Our nation was rocked this week by the attempted assassination of a large group of Republican lawmakers and their staff. Zack Barth, a Texan who works as an aide to Texas’ Roger Williams, was wounded in the attack. The would-be assassin was a left-wing activist who has been absorbing and repeating the hate-filled rhetoric of Democrat officeholders and their apologists in the mainstream media.
None of this should surprise us.
After months of Democrats and leftist pundits excusing – and even tacitly endorsing – liberal activists’ riots and civic disruptions, the attempted assassination of Republican officeholders was only a matter of time.
Just three weeks ago, a Democrat in the Texas Legislature – Ramon Romero of Fort Worth – was captured on video cheering on a left-wing mob that had been gathered in the House. That mob was there specifically to disrupt the legislative process. Another Democrat – Poncho Nevarez of Eagle Pass – then verbally threatened a Republican lawmaker who had called the authorities.
Video of the scuffle on the House floor that followed shows Democrat lawmakers pursuing and assaulting the Republican, while other members worked to restrain the attackers.
And let’s be clear: the mob Romero and Nevarez were supporting that descended on the Texas House wasn’t there to stop passage of a bill – the measure they were ostensibly protesting had been passed weeks earlier. They were there to disrupt and provoke.
Earlier in the session, pro-abortion activists threatened the life of Republican State Rep. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington and his family. Tinderholt was forced to acquire police protection for his wife and new-born baby while he served his community in Austin.
A quarter-century since last winning a statewide race in Texas, Democrats have driven themselves further out of touch with Texans by adopting views contrary to our culture… and tactics reprehensible to civilized people.
Nationally, a liberal D-list comedian performed a mock beheading of the Republican president, while a theater group thought it would be fun to have a look-a-like actor play the role of Caesar so he could be brutally and graphically murdered on stage.
As Americans become less and less interested in the policy proposals of liberal Democrats, the party has seemingly turned to violence as a substitute. The progressive movement has declared war on the rule of law, and anyone who stands firm defending it.
A once proud, pro-American political institution, Democrats have rapidly devolved into a party of unabashed hatred and violence. It’s been a frighteningly short progression from riots on college campuses protesting conservative speakers, to threatening a legislator for making a phone call, to attempted assassinations on a baseball field in Alexandria.
Until Democrats check their unhinged rhetoric against conservatives, and push back against the violent tendencies stemming from their authoritarian ideology, Americans will reject them as a party as surely as we are rejecting their failed policies.
