The newly elected legislature received a bill to centralize control in the capital, using executive actions. It had a high-sounding name: “A Law for Removing the People’s Distress…” The newly elected leader gave a moderate speech, emphasizing evolutionary change and restoration of previously ignored rights.
But as this moderation was spoken, the legislature was surrounded by a politically motivated mob. They flooded the corridors and even moved onto the floor of the legislature, shouting “We want the bill, or fire and murder! Give us the law, or else!” The legislators believed them. The Enabling Act was passed, 441 for, and 84 against. With that, the last legal vestige of the Weimar Republic died, and on March 23, 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Supreme Leader of Nazi Germany.
The liberal democracies of the West have always voiced a healthy distaste for political violence, but they have had ambivalent reactions to it. They recoiled from the obscenities of Nazi Germany but accommodated themselves to it until they could accommodate no more. They ignored the massacres of Stalinism and Maoism, because many intellectual leaders thought – not so secretly, in many cases – that crushing society’s “reactionary elements” was perfectly justified in the search for a workers’ paradise that never quite arrived. Meanwhile, they had their own problems with the explosive nexus of violence and politics.
We’re no exception. From the KKK – the military arm of the Democrat party – to the inchoate SDS and various “liberation armies” of the 1970s and 1980s; to today’s destructive and deadly ANTIFA and “Black Lives Matter;” rioting, violence and threats have always been preferred by some to achieve political ends.
The current uproar over a leaked US Supreme Court draft decision has precipitated another round of potentially deadly political conflict, this time with profound implications for the future of our Federal government. It’s not that the leak is unprecedented; there have been several back to the nineteenth century, including in the original Roe v. Wade case. But it is very unusual and betrays a disturbing lack of concern about the mechanisms of the Republic, including the necessarily apolitical nature of the Supreme Court.
More disturbing is the immediate willingness of the usual shock troops of the Left – ANTIFA, Black Lives Matter, the abortion industry’s flacks and assorted hangers-on – to resort to 1933 tactics. They, and others, have threatened to protest at the homes of the “six extreme right justices” whose addresses were conveniently provided by a website set up two weeks ago, negating the possibility that any of this was spontaneous. It was instead a well-planned action that used a stolen document to boost Democrat fundraising for 2022, distract from the uninterrupted litany of failures from the Biden administration and drive voter turnout using the perennial Democrat bogeymen of limits on murdering unborn children and on the promotion of sexual practices pushing the outer envelope of inventiveness and human anatomy. The individuals behind the website remain anonymous, hiding behind a Twitter account opened in 2017. But investigation by Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network discovered links to many of the usual suspects, including those who organized and paid for the nauseating Kavanaugh hearing protests. She suggests that Arabella Advisors and other Leftist dark money groups are involved.
So once again we have Democrats whistling up a bought-and-paid-for goon squad to achieve their goal. Once again, the White House seems to be okay with thuggery, since it is oriented to radical Democrat ends. Once again Jen Psaki finds nothing wrong with “peaceful protest,” so long as the right people are targeted. Hopefully, murder and arson won’t be involved this time. Once again, a completely politicized Department of Justice does nothing, because the intending protesters are the right type.
Only they aren’t. Protesting outside a sitting US Supreme Court Justice’s home is not only a breach of etiquette. It isn’t just a violation of common sense and decency. It’s not only shattering a tradition or an offense against civil behavior and discourse. It’s a violation of law, to wit, 18 U.S.C 1507, which reads in part:
“Whoever, with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty, pickets or parades in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer, or with such intent uses any sound-truck or similar device or resorts to any other demonstration in or near any such building or residence, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” No ifs, ands or buts about it. Our republic is serious about in independent judiciary; it’s one of those things that provides equality before the law.
But when the White House won’t acknowledge that a howling mob outside a private home might lead to unpleasantness, and when the Attorney General devotes about as much attention to this sort of lawbreaking as he does to that on our Southern border, that’s a problem for us all.
Those of us who know history see these excesses and attendant derelictions as more stomach-churning evidence that a part of our citizenry no longer has limits or guardrails to its ideologically-fueled rage. Adrift in a sea of mindless fury, they will attack any target at which their masters point them, without regard to consequence. We also understand that this sort of behavior by armies of useful idiots marks them all, from top to bottom, as the heirs of the Sturmabteilung and the Red Guard. It’s not a good look, and it will end in tears – for everyone.
Time to stop this madness while we can.
