Vitriolic

The Democrats are masters at demonizing their opponents. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that Fox News host Jesse Watters "mocking" Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, aided and abetted the hammer attack on him. Newsom said, “I don’t think anyone’s been dehumanized like her [Nancy Pelosi] consistently… Jesse Watters… what he’s been saying about Paul Pelosi the last six months, mocking him consistently. Don’t tell me that’s not aiding and abetting this. Of course, it is. It’s sowing the seeds that create a culture and a climate like this.” Representative Eric Swalwell said, "violent political rhetoric that is espoused by Republican leaders is inspiring violent political acts."

At a rally for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, former President Barack Obama blamed the attack on Paul Pelosi on Republican “politicians who work to stir up division to try to make us angry and afraid of one another for their own advantage.” Current President Joe Biden did the same when he said, "There's too much violence, political violence, too much hatred, too much vitriol… And what makes us think that one party can talk about stolen elections? COVID being a hoax? It's all a bunch of lies." Democrats never miss an opportunity to paint Republicans as evil even when that are speaking out against the consequences of extreme and vitriolic political rhetoric.

Failed Democrat Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton went on MSNBC and said, “The horrific attack on Paul Pelosi is not just an aberration where one or two people or a small group engage in that kind of violent rhetoric and urge people to take action against political figures like her, like me, like others, we’re seeing a whole political party... The level of just plain crazy violent hate rhetoric coming out of Republicans.” Clinton later tweeted: “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result.” In the same breath that Democrats are claiming extreme political rhetoric by Republicans causes violence, they are attacking Republicans with vitriolic political rhetoric. But Democrats do not care about vitriolic language because they are the masters of vitriolic language.

In September, Hillary likened Trump to Hitler and his supporters to Nazis when she said, "I remember as a young student… trying to figure out, how people get basically drawn in by Hitler. How did that happen? I'd watch newsreels and I'd see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms… You saw the rally in Ohio the other night. Trump is there ranting and raving for more than an hour, and you have these rows of young men with their arms raised." If there is any extreme political rhetoric that could inspire violence, it is calling a politician Hitler.

Remember the famous moral question, ‘if you knew in 1935 what you know today, would you assassinate Hitler?’ So, to align Donald Trump with Hitler, is a tacit call for people to at least contemplate assassinating him. If Trump is really Hitler, then he plans to do to the world what Hitler did, it would only make sense to assassinate him. But Democrats do not call Trump supporters Nazis and Trump Hitler, because they believe they are but because that is the only way Democrats can appear to be somewhat of a viable option to voters. Democrats become palatable if the only alternative is a Nazi. It is a very selfish and cynical way to participate in politics.

In Philadelphia on September 2, Joe Biden claimed that the Republicans were an existential threat to the United States of America. He said “MAGA Republicans” were the greatest threat to our country. “They do not respect the Constitution… do not believe in the rule of law and are “semi-fascist”. Biden later tweeted, “Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda represents an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic… They promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence.”

The Democrats choose whatever evil villain they can find to paint Republicans. On the 21st anniversary of September 11, many Democrat politicians and the liberal media compared Republicans to Al-Qaeda terrorists and to Osama Bin Laden. Vice President Kamala Harris said, the September 11 attacks were “a foreign terrorist attacking our democracy, attacking this country. We’re now as a nation battling a threat from within. Is the threat equal or greater than what we faced after 9/11?”

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the new threat to America is MAGA Republicans and concerned parents who show up to school board meetings when he said, “The threat landscape has evolved considerably over the last twenty years… Now we are seeing an emerging threat, of course over the last several years, of the domestic violent extremists. The individual here in the United States is radicalized… by an ideology of hate. Anti-government sentiment, false narratives propagated on online platforms.”

After years of incendiary rhetoric by politicians like Chuck Schumer attacking Conservative Supreme Court Justices, congressional Democrats blocked a bill that would have provided security to the justices in the wake of the leaked Dobbs decision. Nancy Pelosi scoffed at the idea of providing the Justices protection saying, “nobody is in danger.” The next day, Nicholas Roske, a heavily armed would-be assassin showed up outside of Brett Kavanaugh’s home, and Pelosi never condemned the threats on Kavanaugh.

Nancy Pelosi, herself, is not shy about using incendiary language when speaking about her political opponents. On October 18, 2022, less than 10 days before her husband was attacked, Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell when asked to address her comments about Trump on January 6. “I would have punched him out. I said I would have punched him out. I would have gone to jail. And I would have been happy to do so.”

When asked about Brett Kavanaugh, Nancy Pelosi said, “Who would have suspected a creature like Donald Trump would become President, waving a list of judges he would appoint… getting the support of the far-right and appointing anti-freedom justices to the court?”

In 2021, Pelosi claimed that Trump supporters were “domestic terrorists” and “the President of the United States [Trump] incited this insurrection.” Isn’t referring to a riot as an “insurrection” in and of itself elevating the rhetoric, not toning it down? Pelosi said, “he [Trump] must go, he is a clear and present danger to the to the nation that we all love.” And in August 2020, Pelosi called Trump and the Republicans in Congress “domestic enemies”.

Not only will they paint Republicans as violent extremists or domestic terrorists, they will go so far as portray them as the prince of darkness himself, the Devil. Last month, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, said to a group of supporters, "You know some people call him DeSatan?" referring to current Florida governor Ron DeSantis. He then said the race is "DeSatan versus that" — he pointed to one of his campaign signs. Several people in the audience shouted "Christ!" Crist responded, "Think about it. Boom."

And that is simply a microcosm of what the Democrats always do. They try to turn every election into a false choice between God – the Democrat, or the Devil – the Republican. Pretty much anyone or anything is preferable to the Devil. The Devil is absolutely the worst entity you can align yourself with. So, in politics, if you can paint your opponent as the Devil, then citizens will vote for you and put up with you even if you are literally destroying their lives, because their only alternative is the Devil.

If your opponent is the Devil, then you can tell the people that their lives are better off with you, even if inflation is over 8%, we are cratering on the verge of a recession, the stock market dropped over 1,000 points in one day, violent crime is up 40%, and 100,000 citizens have died of drug overdoses that year. None of that really matters, if the alternative is the Devil. It all becomes insignificant. So, the Democrats don’t have to do anything good for the country. They don’t have to secure the borders; they don’t have to combat violent crime in our communities; they don’t have to stop the influx of deadly drugs into the country; they don’t have to reduce inflation; they don’t have to grow the economy; they don’t have to ensure your constitutionally protected rights. All they have to do, is not be the Devil.

That is the bar they have set for themselves. But the problem is that when you set the bar is that low even though you may not be the Devil, you end up doing the Devil’s work for him. The increase in violent crimes, the increase in drug overdose deaths, the attack on freedom of speech and constitutionally protected rights, the increase in the surveillance state, the weaponization of the intelligence agencies, are all part of the Devil’s plan that the Democrats are unwittingly implementing.

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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.