Rush Limbaugh has a theory as to why prominent Democrats are crafting rhetoric with violent overtones: “Deranged” activists are now their base of support.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in June that she wasn’t sure why there aren’t “uprisings” across the country. California Rep. Maxine Waters said that activists should “push back” against Republicans in public and tell them they are not welcome “anywhere.” Such language, coupled with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent calls for incivility until Democrats take control of Congress, prompted Mr. Limbaugh’s take on the modern Democratic Party.
“Hillary Clinton went out the other day in an interview with Christiane Amanpour and pretty much admitted everything I have been trying to warn people of about the American left and the Democrat Party,” he said Wednesday. “She went out and in her best Maxine Waters impersonation. She was encouraging people to be uncivil, and she was saying that it was justified being uncivil, given the opposition, the Republicans.”
The conservative’s comments were in reference to a CNN interview in which Mrs. Clinton said, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for. I believe if we are fortunate enough to take back the House and or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.”
“In all of this crazy, deranged, unhinged behavior of left-wing activists, I haven’t heard one elected Democrat denounce it,” Mr. Limbaugh continued. … This is who they all are. And with Hillary Clinton now advocating this incivility. … They think that’s their base. They know that’s their base. They don’t dare disapprove. They don’t dare call these people out. They’re not gonna come down against them at all. That’s why Hillary’s out there encouraging more of this. That’s what they think! Look, the Democrat Party thinks — and the media believe — that these protesters clawing the door at the Supreme Court and all of this genuinely insane, unhinged behavior.”
Mr. Limbaugh’s commentary came on the same day that former Attorney General Eric Holder riled up a Georgia crowd with his own offering of violent rhetoric.
“Michelle [Obama] always says ’When they go low, we go high.’ No. No. When they go low, we kick them,” he said to a cheering crowd.
“I really worry that someone is going to be killed,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told radio host Leland Conway on Tuesday of such language. “Those who are ratcheting up the conversation — they have to realize that they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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