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Found this via Instapundit. This Politico piece talks about how the Democrats are just a bunch of wimps who aren’t being tough enough on the Republicans:

Whether Trump knew it or not, his remarks were perfectly pitched to stoke anxieties that have haunted many top Democratic operatives for a generation: the fear that their party loses big power struggles because Republicans are simply tougher, meaner, more cynical and more ruthless than they are. A belief in one’s own virtue feels good. Losing a battle that could shape the American political landscape for decades feels bad. The tension between the two left some Democrats grappling anew this weekend with the implications: Maybe they really are the Wet Rag Party. “They are more ruthless,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who over a quarter-century has served as a top aide to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. “And I don’t want to be like them. … The answer can’t be for Democrats to be just as cynical.” … One key, some prominent voices say, is more willingness to behave rudely, even in the respectable parlors where Democrats historically have turned for validation.

The problem with this ridiculous argument is that Democrat hysteria and rage is ALREADY turned up to eleven. The Democrats believe, or claim to believe, they are living in pre-Nazi Germany, with Trump about to create a dictatorship. The media regularly derides Trump voters as Nazis and monsters. Democrat mobs regularly harass and intimidate Republican politicians. The recent convulsion of mob violence started with Black Lives Matter, but quickly infected the rest of the Democrats.

How are they going to behave more “rudely” than they already have? Republicans are routinely stalked and doxxed by Democrats, and Republicans who aren’t rich can also look forward to being fired from their jobs and having their social media accounts banned.

As I’ve mentioned previously, the increasingly hard-knuckle tactics of the Democrats have provoked electoral and political backlashes. Mitch McConnell sums up the impact of mob harassment of GOP Congressmen:

“It was really quite a display of aggressiveness far beyond what I’d consider peaceful protesting. They were trying to intimidate members of the Senate not only in our home states but in the Capitol and in our homes here in Washington,” McConnell said. “I’m really proud of my members for not knuckling under to those kind of mob-like tactics.” He added, “We were able to establish that the presumption of innocence is still important in this country and that the senate is not going to be intimated by these kind of tactics. McConnell reiterated his view that the fight over Kavanaugh’s confirmation has re-energized the Republican base ahead of next month’s midterm elections, thanking Democrats for the newfound enthusiasm. “Ironically the behavior of Democrats on Senate Judiciary Committee and then the overreach of the protests at the Capitol have actually energized the Republican base, particularly in the red states where we’re trying to pick up seats across America,” McConnell said. “So I want to thank the other side for the tactics that have allowed us to kind of energize and get involved our own voters.”

The big impact of these tactics has been to turn soft Republicans like Lindsey Graham into hard Republicans. The biggest defeat of the left in the Kavanaugh confirmation has been turning the former #NeverTrump types against them. They haven’t figured this out yet, because social justice warriors are religious fanatics who will throw away winning elections in favor of following their religion.

The only way the Democrats can escalate further at this point is lethal violence. I can’t quite tell whether the writer of the Politico article, John Harris, understands this and is tiptoeing around the edges of calling for it, or if he is simply dense and unaware of how much the Democrats have already escalated things.The Democrat pundit class aren’t exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, in spite of their exalted opinions of themselves.

While there have been some individual crazies like James Hodgkinson, who tried to murder Steve Scalise, so far we have not had huge, directed mobs try to actually injure or kill Republicans. Imagine what would have happened if the mob that harassed Ted Cruz in the restaurant in September had shown up armed with clubs and knives?

And as always, Democrats don’t seem to understand the flip side of using increasingly extreme tactics. The Tea Party backlash, Donald Trump’s election, and the Kavanaugh confirmation are all results of Democrats pushing harder and harder left.

Already, the Democrats have hardened the positions of the ex-#NeverTrumpers considerably. If they escalate to lethal violence, I think we’re going to start to see fightback from the Republicans at the street level, and on top of that Trump will be happy to respond with all the resources of the Federal government.

I used to think the Democrats had extremely clever and machiavellian plans, but most of the smart people seem to have been purged from the party by the religious nutcases, who are taking the Democrats to a very dark place. There is no substitute for the hard business of winning elections, and all of the public temper tantrums and violent outbursts in the world aren’t going to change that.