The Annals of Incivility

On the incivility front, the enraged rage. There are no limits. No bounds. No rules and no constraints.  Unfortunately, it isn’t even funny anymore. It’s a direct threat to democratic institutions.

Kevin Williamson reports on what he calls “The Witches of Bushwick,” a group of witches, duh!, that has joined together to cast spells and to utter mindless incantations for the sole purpose of causing Bret Kavanaugh to suffer. Tell us about the party of love and empathy.

Williamson remarks:

Occasionally, our friends on the left do us the favor of making plain that which conservative critics have inferred about their ranks: that they are intellectually unserious, that they are damaged, that they are high on rage, that they have made a religion of politics.

The witches of Bushwick are not resolved that Justice Kavanaugh has erroneous views about constitutional interpretation — they are resolved that he must suffer.

Williamson is too kind when he says that these witches are not emotionally healthy. It’s not about mental health. They are suffering from a serious character flaw, one that ought to get them expelled from polite society.

Emotionally healthy adults do not wish to inflict suffering on people over political disagreements. Emotionally healthy adults are not so bewitched by partisanship that they engage in what the nice bookstore ladies in Brooklyn are engaged in here, which is the 21st-century progressive version of a cross-burning — a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo piled on top of a sentiment that could easily be communicated in three little words: “I Hate You.”

If you have not had your quota of hate today, examine the confrontation that took place in Portland, Oregon. A crazed left-wing protester began to rail at a woman who was-- gird your loins-- wearing an NYPD cap. From the Daily Caller.

When the women replied that her husband had died on 9/11, it did not provoke the rage-filled radical to feel shame. He had long since taken leave of his moral sense. He upped the ante:

Video of a left-wing protester telling an alleged 9/11 widow that her late husband should “rot in the grave” has gone viral.

The harassment of the woman took place in Portland, Ore. during clashes between Antifa and pro-Trump factions.

The protester screamed at the woman in the video and looked to be ready for a physical confrontation. After the woman said “My husband died in 9/11,” the protester yelled “Good for him! Good. Good. NYPD were a bunch of sodomized — fucking sodomizing immigrants with their bully sticks. Your husband should probably fucking rot in the grave.”

The woman walked on.

You would not shed too many tears if said Antifa radical had been subjected to the same punishment.

Anyway, the woman in question had been accompanied by her son. Said son was bigger and stronger than the Brown Shirted radical and confronted him:

However, the leftist protester was not so empowered when a large man approached him and asked, “Did you call my mom out?”

The protester said “What?” and then took off running.

“Why are you running?” the man yelled.

There was a standoff between the leftist and far-right protesters, but when a large group of Trump-supporting activists looked to confront him, the man who insulted the widow suddenly lost his nerve.

The moral of the story: the armies of deranged fascists will only return to civility when they are confronted by a larger counterforce. It is regrettable. But, bullies only respond to other bullies. Allowing them to rant on, shamelessly, will inevitably lead to a reaction. They are not going to feel quite so empowered when it happens.