OPINION:
We keep being told that both sides of America’s political divide are equally culpable for violent rhetoric and violent acts. It’s a lie.
Virtually all of it comes from the political left. It wasn’t right-wingers who shot President Trump and murdered health care executive Brian Thompson in New York and conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah in cold blood.
It wasn’t Young Republicans who attacked a Turning Point USA event on the University of California, Berkeley, campus last week, beating up a TPUSA staffer. Four women were also arrested on charges of felony vandalism.
For decades, threats of campus violence have sealed off students from being exposed to conservative speakers and conservative viewpoints.
Meanwhile, the legacy media persist in enforcing the illusion that everybody is equally guilty. They still describe the deadly 2020 George Floyd riots as “mostly peaceful.” By the way, because that has elicited so much ridicule, The New York Times has slyly switched to using “broadly peaceful protests.”
Recently, there has been an upsurge in threats against lawmakers and online discussions of whether the country is at the breaking point. Podcaster Joe Rogan said Tuesday that liberals cheering Kirk’s assassination were stoking conflict.
“Charlie Kirk gets shot, and people are celebrating,” he said. “This might be like step seven on the way to a bona fide civil war.”
I don’t think so. Conditions are far different from those of 1860, when you had two distinctive regions with profoundly different views of human liberty. Today, the political and cultural divide cuts across communities all over the country, even though some states are getting redder while some are turning more blue.
What we need is swift justice against those who use or threaten violence to shut down opponents.
A couple of media events involving Sen. John Fetterman last week exposed how deep the vitriol runs. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Democrat told CNN’s Dana Bash that radical elements of the left are far more malicious than the other side.
“The difference is the right will say really rough things and call me names — some I won’t repeat on TV — but on the left, it was like they want me to die,” Mr. Fetterman said.
Ms. Bash then quoted “Unfettered,” the senator’s new memoir: “You said, ‘I’ve drunk deeply of the venom of both the left and the right. As a connoisseur, I can confirm that the most poisonous, the bitterest, is from the far left.’ That is pretty remarkable to hear you say that as an elected Democrat. Why?”
Mr. Fetterman answered, “It’s just been my personal experience.” He noted that after asking his online team where the worst offenders were, “The answer was immediate. They said, ‘Oh, Bluesky. It’s Bluesky.’”
Bluesky is the Democratic version of Twitter. It was launched after Elon Musk broke the left’s censorious grip on social media by buying Twitter and turning it into X.
Mr. Fetterman continued, “They were cheering for my next stroke, saying things like, ‘That’s terrible that depression didn’t win,’ or, ‘I hope your kids find you.’”
In another revealing exchange, Katie Couric on her podcast badgered Mr. Fetterman, trying to get him to condemn Kirk. Over and over, she implied that perhaps the outspoken young activist had it coming.
“I think some people might say Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric was extreme,” she said. “People condemn political violence but they also felt a great deal of discomfort with his language, suggesting that these kinds of words lead to violence.”
Mr. Fetterman refused to bite and defended Kirk’s right to free speech.
Ms. Couric also tried to get Mr. Fetterman to criticize President Trump for honoring Kirk in several ways, including flying U.S. flags at half-staff. Still no bite.
After noting that he didn’t often agree with Kirk, Mr. Fetterman added, “I’m sure we both agree that you shouldn’t shoot people and you shouldn’t execute them in public. … And you definitely also have the right not to get shot by sharing your views.”
Ms. Couric looked like she had just ingested a pickled prune.
In recent years, leftists have become more and more violent. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Jane’s Revenge and other groups went on a spree against crisis pregnancy centers and churches. In 2023 and 2024, there were 900 acts of burning or vandalism against churches, according to the Family Research Council.
By comparison, in 2023 and 2024, abortion clinics had three arsons and 169 acts of vandalism, according to the National Abortion Federation. Perpetrators should be caught and punished. Yet adding some perspective, the violence pales in comparison with what is being done inside the clinics to little human beings.
There is nothing equivalent on the right to Black Lives Matter, antifa, Trantifa, the Zizians cult, animal rights and climate zealots, pro-Hamas groups or, going back a few years, the Weather Underground, which set off dozens of bombs all over the U.S. and murdered law enforcement officers.
In 2020, Democrats cheered on or watched without comment for weeks as leftist rioters tore up hundreds of cities. Kamala Harris even helped start a bail fund for them.
If you ask them about all this, the typical response is, “What about Jan. 6?”
It’s all they’ve got, and they’ve been milking it for five years.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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