No Doubt About It: Democrats Are Part Of The Riot Problem

I&I Editorial

Qui tacet consentire videtur is the Latin phrase that means he who remains silent appears to consent. The Democrats’ silence when asked to condemn Antifa violence is coming through louder than a deranged Joe Biden outburst on the campaign trail.

New York Democrat Jerry Nadler didn’t hit the mute button when he absurdly claimed Antifa was “imaginary,” then later said its role in the Portland riots was a “myth that’s being spread only in Washington D.C.”

But the congressman set the tone for his party.

During Tuesday’s Senate hearing – titled The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence – Democrats had a wide open opportunity to state their position. Instead, they went quiet.

“It is unbelievable the Democrats will not come out and say violence is wrong, breaking the law is wrong,” Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn told Fox News.

To her credit, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, asked “how many times have I had to say that we all should be denouncing violent extremists of every stripe?” during the hearing. But when asked by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the subcommittee chairman, if that included Antifa, she dodged the question.

“I have the time,” was Hirono’s non-responsive response.

Apparently rather than be confronted again about the Democrats’ tacit approval of Antifa, Hirono, whose position and power in the Senate Judiciary Committee makes her a de facto spokesman for the party, simply walked out of the hearing.

“Well I appreciate the, as always, kind of uplifting words of Sen. Hirono,” Cruz said as Hirono gathered her belongings. “And I would also note that throughout her remarks she still did not say a negative word about Antifa nor has any Democrat here.”

It was an ideal forum for Democrats to go on the record. The entire nation would have known by Tuesday night that the party is opposed to the violence and destruction Antifa has wrought with little consequence. Yet they repeatedly declined – Cruz even told Hirono “you’re welcome to say something negative about Antifa right now,” just before she walked away – and in doing so made their affiliation clear.

Tuesday’s hearing is no isolated instance. Democrats have made their soft spot for violent mob behavior obvious on several other occasions:

• When asked two months ago by the Daily Caller “if they would consider legislation to label” Antifa “a terrorist organization,” the party whose leaders have called American law enforcement officers storm troopers and likened them to the Gestapo, chose silence.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month refused to condemn statue destruction, which George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who is no Donald Trump supporter, said was the “latest example of politicians enabling such mob action with their silence.”

• In 2019, Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), half of the childishly spiteful Squad, both passed on a chance to publicly express their disapproval of Antifa.

Antifa’s goal is “not only to abolish the criminal justice system,” journalist Andy Ngo said at the Senate hearing, “it is to bring down the republic itself.” Is that the Democrats’ objective, as well? Since their unwillingness to speak indicates support, the most logical conclusion is that, yes, it is.

An outside possibility, of course, is that Democrats are simply too cowardly to publicly criticize Antifa, which indicates they know much of their constituency supports the domestic terrorism of mobs.

Either way, the Democrats have demonstrated they are unworthy of a single vote in the fall elections. The fact they will get roughly half when all are counted from every race across the country is discouraging. The Democratic Party has put this country in jeopardy.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board