The Fredo factor as blowback

In a post called The Fredo Factor,” Scott wrote with his usual acuity about the confrontation between Chris Cuomo and a guy who called him “Fredo.” Like Scott, I don’t buy the guy’s claim that he really thought, having listened to Rush Limbaugh, that Cuomo’s name is Fredo. I also think it’s pretty low to call people names in front of their family (though not low enough to have justified Cuomo’s over-the-top tirade).

However, it’s worth pointing out that the guy who confronted Cuomo engaged in low-level harassment compared to what the left has been urging folks to do, and has been doing, to public figures with whom it disagrees. Rep. Maxine Waters advocated the following:

Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.

Chris Cuomo isn’t a Cabinet member. His brother Andrew was, but Chris Coumo isn’t as accomplished as his brother, which was the point of the guy who harassed him.

However, the left’s harassment of conservative public figures isn’t limited to Cabinet members or public officials. For example, the left has harassed Tucker Carlson far more viciously than the Rush fan harassed Cuomo. It targeted Carlson at his home, threatening not just him but also his family.

Like Cuomo, Carlson hosts a television show about politics.

Do leftists think they can harass conservatives without conservatives eventually responding in kind? No, hard leftist don’t think this. They expect blowback and welcome the ensuing struggle.

But what about ordinary liberals, including those in the mainstream media? Do they understand the consequences of public harassment of conservatives?

If so, they need to start speaking out very clearly against it.

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