OPINION | Left-wing assassination fantasies spill over into real violence

“I hope Trump is assassinated!” soon-to-be former State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote on Facebook.

She is now being investigated by the Secret Service. Even some Democrats are calling for the lawmaker to resign. Unfortunately, her remarks are just the tip of the left-wing meltdown that is turning into real and worsening violence.

Don’t believe me? Then you haven’t been paying close enough attention.

{mosads}Police indicted more than 200 rioters from the violent protests surrounding President Trump’s inauguration. The riots injured six police officers and caused millions of dollars of damage. Some of the protesters face felony charges and covered their faces to hide their identities. Good ideas flourish in the sunlight. You don’t need a black mask if you have a point.

We’re dealing with cowards that deserve our scorn, not World War II vets who defeated the Third Reich.

Missouri state senator posts, deletes comment “hoping” for Trump’s assassination https://t.co/4CIFcKKPhe pic.twitter.com/MbxhXNlml5

— The Hill (@thehill) August 17, 2017

Without a doubt, the horrific events in Charlottesville, Va., last week were un-American and reprehensible. The Klan members and Nazis that marched on the city aren’t a part of respectable or mainstream politics, and certainly not in the Republican Party.

But violence is gaining actual legitimacy on the other side of the political spectrum. Left-wing violence is on the rise. Even Noam Chomsky sees the incredible lengths they’ve gone to, calling Antifa a “major gift to the right.” Peter Beinhart wrote in the Atlantic about the rise of the “violent left” even as he chided President Trump’s interpretation of the group.

The list of left-wing violence since President Trump’s inauguration is exhaustive. Riots in Berkeley over Milo’s speech; 21 arrested. The Department of Justice is investigating inciters of the #DisruptJ20 inauguration rioters. Violent protests caused Trump to cancel a campaign stop in Chicago last year. A riot in Portland; 71 arrested. Protesters attacking police in Indianapolis. Riots in Oakland, where an officer injured and a police cruiser vandalized. Local media report: “All was peaceful.” A “Bernie bro,” James Hodgkinson shot Congressman Scalise and four other Republicans in June.

Hodgkinson’s rhetoric was extreme and the violence that followed was the natural endpoint. The shooter wrote on Facebook “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.” and “Republicans are the Taliban of the USA.” Notably, the national media did not demand Democrat lawmakers one-by-one disavow Hodgkinson and his message.  

Imagine the logic (or lack thereof) that the professional protesters go through: Donald Trump, Republicans, business owners, et al are literal Nazis. Ipso facto, any action needed to stop Nazis is justified. There’s no jump of reasoning from that straight to violence.

The Left has been masterful in creating its own assassination pornography. Much of it was done under a fig leaf of “art,” like the 2006 Bush-killing polemic “Death of a President.” A crazed left-winger broke into Nevada Senator Dean Heller’s office and threatened to kill him. Twitter fanatics openly salivated over Scalise’s shooting, with the most scorching of hot takes bandied about the internet:

If the shooter has a serious health condition then is taking potshots at the GOP house leadership considered self defense?

— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) June 14, 2017

Even without the open applause, the simple mental image was enough for thousands of Pussy Hat-wearing Twitterers to nod their head as they read along. Take it as the “Daily Show” effect of reducing political discourse and “comedy” and just about everything else into a glossed-over caricature rather than a real debate. You can’t stealth edit out the inherent desire for violence creeping into the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

The media always pushes the worst possible scenario for conservatives. Calm, clean Tea Party rallies were presented as threats to democracy while Occupy violence-fests were given outright sympathy. The Southern Poverty Law Center released a “Hate Map” of groups it determined were extremists. Some are true scum while others are simply groups that support traditional marriage or gender-specific bathrooms.

The group ignores the growing left-wing propensity for violence. Madonna fantasizes about blowing up the White House. Snoop Dogg glorified the “shooting” of Trump in a music video. Thespians stab Trump to death in a rendition of Julius Caesar. Thirty GOP members of Congress were threatened with violence over the last several months.

Take this one to Ohio Congressman Steve Stivers: “We’re coming to get every goddamn one of you and your families. Maybe the next one taken down will be your daughter. Huh? Or your wife. Or even you.” Is there any moral ambiguity about the meaning of that?

Words have consequences and often become actions. For many anti-Trump groups, there is just a sliver of restraint keeping them from outright murder.

You don’t need to dig to see the rot. An op-ed in the Washington Post openly talks about protesters needing to switch from throwing paper to “throwing rocks,” barely concealing that he doesn’t just mean metaphorical rocks.

How long until such calls for violence escalate into a storm we cannot stop? Very few on either side of the aisle want such actions — but only one side is tolerating them in hopes of achieving a political goal.

Gen. Carl von Clausewitz once wrote that war is a continuation of politics by other means. Antifa isn’t ready for a war, but they seem to think they are.

Kristin Tate is a conservative columnist and author of the book “Government Gone Wild: How D.C. Politicians Are Taking You For a Ride And What You Can Do About It.” She was recently named one of NewsMax’s “30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30.”

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.