Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Encroaching Mob Rule

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Corey Stewart needs a bigger loudspeaker. Photo credit: Washington Post

I’ve never had much use for Corey Stewart’s populist, in-your-face brand of politics. But some of the people opposing him aren’t any better.

Stewart, who is running for U.S. Senate against Tim Kaine, held a rally yesterday outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Fairfax County to express his outrage, as the Washington Point news article puts it, “over an unlikely effort to abolish the federal agency.”

Less than 50 feet from Stewart and his nearly 40 supporters, counterprotesters banged pots and pans while playing Latin American music over a loudspeaker in hopes of drowning them out.

Groups like La ColectiVA social justice collaborative and the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, which took part in the counter-protest, feel increasing license to interfere with the right of their political opponents to peacefully assemble, speak… or even just dine quietly in a restaurant. Belligerence and rudeness can be found across the political spectrum, but the Left is the side trying to chase the Right from the public sphere, not the other way around.

Stewart handled the situation with good grace. “I want to thank the people in the back for providing tonight’s entertainment,” he said. “Those goofballs in the back don’t want to talk about” the crimes committed by illegal immigrants, he added.

Stewart could have won some sympathy from the incident. But then he falsely (according to the Washington Post) accused Kaine of wanting to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Note to Stewart: You don’t win votes by hurling falsehoods against your opponent.

A lot of people are getting fed up with the Left’s flirtation with mob rule. Instead of making charges that can be easily swatted down, perhaps Stewart should ask Kaine if he condones the tactics of La ColectiVA and the Democratic Socialists of America. The Senator has no easy answer. Either he criticizes his supporters on the far Left, he goes squishy on mob rule, or he refuses to respond, which makes it looks like he has something to hide. For Stewart, that’s a no-lose proposition.

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26 responses to “Encroaching Mob Rule”

  1. Malcolm Baldwin Avatar
    Malcolm Baldwin

    Sure our politics has excesses from both sides of what we call the “center” but, as those of you on the “right” feel compelled to do, it’s really equal. It’s like noting that, on the one hand, many believe the Earth is round, but on the other we have those believing it’s flat. On one hand many {99%} of climate scientists believe humans are causing global warming, but others {1%?} believe it’s just a climate cycle.
    One tires of the inability of so many sensible, thoughtful people on the “right” (one should despise these labels) feel compelled to ignore the unconscionable loss of integrity by the GOP, that party once favoring free trade. deficit control and, yes, once, voting rights for all. That party has gone, yielding to hints of racism as it relies on its white male base and ignores its constitutional obligations — like holding hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, etc.
    Time for Bacon’s Rebellion to take the ideological blinders off and look more objectively on actual facts and records of the GOPs degradation. We see a tragic shift and the utter lack of courage and resort to demagoguery. We need an honest critique of our political condition. Lacking that it’s a tiresome waste of time to read these kinds of commentaries.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Malcolm, forgive me if I misinterpret you, and please correct me where I’m wrong. But here is what I hear from you. The GOP is not only wrong, it is so wrong and so degraded that Republicans are not entitled to practice free speech and assembly without being harassed and disrupted. Thus, my commentary suggesting otherwise is “a waste of time to read.”

  2. vaconsumeradvocate Avatar
    vaconsumeradvocate

    With suggestions like yours to the Republican candidate, our situation will only continue to get worse. If he takes it, people will continue to do things that marginalize each other and leave no room for reasonable discussion or necessary compromise. We need to stop forcing everything into one extreme or the other, stop name calling with names selected to put down “the other side” and stop creating “gotcha’s.” Labeling counter protesting as mob rule is not helpful. I’m not sure what the groups did but I’ve seen both sides do things that kept others from speaking. Too many people feel so discouraged by our current environment and ignored by decision makers that they can see no options for positive action. Suggestions like this continue the downward spiral of our society. We can do better.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      People have a right to protest. People have a right to hold counter-protests.

      But do counter-protesters have a right to harass, disrupt and drown out those they disagree with? Does it really contribute to the “downward spiral” to suggest that they don’t and that our elected officials should make it clear that they don’t?

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        what laws would you use to prevent counter-protestors from ” harassing, disrupting and drowning out” those they disagree with?

        what would you charge them with?

  3. TBill Avatar
    TBill

    Lately when I go to the polls, I do not vote for anything except the public questions, and I often lose on that vote, most recently for adding a meal tax in Ffx Co.

  4. djrippert Avatar
    djrippert

    Good column. The left has lost its collective mind as the following article and videos demonstrates …

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/08/antifa-protesters-portland-traffic-riot/ I especially like the way that the utterly useless Portland cop sits at the end of the street just watching. I guess the proglib mayor told the police not to bother the nice Antifa people.

    And no … both sides don’t do this, at least not equally. when was the last time a group of conservatives hounded a liberal politician out of a restaurant?

    1. TooManyTaxes Avatar
      TooManyTaxes

      Did you see that Hillary told Christina Ananpour that it was very different than the Kavanaugh situation where she said his accusers should be believed than when she called Bill’s accusers “trailer trash.” That alone explains the modern Democratic Party. My grandparents are rolling over in their graves.

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Not sure I would reference the Daily Caller for anything political..sorta like asking FOX or Tucker Carlson for their views…

      1. djrippert Avatar
        djrippert

        Once again … blame the messenger. Watch the damn videos. Unless you think they are edited then it really doesn’t matter what organization posted them.

  5. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    Or anyone who works for WaPo, NYT, CBS, NBC, ABC or CNN?

    1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
      Reed Fawell 3rd

      And far too many professors at UVA. These are the people at UVA who aided and abetted these same “Antifa People,”providing them with logistics, liaison, intelligence, and permitting services, to enable them take the law in their own hands in Charlottesville in 2017, and beat up other citizens with the help of UVa faculty members in the law school, department of education, and libraries serices, who in practical affect became the auxiliaries of private militias who wreaked havoc on their political enemies, and also on the city police trying to enforce law and order and protect the rights of all citizens. See Hunton and William Report on 2017 riots.

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      well there ARE folks who work for FOX that I consider to be reasonable people but most of them are hard right and then beyond that you have Carson, Hannity and Ingram who basically represent the worst aspects of our politics and it’s no big mystery the POTUS loves them and echos their words.

      And as bad as it is – and it is – if a majority of American people support this way of running the country -so be it – I’ll just have to grin and bear it – however, if a majority of Americans reject this idiocy, I’ll sure be thankful.

      And yes.. I’ll take Antifas ANY DAY over white supremacists… no contest ABD I’ll take principled problem-solving Conservatives ANY DAY over antifas but I’m not taking the spineless Conservative idiots who now prance on FOX.in all their glory.

      1. djrippert Avatar
        djrippert

        Describing how a thrill goes up Chris Matthews’ leg when he hears Barack Obama speak, Matthews then declares his opinion of Obama to be objective.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpchEdtS0e4

        Do you consider Matthews a reasonable commentator? You seem to have a lot of bile for Fox but never for the clowns of the left. Really, Larry?

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          I cannot stand Chris Mathews nor several others on MSN who are hard left ..but I do find it fascinating that those who use the phrase MSM as a perforative do not include FOX and other right wing media in that label…

          One other thing – people on the right have a list of different kinds of folks they hate … depending on what flavor of “right” they are… people on the left typically don’t hate others except those on the right who hate like the white supremacists , jew haters, muslim haters, immigrant haters, etc. In other words most folks on the left tend to not hate other “kinds” of people other than the haters on the right.

          1. James A. Bacon Avatar
            James A. Bacon

            Translation: It’s OK to hate as long as you hate the right people — mainly those who hate the wrong people.

  6. musingsfromjanus Avatar
    musingsfromjanus

    “free trade. deficit control and, yes, once, voting rights for all. That party has gone, yielding to hints of racism as it relies on its white male base and ignores its constitutional obligations — like holding hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, etc….it’s a tiresome waste of time to read these kinds of commentaries.”

    It appears this author doesn’t read much at all, let alone commentaries.

    Trump has controversially called for the elimination of all tariffs, has taken an aggressive and successful stance against our “allies” who have been foisting harmful “non-free trade policies”; was elected with a surprising (to Democrats) per cent of the Black, Hispanic, and Women’s vote; is achieving un-imagined diplomatic results in North Korea, fulfilled a Democrat-inspired and consistently reneged pledge to establish our Embassy in Israel’s capital city, is aggressively strengthening our military systematically sabotaged by the Democrats in the previous 8 years; has initiated bold policies to support and strengthen law enforcement across the country; passed a tax law uniformly opposed by Democrats with a primary purpose of repatriating several trillion of foreign cash and stimulating the economy; has tirelessly used the bully pulpit to pull jobs and factories back to America while Democrats jeer and belittle and misrepresent those efforts, is downsizing the Federal government; is aggressively addressing opiate addition and prison reform; is aggressively addressing reform of an education system destroyed by Democrat policies , regulations and unions; has significantly lessened the regulatory and tax burdens on small business; all the while severely compromised by a now-proven fraudulent Special Prosecutor investigation, monolithic and implacable Democrat resistance, demagoguery and refusal to do their basic constitutional duty to confirm staggering numbers of Federal nominees.

    Leading Democrat leaders are advocating violence (“kick then}, “get in their face” et al and challenging the validity and value of the Constitution whether it be on the Electoral College or Due Process.

    It seems a lot of Americans, and the number is growing according the the polls, seem to think this degradation might be in the right direction.

  7. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I don’t ignore the apparent successes that Trump has had but I also note the problems he is causing and I especially note his divisive politics where he pits people against each other…lies out his backside.. and really engages in ignorant behaviors that are unbecoming to any supposed leader. Just watched him “meet” with Kayne West and all I can say is WTF…

    This is the same fool who says there are “good” people among the White Supremacists and other assorted societal hating extremists at Cville.

    1. TooManyTaxes Avatar
      TooManyTaxes

      When the mainstream Democrats turn on Bill Clinton for sexually abusing women and Hillary Clinton for calling those women “trailer trash,” I’ll listen and think they are sincere. And don’t say they are gone from the scene. They are making another speaking tour at $750 a ticket and still worshiped for each word said. If she can stop coughing and falling down, she’s gonna make another run in 2020. Biblical prophesies need to come true, don’t they?

      I don’t like Trump but compared to the Clintons, he’s Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt wrapped up into one.

  8. musingsfromjanus Avatar
    musingsfromjanus

    Trump’s statement on Charlottesville where it was later confirmed that Antifa came armed and intending violence:
    “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.”

    1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
      Reed Fawell 3rd

      Exactly, and that Trump Statement was made after the August 11/12 events that were preceded by the July 8 events where Antifa and their supporters did all virtually all the rioting and all the lawbreaking for hours, attacking the police as well as the Clan who barely escaped with their lives for trying to speak for 30 minutes at at permitted event authorizing them to exercise their rights that were then grossly and illegally violated by Antifa and their supporters.

      see https://www.baconsrebellion.com/charlottesvilles-path-to-polarization-part-2/

  9. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Clinton is done and needs to cool it. The right is so reactive to her and her husband that they need to heed that anger. But that goes for both sides. There are those on the right that need to sit down also.

    But Clinton lost – not because the right hated her. She lost because the Dems couldn’t stomach her and stayed home in enough numbers that the Trumpsters won in enough places to win overall.

    Both Trump and Clinton are what we get when dark money runs elections.

  10. musingsfromjanus Avatar
    musingsfromjanus

    What is known is that all of the dark money and most of the lighted money was dedicated to electing Clinton and defeating Trump as was virtually 100% of the voices with access to media as well as virtually 100% of academia and the intelligentsia on both sides of the aisle.
    Trump may be the only one in politics today without the influence, whatever it is, of dark money.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Yes, Antifas does come EXPLICITLY to directly oppose the white supremacists, racists, bigots and basically those who oppose people for being different races and creeds.

      I do not condone the thug tactics of Antifas but equating them to groups who hate others for the color of skin or heritage is a gross misrepresentation and denial of realities – and apparently, some folks have to believe that rather than accept the truth and reality.

      That’s a simple truth.

      And yes.. Mr. Trump DID engage in it explicitly with his “birther” attacks against Obama and he was joined by other Conservative politicos like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and media… in that endeavor. And Trump, a “birther” pardons another birther. And that’s just one example of it.

      Racism is still very alive and well even among elected officials and White Supremacists feed off of it and now feel emboldened to show up and rally in full public view and that has caused a reaction from those strongly opposed to racism who now are dedicated to rebutting them in the public venues.

      In the hackneyed minds of some – they would equate those who show up to oppose the lynchings of blacks as “troublemakers”.

      This is the looney tune world of our politics today but some of us just refuse to acknowledge it and just ride along with the lies. What kind of people do this? What has happened to principled Conservatism?

      Right here in Virginia, the GOP intentionally runs an avowed white supremacist for the Senate – with predictable results – even for a southern state! Why can’t the GOP run candidates who are not racist? Characterized as a “fringe” candidate than other GOP say they oppose the racism – but 73% of GOP voters in Va – support him.

      1. James A. Bacon Avatar
        James A. Bacon

        Corey Stewart is a lot of objectionable things. Let’s start with his ads that insinuate, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, that Tim Kaine might be guilty of sexual harassment. But it is absurd to call him an “avowed” white supremacist. You might like to pin that label on him based upon his foolish association with Jason Kessler during the Charlottesville statue controversy, but I’ve seen nothing to suggest that he himself is a white supremacist. Please cite your evidence.

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Dark money does not run Ads FOR candidates extolling their “better” policies, it explicitly runs anonymous ADs AGAINST candidates promoting half-truths, conspiracies – like Vince Foster or Benghazi or PizzaGate… and it works… unfortunately. Dark Money infests more than broadcast media these days – it’s rampant on the web and on social media…

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