For a long time, Dems held themselves out as the party of love and compassion. That was always a stretch.
After all, it was the Dems who defended slavery against the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln; it was the Dems who were behind racial segregation in the South; it was the Dems who opposed civil rights laws; and it was the Dems who bombed government buildings and attacked policemen during civil unrest in the ’60s.
It was the Dems of the Ku Klux Klan who lynched blacks and occasionally Jews, and persecuted Catholics; it was the Dems who rioted at their own national convention in 1968; and it was the Dems who advocated, and still advocate, unlimited abortion on demand, thereby killing half the black fetuses in the country — about 20 million of them.
It was the Dems who got us into the Vietnam War, resulting in over 58,000 American deaths and over a million other deaths.
Yet until recently the Dems hypocritically professed to be that party of love and compassion. Their proof was this: They wanted to give more free stuff to more people.
That has changed. Yes, the Dems still want to give more free stuff to more people in the hope of buying their votes. But now it’s not out of a sanctimonious show of love and compassion. It’s instead out of anger. It’s class warfare.
Here’s the wartime propaganda. Those from whom the Dems take (the givers) are portrayed as villains, while those to whom the Dems give (the takers) are portrayed as victims.
In other words, say the Dems, whatever money you want but don’t have is held by someone who stole it from you. The Dems will steal it back and return it to you, less a hefty commission for their collection efforts, and just for good measure they’ll vilify whomever they steal it back from. If only you’ll vote for them.
Never mind that the top 1% already pay 37% of federal income taxes, and the top 10% pay 69%.
This Dem policy of stealing from earners to give to constituencies is bad. It’s dishonest. It’s theft. It spoils the incentives that create wealth for everyone.
But I can’t say it’s hypocritical. Because in this class war the Dems no longer falsely portray themselves as loving and compassionate. They candidly portray themselves as simple mercenaries — as pirates. Hire them, and they’ll raid the shipping lanes for you. They’ll even resort to violence if necessary and, like all good pirates, sometimes just for fun.
Hence, we have thugs like “Antifa” whose idea of justice is to roam our streets looking for people to beat up. And its predecessor “Occupy” which would squat in the parks with excrement and urine as a protest against those who like a safe public square for themselves and their children.
Such groups are not condemned by the Dems, but celebrated. For example, Antifa recently attacked a journalist. He happened to be gay and Vietnamese, but that didn’t generate enough love or compassion among Dems to offset his “wrong” of videotaping Antifa’s violence. He wound up in the hospital.
From the Dems, we heard crickets. Some of their media handmaidens were even worse in suggesting that the journalist got what he deserved.
But give Antifa, Occupy and the other Dem activists some credit. They may be criminals and accessories to criminals, but they’re no longer hypocrites. Their candid position is that people who disagree with them are unworthy of love and compassion. They’re worthy of only censorship, shout-downs and violence.
This isn’t just a far-left phenomena. The Washington Post recently published a column suggesting that restaurants are justified in rude and abusive behavior to drive out Republican guests. Indeed, numerous Republicans have been refused restaurant service and one was spat upon, all just for being Republicans.
But again, give the Dems credit. They may be rude, abusive and perhaps unlawful in refusing to serve persons whose political opinions they don’t like, but they’re not hypocritical. Nowadays, they own up to their rudeness, abusiveness and unlawfulness. In fact, they boast of it.
The left counts on the fact that Republicans won’t respond in kind, and they’re mostly right. That’s not the way most Republicans behave, and the Dems know it.
The notion, for example, of a leading Republican-leaning newspaper, say the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that rude, abusive and unlawful behavior toward Democrats is justified, is ludicrous.
I hope it stays that way, for two reasons. First, we are Republicans and, with a few notable exceptions, we don’t get in the gutter just because that’s where our opponents live.
Second, gutter warfare is not the way to win moderate voters in an election. The Dems are likely to be taught that lesson again in 2020, though I doubt they will learn it.
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