“Mob rule” and false equivalence

Karen Tumulty, one of the Washington Post’s seemingly endless stable of biased Trump resisters, accuses Republicans who decry left-wing mob tactics of hypocrisy. She claims that Republicans used to love mob rule.

Tumulty notes that during the debate over Obamacare, the Tea Party was quite vociferous at town hall meetings. But of course town hall meetings one of the places where, in a well-functioning democracy, grievances are aired vociferously.

Where are Tumulty’s examples of Tea Party or other conservatives running through the streets smashing windows and assaulting demonstrators of a different persuasion. She has none — nothing comparable to Antifa.

Where are Tumulty’s examples of conservatives harassing political opponents in restaurants or on the street? She presents one, which may or may not have involved conservatives:

In 1989, then-House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) was chased down a Chicago street by a group of seniors angry about the cost of a new Medicare catastrophic health- insurance program. When one of them draped herself over the hood of his car, the 6-foot-4 congressman escaped by dashing through a gas station.

By citing an incident from nearly 30 years ago, Tumulty demonstrates that her attempt to draw an equivalence between the mob actions of the left, spurred on by some elected Democrats, and the activism of conservatives is partisan nonsense.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses