The tragic events in Charlottesville were a microcosm of a bigger problem.
For the last two years, the media and the anti-Trump masses have mostly remained silent on the political violence coming from the [Neocon] “left”. In fact, it seems as if the institutionalized media has condoned and celebrated the violence and repeatedly have dubbed them“peaceful demonstrations”. Meanwhile, isolated events of Trump supporters engaging in political violence, primarily during the 2016 campaign was shown on a near continuous loop on all media outlets.
The video of an elderly man sucker punching an African American male, at a Trump rally in North Carolina, was played over and over.
Instantly all Trump supporters were branded, bigots, fascists, sexists, Nazis, white nationalists, xenophobes and nearly every other label the “left” choose to use at any given moment. Hillary Clinton then decided to brand a large chunk of Trump supporters as “Deplorables”. The crowd laughed and cheered with her statements.
The institutionalized media did challenge Clinton’s comments at the time, but then it was quickly dismissed as campaign rhetoric. The outcry lasted for about 12 hours. Donald Trump on the other hand, was continually lambasted by media outlets for nearly every statement he made. In full disclosure, Donald Trump is not a man of refinement. He is rude, crude, brash and often speaks without fully thinking of how his charged statements will be taken by those who oppose him.
Donald Trump was not helping his case either when he made pronouncements about punching protesters in the face.
But underneath all of the campaign rhetoric and sound bites, was the growing scourge of real political violence. These were not isolated instances. It was widespread, and the intensity of the violence seemed to grow with each passing month.
The media reveled in the coverage of these events during the 2016 campaign. It made for riveting television, and it surely brought ratings and ad dollars. As pundits and “news” anchors watched with glee, there seemed to be no one stepping up and defending the victims of this political violence. There was deafening silence from the media and Democratic leadership. Instead, the media passed it off as isolated incidents, and not representative of the country as a whole. Donald Trump’s rhetoric was determined to be the cause of all the violence.
With the stellar undercover work of James O’Keefe at Project Veritas, it was revealed that many of the people inciting violence against Trump supporters, during the campaign, were mentally ill and professionally paid agitators or “bird dogs”. They would intentionally provoke Trump’s supporters in the hopes of inciting a negative reaction from them; while hoping the altercation would be caught by the cameras. DNC Operatives Bob Creamer and Scott Foval lost their jobs as a result of these tactics being exposed. The institutionalized media turned a blind eye to this story.
Fast forward to November 10, 2016. Furious Clinton Supporters engaged in nationwide riots. Portland, OR was a particular hotbed of activity.
Again, the media was in as much disbelief over a Donald Trump presidential victory as the people rioting in the streets. These actions were largely given a pass. Portland’s mayor allowed these riots to continue until finally asking them to “stay home”
There were more demonstrations and celebrities were calling for the murder of our President. Political violence almost seemed to be normalized.
While there was a bit of a media backlash against the Kathy Griffin photo stunt, most celebrity rants and calls for violence against the President went unchallenged by the institutionalized media and Democratic leadership at large.
Flash forward to the Battle of Berkeley on February 1, 2017. Masked Antifa protesters shut down a planned speech by provocateur, Milo Yiannopoulos. The campus was left in shambles and many men and women were injured during the riots. The political violence from the “left” reached it’s apex on that chilly February night. The epicenter of the free speech movement of the 1960s was now a hotbed for political violence.
Again, many in the media labeled this riot a “Peaceful Protest”. The emotion from the recent election disaster for the ‘left” was still very raw.
After the Battle of Berkeley, things started to shift. Many on the right decided that they were not going to allow themselves to be the victims of political violence. The “moral high ground” argument no longer proved viable. The right began to engage in political violence, and they were far more prepared then the left when a second Battle of Berkeley occurred on April 15, 2017. Again, calls for the deescalation of political violence from the media and DC politicians remained scarce.
As you can see the political violence was out of control.Both sides were clearly out of control; and someone was eventually going to get killed.
After these events, tensions seemed to cool a bit, as the left realized that the right was “playing for keeps” and no longer was going to allow themselves to be attacked without defending themselves. I can’t stress it enough though, no one was calling for cooler heads to prevail. The Trump administration looked the other way, Democratic leadership looked the other way and the media looked the other way.
There was one lone voice calling for the end of political violence-author, journalist and filmmaker Mike Cernovich. On May 1, 2017 he attended the White House press briefing and asked the press corps there why they are not covering the political violence against Trump supporters. As you can see, many in the room mocked him and scoffed at him.
As political violence on the streets seemed to deescalate as spring turned to summer, tensions were heightened when Rep. Steve Scalise was shot by a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter during a baseball practice in Alexandria, VA. This seemed like another tipping point. Both Democrats and Republicans embraced each other and made shallow attempts to “tone down the rhetoric”. It lasted for about 48 hours.
That brings us to the #UniteTheRight rally that occurred this weekend. This was a gathering of alt-right fringe characters like Richard Spencer. Richard Spencer is essentially the 21st Century version of David Duke. He likes to make controversial pronouncements and he trots himself out any time he feels the need to create a controversy. He’s the poster child for the alt-right and is essentially a media creation. There were about 500 lunatics in attendance. The optics of the march on Friday night seemed like something out of a D.W. Griffith movie.
This iconography plays right into the leftist narrative that all Trump Supporters are White Nationalists. Who in their right mind would engage in this kind of messaging? It provides zero positive connotation. Most of the people engaging in this rally were most likely Deep State Operatives (FBI and CIA), ADL and SPLC infiltrators and a scattering of people who are truly fringe lunatics (I’m speculating). Sadly, the media, Antifa and BLM protestors took the bait and covered and counter protested the event.
The tragic events yesterday, were the culmination of all of the previous events covered in this article. If you didn’t understand that the political violence coming from both sides was eventually going to result in loss of life, you weren’t paying attention. The reason people are losing their minds and driving their cars into crowds of people is because the media and Washington politicians have refused to tone down their rhetoric and disavow political violence. They wanted to pretend that political violence wasn’t happening, and they are more interested in ratings and ad dollars. When people are radicalized and go underground that’s when everything goes wrong.
Sadly, I don’t think this will be the end of this chapter of political violence. In fact, I think tensions between the right and the left have been reignited and I expect more violence in the coming weeks and months. I hope I am wrong in my assessment.
All sides are to blame in this, and the political violence must end. The left and the right must come together and call for the end to political violence. The only way things are ever going to cool down is to have conversations with each other, and to try to understand and learn from each other.
I disavow political violence in all its forms. I disavow the actions of all groups involved in the events Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Featured image is from the author.
