The Washington Post states: “While [President] Trump has blasted Democrats as ‘an angry left-wing mob’ and the ‘party of crime,’ researchers have identified just one fatal attack in 2018 that may have been motivated by left-wing ideologies.” By contrast, “researchers say at least 20 people have died this year in suspected right-wing attacks.”
These counts may be accurate, though I’m not prepared to take the word of the Washington Post and/or “researcher” for it. But note the fundamental dishonesty of the Post’s claim (made by the tag-team of Wesley Lowery, Kimberly Kindy, and Andrew Ba Tran) that these numbers contradict what Trump said about the left-wing mob.
The killings the Post cites have nothing to do with mobs. The lone gunman who attacked Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue was not a mob. The guy who attacked Democrats in a Kentucky coffee shop — the lead-off incident in the Post’s story — was not a mob. Neither was the shooter at a “historically black church” in Kentucky, also cited by the Post.
The left-wing students who prevent conservatives from speaking or being heard on college campuses, and who sometimes engage in physical assault against them, are a mob. So are the sickos who chase Republicans out of restaurants. And, of course, the antifa fascists who rampage through city streets smashing windows and looking for Republicans to club are the epitome of an out-of-control mob.
These mobs pose a threat to our democracy. Lone gunman don’t, though they deserve to be executed and then to rot in hell.
Finally, it’s ridiculous to suggest that the actions of lone right-wing gunmen undermine Trump’s characterization of Democrats as the party of crime. That claim stands or falls on the posture Democrats take towards criminals — for example, urging softer sentencing for criminals and their early release from prison.
Unfortunately, President Trump seems intent on joining the Democrats in being soft on crime. But this doesn’t make the Democrats any less soft. It just gives them cover.
Nor do a few shootings by right-wing gunmen change the fact that Democratic policy preferences promote crime. The Post is mixing apples and oranges in the latest of its daily attempts to carry water for Democrats and to smear Republicans.
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