The American Democratic Party’s Long History of Violence

by Michael Angley (March 2021)
 

LOVE, Tatsuo Ikeda, 1955 .

 

An Unforgettable Year

        The year 2020 is memorable for many things, chief among which was the COVID-19 virus and its disastrous consequences for health, liberty, and economic well-being. But seemingly lost in the mix was something also sinister and devastating: months of rioting in 140+ cities across America that resulted in $1-2 billion in property damage and at least 25 deaths. Despite this toll, many in the so-called mainstream media (MSM) continue to promote the canard that the riots were ‘mostly peaceful.’

        Perhaps the reason for the media deception lies in the fact that the majority of those organizing, training, equipping, and fomenting the riots were members of two groups allied with the same Democratic Party which shares a bed with the MSM. Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the nascent Anti-Fascist (Antifa) movement had their DNA secreted all throughout the violence.

        Like a three-legged stool, the MSM, the rioters, and Democratic politicians propped up one another and engaged in tortured logic to justify the destruction. Some, to include the current Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, went so far as to encourage raising bail money for the rioters.

        Did the American Democratic Party suddenly discover violence in 2020 as the means to a political end? Hardly.

 

Democratic Party Violence: The Prequel

        This story begins in the 1860s and the American Civil War. On its highest moral ground, it was a war to end slavery in addition to a fight over states’ rights. Abolitionists formed the Republican Party and successfully elected its first President, Abraham Lincoln. Defending slavery were the Democrats, primarily in southern states where slaves were an important part of the region’s agrarian economy.

        Following the war, a series of Reconstructionist Constitutional Amendments designed to enshrine the freedoms the war secured for black Americans came about. With the weight of the Constitution now behind former slaves, the Democrats turned their aggression toward Republicans who had swept into power and taken away the forced labor upon whom they relied for their livelihoods.

        Whether the Democratic Party created the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) or whether it seized upon its creation as an opportunity remains in dispute. But one thing few historians disagree about is how the Democratic Party used the KKK as a political terror arm to engage in intimidation, assault, vandalism, kidnapping, and murder. White Republicans who stood in the way of the KKK became its target on many occasions as much as black Americans did.

        The roots of discrimination that took hold after the Civil War continued on into the 20th Century. In many southern states, Democratic politicians implemented racist Jim Crow Laws designed to disenfranchise and marginalize black citizens. Segregation was a way of life and violence on behalf of the Democratic Party was a mainstay in keeping blacks and whites separated. Local thugs, and sometimes even police officers, assaulted blacks who dared to violate segregationist laws, while politicians simply looked the other way or cheered them on.

        While Democratic Party violence as a political cudgel may have originated as a racist issue given the Civil War and the end of slavery, it eventually morphed into other political realms. This was especially true following the mid-1960s when the Civil Rights Act—filibustered by Democrats—eventually became law. Black Americans finally had achieved equal rights with whites, and discrimination based upon race was no longer permitted in the country. Democrats needed to shift focus.

 

Post-Civil Rights Era

        During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, American labor unions enjoyed tremendous popularity, particularly among blue-collar workers and laborers. By some estimates, nearly 35% of the workforce was unionized during the union heyday, but today it stands at about 10%. During this time, the Democratic Party championed itself as the party of the working man, middle class America, and the blue-collar industry. Naturally, party officials formed alliances with labor unions as a way of recruiting voters and as a source of fundraising for Democratic politicians. Class warfare and class envy were powerful motivators.

        Strikes, walk-outs, and sick-outs became common union tactics to coerce corporate management into granting unionized workers greater perks. But they also became ways to entice local politicians to take official action favorable to the unions. This was especially true among public sector groups such as teachers’ unions. Oftentimes, these union actions became violent as the level of intensity during negotiations ratcheted up. Bullying, intimidation, assaults, and other violence benefitting Democratic politicians were not uncommon.

        In the intervening years, something else happened within the Democratic Party. The gradual slide to the left became a rush to embrace Socialism. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a registered Independent, openly championed ‘Democratic Socialism,’ purportedly a ‘kinder, gentler,’ form of totalitarianism. It would be the lite beer version of Marxism, where government would be ‘less filling,’ but still have the same ‘great taste.’ Or so it was ostensibly portrayed.

        The Democratic Party, like most political movements, needs causes around which to rally the masses and energize the base. Post-Civil War, it was racism and segregation. From the 1960s to the early 2000s, it was class envy with labor unions often as one vehicle for change. Today, Socialism and Marxism and a wholesale remaking of America have become the new quest.

        BLM openly advocates for Marxism and makes no secret about its leadership and their training as Marxists. Antifa, while proclaiming itself to be anti-fascist, engages in the boot-stomping, free speech-silencing tactics of the very fascists they allegedly abhor.

        As we’ve seen throughout history, the Democratic Party does not typically engage in direct violence; rather, it tends to use surrogates. Whether it’s the KKK, local mobs enforcing Jim Crow Laws, labor unions, BLM, or Antifa, the pattern is the same. That brings us to today.

 

A Boot Stomping on Our Face

        Have BLM and Antifa become the new KKK, trading in white robes and hoods in favor or black hoodies and face coverings? It’s hard to say, but it’s not a stretch to imagine that’s the case. That most of the 2020 rioting occurred in Democratic-run cities, in solidarity with Democratic politicians, and given cover and concealment by a dishonest and duplicitous left-wing MSM is tough to ignore.

        While rampant, unbridled, and horrific violence by left-wing Democratic Party militia was dismissed as ‘mostly peaceful,’ alleged right-wing violence received starkly different coverage. The January 6th, 2021 Capitol Hill protest is a case in point. Although there was a breach, and minor property damage occurred, the MSM reported it with pearl-clutching outrage and drama befitting a Shakespearean play. Only one person was killed in the actual breach—a female supporter of President Donald J. Trump—and not the five deaths the media continue to report despite it being false.

        Because President Trump allegedly called for violence, even though he did not, the U.S. House of Representatives rushed to an historic second impeachment. During the unconstitutional Senate trial of an already-removed President, Trump’s defense lawyers did a superb job showing dozens of examples where Democratic politicians, many of them sitting in judgment of the President at the trial, had said far worse and actually incited violence over the summer of 2020.

        But none of this mattered. The dishonest propagandists in the MSM ignored the obvious duplicity among their allies in the Democratic Party. Every Democratic senator and seven Republican senators voted to convict the President, failing to gain the two-thirds majority the Constitution requires.

        But the trial was never really about removal since that was already done. Rather, the Democrats and many Republicans wanted to prevent Trump from ever returning to public office. They accomplished neither, so they’ve now set their sights on his supporters. There is a veritable purge going on the in the U.S. military to root out so-called ‘white supremacists’ (Trump supporters). Politicians have called for ‘truth commissions’ and other forms of reeducation of those on the right that are so bold, they could make Chairman Mao blush in his grave.

        The intent is clear. If the left cannot prevent Trump from running again for office, it will do everything it can to terrify his supporters from getting behind him or anyone else like him.

        When the Democratic Party fails to sell its ideas and win at the ballot box, it often resorts to violence to strongarm citizens into supporting its political causes. We’ve seen this throughout history and we’re watching it play out now. The rioting in 2020 was designed to intimidate voters and sway the November election under the guise of social justice. The screeching hysteria on the left to expose and label as domestic terrorists anyone who supports President Trump is an extension of this groupthink.

        In his famous novel, 1984, George Orwell wrote, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

        It is not difficult to imagine that boot being worn by a Democratic Party foot soldier given all that has transpired in the last 150+ years of that party’s violence.

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Mike Angley is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and a 35-year senior executive of the United States Intelligence and Law Enforcement Communities. He previously wrote for Breitbart on matters pertaining to politics, national security, and the defense industry.

 

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