile Dealers Association I witnessed periodic instances of the same conduct with the same response from the union leadership – “they did not condone the violence, but they certainly understood the frustration of their members that led to the violence.”  And the union leadership being a significant driver in the state Democrat Party not a word of disagreement was heard from the party leadership.  The same thing occurred during my twenty years with the telephone company (Mountain Bell, Pacific Northwest Bell, U S WEST, and Qwest) along with the same response from union leadership.

But quite frankly the private sector unions were well behaved in comparison to the violence that has been shown in the political arena.  To be sure, legitimate political protests are well meaning at the inception but are often co-opted by forces hell bent on violence.  The anti-war movement of the 60’s and 70’s began as a frustration with an interminable war in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand) and contained elements that were pacifists, anti-government, and communists, but most were like me who were outraged at sending our young men and women as “cannon fodder” in a fight that our political leaders fought, not to win, but rather to avoid responsibility for losing.  It was embraced by the Democrat Party and became a dominant force in their presidential nominations.  But the anti-war movement gave putative cover to those looking to unleash violence – The Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), Students for A Democratic Society (SDS), Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and other allied groups – who, despite their nominal claims to be peace loving were, in fact, fronts for coordinated violence.
Banks were robbed, policemen were killed, buildings were burned and sabotage was rampant.  And despite that there was no universal condemnation of the violence by the Democrat leadership.  At best there was a denial of affiliation tempered with an understanding of frustration of those turning to violence.  And some of the perpetrators even went on to become friends and advisors for major Democrat political leaders (e.g. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn) or honored with the acquiescence of Democrat leaders  (e.g. FALN terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera later pardoned by President Barack Obama).  As the old saying goes: “You can pour sugar on dog poop all day long and it still doesn’t make it a candy bar.”  These men and women were perpetrators of violence – extreme violence – and lives were lost and property destroyed and yet they have become “heroes” to progressives in the Democrat Party.

And the violence continues.  Today we have the thugs in Black Lives Matter and Antifa.  The former began as a legitimate protest demanding an end to the death of young black men as a result of confrontations with the police.  But the thugs took over and Black Lives Matter became as much an excuse for violence as it did a protest.  The actual facts surrounding police confrontations made no difference.  Black Lives Matter became the point of the spear in confrontations with equally violent white supremacists.  But the condemnation by Democrat politicians of the violence was reserved to the white supremacists.  These same Democrat politicians remained mute in their condemnation of Black Lives Matter while loudly condemning President Donald Trump as a racist when he had the audacity to suggest that both sides were to blame during an outbreak of violence in Charlottesville.
Antifa is a movement that is dedicated to violence and grows out of the anarchist ranks.  There is not “protest” with Antifa – just violence and they are omnipresent at every opportunity to trigger and engage in violent confrontations.  And yet in places like Portland, Oregon, the police have been ordered by progressive Democrats to “stand down” – basically giving governance of the streets to these thugs.  There is never condemnation; rather there is tacit acceptance and even that sop ““they did not condone the violence, but they certainly understand the frustration that led to the violence.” 
That embrace or acceptance of violence by groups on the left will ultimately lead to more violence from groups on the right.  As the Democrats continue to try to impeach Mr. Trump using anonymous witnesses with hearsay testimony behind closed doors, you can certainly understand the rising frustrations of his supporters.  Will any Democrat forgive their violence as they do those on the left?  For those of us on the right let me assert that violence is not the answer.  The progressive Democrats are destroying themselves and the right will win handily in the next election.  Justice will come during a second term by Mr. Trump when the full arrogance of those who sought to deny the results of a valid election and the presidency of Mr. Trump will be uncovered.