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Opinion: Democrats reap the whirlwind of their mob mentality
The Washington Examiner ^ | December 20, 2018 | by Harlan Hill

Posted on 12/21/2018 7:19:30 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

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To: Oldeconomybuyer
A key premise of the article is simple and wrong. We are not France, which is now governed by its Fifth Republic and has a long history and wide acceptance of spontaneous political mob action. To the contrary. The mobs that Democrats found so useful against Donald Trump and conservatives were not spontaneous but were organized, directed, and paid for by shadowy, special purpose organizations funded by billionaire Democrat Leftists.

The mobs that bedeviled Pelosi and Hoyer were almost certainly funded by a billionaire Leftist climate change fanatic. My guess is that it was Tom Steyer, who probably felt inadequately catered to by the new House leadership that he helped to install.

The more important point is that there are now super wealthy, hard Left Dem donors who, when they feel the need, may use the mob power they have developed against inadequately servile Democrat leaders. This may seem new, but controlled mob power has long been tolerated by Democrats in the form of labor unions. Mob power by Leftist groups is more episodic but is also usually accepted and valued by Democrats, as in the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Sometimes, when the mobs escaped control, this backfired, as during civil rights riots and at the 1968 Democratic convention. It was Republicans though who routinely suffered the handicap of being branded by Leftist mobs as pro-war and even favoring nuclear war and as determined to help the rich and crush minorities and the poor. Since the media cooperated with these smears by pretending that the mobs were inspired by established facts and genuine popular opinion, Republicans were usually intimidated. Who wants to be seen as favoring nuclear war and hating minorities and poor people?

Ronald Reagan was different. He knew from long personal experience how unions and Leftists whipped up and used mobs as a method of intimidation and persuasion. Reagan's affable manner helped to deflect animosity, but more important, he did not let hostile mobs and demonstrators intimidate him.

My favorite example of Reagan's cheerful disregard for Leftist mobs is from his Presidential trip to Europe in early May of 1985. Everywhere, he was met by large and unruly mobs of well-organized Leftists demonstrating against his policy of opposing Communism in Central America and wanting new nuclear missiles to be deployed in Europe.

In Spain, the authorities let the demonstrators get near the entrance to Reagan's hotel. One of Reagan's aides peeked out and surveyed the mob from a balcony on a secure wing of the hotel. Soon after, the aide was in Reagan's room to brief him before an evening event.

Freshly showered and dressing as he was being briefed and hearing the noise of the demonstrators, Reagan asked the aide what the mob was like. Reagan was intrigued when he was told that they carried a large and pretty good paper mache figure of him. Soon a shirtless Reagan and the aide were on a balcony looking over the mob and its slogans and the paper mache caricature of him. Reagan laughed and joked, while the aide was horrified at the security risk of being close enough to the demonstrators to be recognized and even shot at if any of the crowd had looked in their direction.

Somehow, I do not think that when Pelosi and Hoyer were confronted by Leftist mobs they reacted with Reaganesque insouciance. They were no doubt rattled and angry. And the greater significance is not that they had to face a Leftist mob, but that a slice of power in Democratic politics has passed not so much to mobs but to the Leftist billionaires who pay for and set them in motion.

21 posted on 12/21/2018 11:09:14 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: Truthoverpower

Did they come here legally? And why is that Hispanics are supposed to be more ‘’hard working’ than the rest of us?


22 posted on 12/21/2018 11:24:34 AM PST by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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