‘There Needs To Be Blood’: House Democrats Are Frightened by the Radicalism of Their Own Base | The American Spectator

Several House Democrats are warning that the Democrat base has become increasingly radicalized in its resistance to the Trump administration. Democrat politicians are frightened by many of their leftist constituents whose growing anger has “morphed into a disregard for American institutions, political traditions and even the rule of law,” according to a new report from Axios.

In the eyes of some liberal voters, Democrats aren’t doing enough to counter the president’s agenda. One House representative said, “Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough … [that] there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public.” Some have suggested that they need to “be willing to get shot” visiting ICE facilities or federal agencies.

Data confirms that the Left has become increasingly warm to the idea of violence. One recent report found that 55 percent of left-leaning Americans thought political violence could be acceptable, responding that “it would be at least somewhat justified” to murder Trump.

Of course, we don’t need polling to confirm what experience has clearly revealed. From BLM’s 2020 protests to two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump to Luigi Mangione becoming a viral “social media folk hero,” political violence has become increasingly mainstreamed on the left. In a similar vein, several leftists responded to last week’s devastating floods in Texas by focusing on the fact that many of the victims were white or saying that those who were MAGA supporters got “what they voted for.”

Responding to the radical demands of their base, numerous Democrat representatives have recently tried attention-grabbing antics. For example, Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla attempted to storm a Homeland Security press conference and got himself forcibly removed on camera. Likewise, Rep. LaMonica McIver was federally charged after she allegedly “forcibly impeded and interfered with federal officers” outside an immigration facility in New Jersey. By forcing incidents like these, Democrats may simply be trying to satisfy the demands of their base. As it turns out, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Elected Democrats feel the need to be seen fighting on the frontlines of the resistance to the Trump administration to keep their offices secure. 

As Democrats frantically try to appease their constituents with feckless publicity stunts, the base is unenthused by lawmakers’ efforts to defuse their militancy. A House Democrat told Axios,“I actually said in a meeting, ‘When they light a fire, my thought is to grab an extinguisher.’ And someone at the table said, ‘Have you tried gasoline?’”

These developments may be concerning, even to staunch Democrat representatives, but they are hardly surprising. The Left’s radicalism is the obvious consequence of these very same representatives’ disingenuous and irresponsible rhetoric. All through election season (and for years before), Democrats ran on the claim that Trump and those who support him are fascist Nazis. And Democrats even resumed their attacks that Trump is a Hitlerian “threat to democracy” just days after the assasination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Now that Trump has won, they’re surprised that their base considers themselves the resistance to the Nazis?

It may be the case that cynical politicians don’t actually believe the things they say about Trump, but voters on the left were told that Trump is Hitler, and now they want their representatives to act as if they actually believe it. They envision themselves as the heroes of the resistance to Nazism who will take an honored place in history. If Hitler’s reincarnation is actually in power, they reason, violent resistance is absolutely necessary.

Aside from the obvious conclusion that the “anti-Trump resistance” has embraced violence, another takeaway is simply how privileged the Democrats’ real base has become. As the Democrat Party becomes increasingly the party of the college-credentialed urbanite, “many lawmakers,” according to Axios, said the constituents who demand more radicalism “tend to be white, well-educated and live in upscale suburban or urban neighborhoods.”

Another lawmaker recounted, “What I have seen is a demand that we get ourselves arrested intentionally or allow ourselves to be victims of violence, and … a lot of times that’s coming from economically very secure white people.” Increasingly, the Left’s real base, and especially those who are going to show up to town halls and other events, are privileged elites. As the blue-collar Democrat is a rapidly declining demographic, the remaining Democrat base is simultaneously more radical and more trivial.

Simply put, pretending to resist the Nazis is not a working-class issue, because those with real problems are too busy to amuse themselves with play-acting. Working-class Americans are more likely to be concerned with issues like real wages than harrowing calls to “save our democracy.” The view that elected representatives need to prepare for “violence … to fight to protect our democracy” is a luxury belief.

Democrat lawmakers can lament their radical base all they want, but they, alongside the media, are the ones who created that hysteria. People often complain about “increasing political polarization,” frequently with the implication that both sides need to meet in the middle. But the fact that Democrat lawmakers struggle to deal with the extremism of their base shows why Americans shouldn’t take the bait.

At the beginning of the new administration, Trump referred to his presidency as “a revolution in common sense.” As conservatives continue to critique the ineptitude of previous administrations, they ought to remember that the side of common sense cannot reasonably split the difference between sanity and insanity.

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