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Sunday, June 24, 2018

Guaranteeing a Loss

Yesterday, the attorney general of Florida, Pam Bondi, was attacked by a mob of protesters who screamed at her as she left a movie after seeing a documentary about Fred Rogers.  Mr. Rogers was, of course, the host of a children's TV show on PBS in which he tried to teach the kids to be "neighbors" by treating everyone with dignity and respect.  The crowd confronting Pam Bondi did no such thing.  They screamed at her for supporting the Trump policies on healthcare and immigration.  It was quite a contrast.

The night before that, a restaurant owner in Virginia asked White House Press Spokesman Sara Sanders to leave rather than be served.  The restaurant owner called the move a "moral decision".  Basically, the restaurant owner refused to serve Sanders because she works for Trump.  It was a classless move.

The day before that, the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen was confronted by a crowd of screaming protesters at a restaurant in DC as well as at her home.  It was much the same scene as the one that confronted Bondi in Florida.

Three prominent Republican women are attacked by left wing mobs for doing their jobs.  Do we hear any of the usual feminists denouncing this display of sexism?   Of course not.  Do we hear any prominent Democrats calling on the protesters to stop attacking individuals?  Chuck?  Nancy?  They're silent. 

So will this tactic work?  The most likely answer is a resounding NO.  Americans don't like to see tactics like this.  The average American voter knows that the Attorney General in Florida doesn't set national policy on immigration, healthcare or anything else.  So why is she attacked?  The average American voter also knows that the woman who speaks to the press at the White House doesn't set policy either.  She just informs people what that policy is.  So again, why attack her?

My guess is that the left has, as usual, gone too far.  The ordinary American voter looks at the attacks and sees people being persecuted for their political views.  These folks will not see enforcing the law as an out-of-bounds position.  Remember, Sanders, Bondi, and Nielsen just support enforcing the law as written.  That's a position that plays well to most Americans.  Using mob intimidation tactics is not something that those who are not extremists will applaud or even accept.

This move by the mobs and the lack of any condemnation by the Democrat establishment has done more to undermine their position on the whole immigration imbroglio than almost anything else to date.  We already know that the polls show people blame the parents who illegally bring their kids to the USA for the family separations, not the government.  Throwing mob intimidation and lack of respect for the law into the mix just further undermines support for the minority position.  It's not a wise move.

It is also important to remember that this is not only a bad move politically; it is also a dangerous move.  There are too many crazies out there who get influenced by these events.  It's not a big move from a crowd confronting the Secretary of Homeland Security to a crazy leftist actually attacking her.  Remember, it was a crazy Bernie supporter who shot congressman Scalise a year ago in a similar situation.  The left has to take violence and threats of violence out of its rhetoric and actions. 

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