The words “fascism” and “fascist” are thrown around a lot these days. Most frequently we see these epithets in the blogs and tweets of so-called “progressives” (until recently called liberals, until they rebranded themselves, after realizing the word liberal had become associated with losers). We see these expletives all too frequently in the mainstream media, which is thoroughly left-wing now.
And at whom is this invective aimed? Almost invariably, this abusive term is directed at conservatives — politicians, government officials, public policy players, and intellectuals.
The original terms, of course, refer to the Nazis during the Third Reich in Germany and Il Duce Mussolini in Italy. In both places, brutal leaders bent on a big-government takeover of power, commerce, and even daily life used tactics of fear and violence to control others.
Anyone who knows anything about politics in America over the past several decades is clear on one thing: the violent “activists” in the United States almost always emanate from the left – whether they call themselves progressive, “woke,” or something else.
Conservatives believe in playing by the rules in this great country; they believe in the rule of law. They do not hold to the left-wing (and communist) playbook that the ends justify the means – that any tactic or action is legitimate to achieve their goals and ideals, which they deem moral or even righteous.
In 2021 in America, those who censor ideas and use violence to keep people from speaking on college campuses are not right wing. They are mobs made up of faculty members and student progressives – often upheld or even applauded by administrators. They are the woke groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matters and @hungry4climatejustice.
We had not heard of @hungryforclimatejustice until last Thursday when “activists” from this group confronted Joe Manchin (Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia) at his houseboat on the Potomac River and then tried to prevent him from driving his car out of a parking garage. His sin in their eyes: opposing many of the proposals in the $3.75 trillion socialist bill that President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have tried to foist on the American people. And not only did this group of woke activists harass Senator Manchin and chant “F— Joe Manchin,” but they then tweeted their selfie videos, boasting of their violence and harassment of the senator.
You’ve heard of virtue-signaling? This is more like self-shaming. Or it would be, if such people had any decency.
This incident is only one of many fascist-style confrontations and attacks by the left on conservatives and moderates over the past half-dozen years. A month ago, another senator was harassed – this time in a bathroom. Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona was followed into a ladies room at Arizona State University by “activists” from United for Change. They targeted her for her not wanting to include so-called immigration reforms, which the group was pushing, in the $3.75 trillion socialist “infrastructure” bill.
Clearly, woke fascists, who enthusiastically embrace “safe spaces” on college campuses, don’t believe that there should be any spaces safe from their attempts at intimidation of political opponents.
These kinds of tactics by the left have become a staple of the America public policy scene. In November 2018, a group called Smash Racism DC cracked the front door of the home of Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson. Members chanted “We know where you sleep at night.” Carlson wasn’t home, but his wife was. Terrified, she called police. The Carlsons ended up moving.
The group, by the way, is associated with Antifa, which somehow stands for “anti-Fascist.”
Fascist tactics in Germany and Italy in the 1920s and 1930s were ugly and destabilizing. They are ugly and destabilizing now.
They also undermine our ability to think of ourselves as one people. Whatever our disagreements – and they are many, and important – Americans for most of our history have thought of ourselves as united. We have – generally – a united purpose, even if the means we seek to get there differ sharply.
But the incidents above are not policies or protests or arguments. They’re terror. The point isn’t to persuade. It’s to instill fear.
Political leaders of every persuasion have to condemn these left-wing attacks. But it is especially incumbent on Democratic leaders to denounce these fascist acts by their progressive supporters. Instead of urging more of this outrageous behavior, as Democratic U.S. Representative Maxine Waters of California did in June 2018, progressive politicians must tell their followers that their behavior is shameful and has no place in America.
If this fascist behavior from the left doesn’t stop, America will continue a downward spiral into the violent politics seen in the many failed nations across the globe.
That would be tragic not just for Americans. For the United States remains, as Thomas Jefferson said in his first inaugural address in 1801, “the world’s best hope.”
To keep it that way, we all have to agree there are certain things we just won’t do.
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