Violence and censorship are two sides of the same coin, a political currency that has become all too common. Both illicit approaches have become frequent tactics utilized mostly by the left, and their key leaders in the Democrat Party.
Throughout the summer of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, cities burned, stores were looted, federal court houses and police stations were attacked, people were assaulted. Democrat leaders were notoriously reluctant to criticize the perpetrators, and indeed some raised funds for them. That tactic is in danger of being repeated following the unethical release of a Supreme Court draft on an abortion related case. Demonstrators have inexcusably formed at the homes of Supreme Court justices.
It follows four years of verbal violence resulting from false charges levied against the Trump Administration, used as an excuse for individuals such as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Ca.) to openly and loudly urge attacks on Trump personnel.
The alteration in the national mood and the acceptance of inappropriate tactics may have its antecedents in a statement made by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democrat primary. In response to a softball question asking who the former Secretary of State considers “the enemy,” Clinton replied “Republicans.” Not Russia, not China, not disease, not poverty, but Republicans. Violence against “enemies,” as opposed to mere political rivals, became acceptable.
Contrast the lack of response to Democrat condoned violence with the massive condemnation and federal investigations into the January 6 riot at the Capitol. The message is clear: political violence is only a problem when it comes from non-leftist portions of the spectrum.
While physical violence grabs headlines, verbal violence, and the threat of harassing action by government entities, can be equally harmful. This concept precedes Clinton’s enemy statement. While it has occurred in various forms over the years, the Obama Administration’s use of the IRS to harass the Tea Party, and the Department of Justice to attack conservative think tanks who merely disagreed with the White House’s views on climate change was far beyond any previous example.
The unwarranted investigatory and administrative violence launched against Donald Trump by federal agencies and Democrat members of Congress was without precedent. Now thoroughly disproven, knowingly false assertions by the Clinton campaign were used as a basis by partisan officials in the Department of Justice and Democratic Congressional leadership in an attempt to destroy Trump’s candidacy and his presidency.
Organizations closely allied with leftist politics have sought to suppress contrary views through threats of administrative violence. The National School Board Association, closely allied with leftist politics sent a letter to the White House, first reported by the New York Post, requesting “the Biden administration to deploy the Army National Guard and military police to school districts beset by parent protests over policies including mandatory masking and the teaching of critical race theory.”
These tactics of physical and verbal violence have largely failed, leading to a growing move by their progressive practitioners to rely on the related practice of censorship. Again, the most salient example arose during the Obama presidency. The former president attempted to install federal “monitors” in media newsrooms. Following in those footsteps, the Biden Administration sought to deploy censorship through its now-withdrawn establishment of a “Disinformation” agency, led by an extreme party partisan.
While Democrat attempts to use the power of the federal government to censor contrary views have largely failed, media attempts have proven more successful. Social media sites, network and cable television newsrooms have managed to keep major stories out of the public eye.
The most blatant example is the Hunter Biden laptop story. The explosive scandal would clearly have had a major impact on the 2020 election, and the progressive media barons knew it. They didn’t merely fail to report the scandal in their own outlets; they moved heavily to eliminate any reference to it by their readers. Social media sites blocked users who merely mentioned the topic.
Violence and censorship have become standard leftwing tactics, much to the detriment of our nation.
Illustration: Pixabay