The AP Defends the Democrats’ Mobs

Voters, repelled by the mob action unleashed by leaders of the Democratic Party, are increasingly telling pollsters they intend to vote Republican. The Associated Press, alarmed, tries to help Democrats to stem the tide. The AP’s headline: “GOP decries Dems’ ‘mob rule,’ flipping the script.” Whose script? The AP’s, of course!

President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are forecasting nightmarish Democratic “mob rule” to amp up GOP voters for next month’s critical midterm elections, flipping the script from complaints that it’s Trump and the tea party movement who’ve boosted rowdy and divisive tactics to dangerous levels.

The AP story must have been prompted largely by the RNC’s highly effective ad titled The Left: An Unhinged Mob. Strangely, the AP never actually mentions the ad, perhaps not wanting readers to track it down and watch it.

The AP frames the current controversy over Democratic Party mob action by talking about the Tea Party, which hasn’t reared its head for six years or so. The Tea Party doesn’t have anything to do with the appalling scenes that are turning voters away from the Democratic Party, but the AP evidently thinks there is mileage to be had.

Less than a month from voting in which GOP control of Congress is dangling precariously, Republicans are linking comments and actions by Democratic politicians, raucous protesters opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and even a gunman who shot targeted GOP lawmakers. The message to Republican voters: Democrats are employing radical tactics that are only growing worse.

That’s a pretty good message! From here on, the AP’s effort is devoted to neutralizing it.

While the demonstrations were intense and some Republicans reported personal threats, liberal protesters’ tactics were broadly in line with those used by groups on the left and right during particularly passionate moments in Washington. The confrontational style harkened back to protests by the conservative tea party, which included angry face-offs with lawmakers and a massive Capitol demonstration far larger than last week’s rallies.

But the Tea Partiers didn’t invade Senate offices or pound on the doors to the Supreme Court chamber. Nor did Tea Partiers try to murder Democratic Congressmen; attack a Democratic candidate with a knife; assault a Democratic Senator while he was mowing his lawn, causing severe injuries; accost a Democratic Senator at a Washington airport, screaming obscenities and preventing him from walking down the concourse; harass Democratic politicians while they were eating dinner in Washington restaurants; or need to be hauled out of Senate hearings–many, many times–for disruptive behavior.

Nor were Tea Partiers ever anything like Antifa, the militant wing of the Democratic Party. They didn’t smash store windows, destroy banks and Starbucks stores, set automobiles on fire, or attack random passers-by with baseball bats and broom handles. Only progressive activists do these things. And to my knowledge, not a single prominent Democrat has ever criticized Antifa, while the Deputy Director of the Democratic National Committee has hailed the violent Antifa as his party’s authentic voice. For the AP to pretend to be unaware of these basic facts is laughable.

The AP resurrects an old chestnut:

Black lawmakers said they were targeted by racial epithets and spat upon during a smaller rally by several thousand tea party supporters in March 2010, as Congress was voting on the health care legislation.

But that turned out to be a lie. Out of the thousands of cell phones that recorded the incident, not one contained evidence of “racial epithets,” nor was anyone spat upon. The AP surely knows this, and retails the fake news deliberately.

The AP dredges up another anti-Trump fable:

Democrats say Trump’s rhetoric since launching his 2016 campaign has been provocative, pugnacious and at times racist. They cite numerous comments about Mexicans, Muslims, African countries. They also noted his statement that there were “very fine people on both sides” after an anti-Nazi demonstrator was killed by a white supremacist at a violent 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump said there were “very fine people” on both sides of the Confederate statue controversy, which is indisputably true. Once again, the AP knowingly retails false Democratic Party talking points.

There is much more, but it isn’t worth any more attention. The AP labors hard to argue that what the Democrats are doing now is just like what President Trump, the Tea Party and Republicans in general have long done. The problem is that they can’t come up with assassination attempts, felonious assaults, disruptive behavior in Senate hearings, burning motor vehicles, bloodied bystanders, doxxing of Democratic legislators, accosting of Democratic politicians in airports and restaurants; “demonstrations” at the homes of Democratic politicians, and so on.

All of these things are unique to the Democratic Party, and the AP’s lame attempt to placate voters disgusted by what they have seen will not succeed.

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