OPINION:
For the left, mayhem in pursuit of revolutionary ends is nothing new. A trail of blood leads from the French Revolution to the current wave of pro-abortion anarchy.
Death threats against conservative justices, protests at their homes meant to intimidate and promises of a “summer of rage” are the latest chapter of a chronicle dating back more than two centuries. Leftism was born in the bloodshed of Revolutionary France — from the guillotine to the massacre in the Vendee.
It continued with Marx, who urged “revolutionary terror” to create a utopia. Herbert Marcuse, the Marxist theoretician who shaped the New Left, said “preaching non-violence … reproduces institutionalized violence.”
When the left comes to power, its violence is institutionalized, as it was in the Bolshevik Revolution, National Socialist genocide, Mao’s purges and forced starvation (from the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution), Pol Pot’s killing fields, the Castro regime and its Venezuelan clone. Over the course of 233 years, the victims can be counted in the tens of millions.
The modern American left was forged in the anti-Vietnam violence of the 1960s (led by SDS and the Maoist Progressive Labor Party). Antifa and Black Lives Matter — one of whose co-founders described its leadership as “trained Marxists” — are but the latest incarnations.
When it comes to political violence, the establishment media focuses exclusively on Jan. 6, 2021, while ignoring four years of nonstop attacks on former President Donald Trump and his supporters, starting on inauguration day — when those who came to Washington to celebrate were punched, pummeled and clubbed. Rep. Maxine Waters unleashed the mob against members of the Trump administration and ranking Republicans who were abused and threatened with violence while dining out.
The left has turned academia into a speech-free zone. Conservative speakers are silenced and their sponsors retaliated against. Speech codes suppress the expression of unorthodox ideas. Censorship frequently precedes violence.
Pro-choice militants may be seen as part of an ignoble tradition.
Abortion is the crown jewel of the sexual revolution. Militants are willing to do whatever it takes to defend it. Besides screaming through bullhorns, Catholic services have been disrupted, pro-life offices in Oregon firebombed and a summer of rage threatened. (“If abortions aren’t safe then neither are you.”)
A leaked DHS report predicts a ratcheting up of violence if Roe is repealed. It points to social media posts threatening to storm the Supreme Court building, or burn it to the ground, and murder conservative justices. Attacks against places of worship and pro-life groups are expected to intensify.
Meanwhile, from the sidelines, the establishment left cheers the revolutionary left.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted: “To my friends in the LGBTQ+ community — the Supreme Court is coming for us next. This moment has to be a call to arms” — not a call to action, but a call to arms.
Of the George Floyd riots, then-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo rhetorically asked, “Please show me where protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful?” With burning buildings as a backdrop, reporters declared riots “mostly peaceful.”
The current pro-abortion response to the possible repeal of Roe v. Wade is part of a pattern. Violence in the streets is used to protect violence in the womb. We’ve gone from former President Bill Clinton’s prescription that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare” to the current position of his party — that killing a baby moments away from birth is a human right.
Revolutionary violence is always in season, whether the goal is the overthrow of the capitalist system or of Judeo-Christian morality.
The Supreme Court was lionized when it served the left’s purposes, then demonized when it started to stand in the way of the revolution.
The left doesn’t resort to violence, it relishes it.
Chaos serves its purpose. Both Nazis and communists welcomed the street-fighting that brought down the Weimar Republic. The only question was which gang of thugs would come to power in the aftermath — red or brown.
You can see their eager anticipation in the sparkle in the eyes (and specks of saliva at the corners of the mouth) of speakers at pro-abortion rallies, who promise they will be “ungovernable.”
In their rhetoric, you can hear echoes of bygone eras — of Robespierre and Lenin, of stormtroopers and Red Guard. This is bigger than an issue or a cause. In the broadest sense, it’s about an ideology that’s bent on using any means necessary to reshape and ruin our lives.
• Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer and syndicated columnist.
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