The left was born in bloodshed

OPINION:

The left was born in the bloodshed of the French Revolution. The crimson tide has run wide and deep ever since.

Those riding the tide have included Jacobins, Bolsheviks, National Socialists, Maoists, Black Lives Matter incendiaries, antifa thugs and gender-ideology hit men.

Among its victims, over the course of 236 years, are aristocrats, Christians, Jews, bourgeoisie, kulaks, intellectuals, dissidents and conservative hero Charlie Kirk.

Our culture of violence was shaped by the revolutionary left, which has infiltrated every aspect of society, including higher education and entertainment.

According to a 2024 survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, 25% of liberal college students approve of violence to stop conservatives from speaking on campus.

Only 55% of Gen Z believe political violence is never acceptable, compared with 93% of baby boomers and 86% of Gen X. In a 2024 Rasmussen survey, 28% of Democrats said America would have been better off if President Trump had died by an assassin’s bullet. Another 24% said they were unsure.

Those celebrating Mr. Kirk’s demise include professors, teachers, physicians, airline pilots, elected officials and even a U.S. Army colonel, since relieved of duty. Can you imagine anyone in a position of authority in 1963 applauding the assassination of President Kennedy?

Leftist violence is an almost daily occurrence. The death toll includes law enforcement, business leaders and prominent conservatives. New Left philosopher Herbert Marcuse taught a generation of activists that silencing so-called oppressors was justified in the name of the fight for equality.

When the Supreme Court was deliberating on reversing Roe v. Wade, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer warned justices that if they did so, they would “release the whirlwind” and “pay the price.” This was followed by weeks of illegal demonstrations at the homes of conservative justices and an attempt to assassinate Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Most Democratic politicians condoned the rioting after the death of George Floyd in 2020, including Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and then-Sen. Kamala Harris, whose staff set up a bail fund for rioters.

Black Lives Matter organized the arson and looting. Patrisse Cullors, one of its co-founders, described herself as a “trained Marxist.” She was recruited to the cause by Eric Mann, a former member of the terrorist group Weather Underground.

Tyler Robinson, charged with killing Mr. Kirk, is the latest link in a chain stretching back to the Reign of Terror. Messages on his rifle and bullet casings include Bella Ciao, a slogan adopted by antifa, along with the word “fascist.” Antifa’s latest campaign is assaulting immigration enforcement agents.

Antifa is a contraction of anti-fascist. If you disagree with it on race, sexuality or immigration, you are a Nazi, and they have carte blanche to attack you. They sent independent journalist Andy Ngo to the hospital for exposing their tactics. Mr. Trump just announced he will designate antifa as a major terrorist organization.

Last week, an activist judge dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, charged with murder in the death of health care CEO Brian Thompson. Like Mr. Robinson, Mr. Mangione is part of the left-wing assassination culture.

According to indictments, Mr. Robinson killed Mr. Kirk for his views on transgenderism and Mr. Mangione killed Thompson to strike a blow against the health care industry.

Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer once observed: “To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”

What do you do with someone you think is stupid? If you’re Charlie Kirk, you try to educate them.

What do you do with someone you consider evil? You send them to the guillotine. You put them against the wall. You stick them in a gulag or death camp. You shoot them in the neck with a high-powered rifle.

The left’s utopian vision can be realized only with bloodshed. It asks us to give up our property, our families, our faith and our freedom for a classless society.

For the envious, the malicious and those desperate to merge their identity with a cause, that may work. In certain circumstances it may even work with a majority — for a time.

Eventually, however, reason will prevail. People will get tired of being robbed, starved and beaten. That’s why violence is necessary to build the workers’ paradise — that and free bus service — and violence is needed to maintain it.

The building process includes dealing with counterrevolutionaries by any means necessary.

• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.