Poli-ticks

There is a growing decency deficit

By Arlene Violet
Posted 8/31/17

After the attacks and the death of a 32 year old pacifist in Charlottesville during a bilateral rally around the dismantling of a Confederate leader’s statue, the president accused the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Poli-ticks

There is a growing decency deficit

Posted

After the attacks and the death of a 32 year old pacifist in Charlottesville during a bilateral rally around the dismantling of a Confederate leader’s statue, the president accused the “alt-left” of being violent and also equally to blame. His remarks were universally condemned except by those on the alt-right. While the president’s attempt to create a moral equivalency between the Ku Klux Clan, neo-Nazis and similar groups vs. the protestors was rightly condemned, nonetheless, his underlying premise that there is violence emanating from the “left” has to be critically examined. Like it or not, he has a point.

There has been a noticeable uptick in threats of violence from the violent left. As noted in a must-read article in the September, 2017 Atlantic, the Antifa movement, short for Anti-Fascist Action, is rapidly growing. This group threatens violence. In Portland, Oregon, Antifa warned that if people in the Republican parade carried Donald Trump signs or anti-immigrant placards they would have 200 or more people rush the parade and push those people out. The parade was cancelled. On Inauguration Day, a masked activist punched white supremacist leader Richard Spencer. The posting of the punch unleashed an avalanche of congratulations to that masked man (and it wasn’t the Lone Ranger). In February, protestors violently disrupted UC Berkeley’s plan to host a speech by a former editor of Breitbart.com, a conservative news outlet. Masked anti-fascists broke store windows and hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at the police. In March, protestors pushed and shoved the controversial conservative political scientist, Charles Murray, when he spoke at Middlebury College. In Charlottesville, a female protestor tackled one of the parade organizers, leading to opposition to the dismantling of the statue.

As the Atlantic article documents, Antifa’s violent tactics have elicited substantial support from the mainstream left. Antifa doesn’t want the police to curb their actions, nor the government to stop white supremacists from gathering. They want to do that themselves, taking solace in their historical roots going back to the 1920’s and 30’s when militant leftists battled fascists in the streets of Germany. They want to render government impotent.

While the president has to take considerable blame for his rhetoric, which inflames one side of this conflict, the mainstream left has a moment of decision-making as well. They can recommit to the rules of fair play and demand equal time for opposing views. In the name of protecting the vulnerable in our society, Antifa has granted itself the authority to decide which Americans may publicly assemble and which may not. In effect, they become the arbiters of who are the recipients of our First Amendment guarantees.

The last thing the Antifas would concede is that they are the very essence of the authoritarianism they seek to oppose — the reality is that they are actually imposing their own brand of authoritarianism. The ultimate irony is that they are the fascists’ most ardent allies when it comes to curbing the rights of the citizens.

The response from the mainstream is clear. Choose fairness and allow all peoples to express their viewpoints no matter how repulsive. Otherwise, this country is headed down the path to anarchy. You can’t grant rights for only one group of people to assemble. To do so makes you guilty of exactly the same problem you eschew in others.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.