The Post-Election Temper Tantrum

By I & I Editorial Board, Issues & Insights | October 30, 2024

Two months ago, as the Democrats were preparing for their national convention in Chicago, we were concerned that it would be a repeat of the party’s 1968 convention that was marred by riots. But sanity prevailed. It was a relatively quiet affair. Will the Democrats be just as quiet if Donald Trump wins next week’s election? It’s more likely that they will erupt with rage.

After all, there have been two failed attempts to assassinate Trump. Yes, the suspects in both cases appear to be disturbed. But it’s been the nonstop vilification of the former president from the left that likely motivated them. The prospect of another term for Trump is going to push many over the edge that they’ve been teetering on since the man announced in 2015 that he was running for president.

From the Oct. 28 Wall Street Journal:

Across America, more than a dozen progressives in various positions of influence told The Wall Street Journal that they are dreading the prospect of Trump’s return to power, and dismayed that half the country might see a completely different reality than they see. Some are bracing for unrest. On a recent evening, more than 200 people joined a Zoom meeting titled Mass Training For Women’s Safety Teams — hosted by a Women’s March veteran who noted its timing amid ‘escalating political violence.'”

There is precedent. Trump’s 2016 election win provoked an outbreak of violence that lasted for days.

“For the third night in a row, anti-Donald Trump demonstrators took to the streets in several big cities and on college campuses across the United States, including an outburst of smashed windows and a dumpster fire in Portland that police countered with pepper spray and flash-bang devices,” USA Today reported on Nov. 11, 2016.

The day before, Al Jazeera said the protests against “Trump’s election victory had turned violent.”

Months later, on Jan. 21, 2017, Reuters reported “black-clad activists among hundreds of demonstrators protesting Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Friday clashed with police a few blocks from the White House, in an outburst of violence rare for an inauguration.” At least 217 were arrested.

Even before the election, the left was violent toward Team Trump. According to NBC, “Trump supporters were mobbed and assaulted by protesters” in June 2016 “after the candidate’s campaign rally in California.” A woman wearing a “Trump” jersey “was cornered, spat on, and pelted with eggs and water bottles” during the skirmish.

What we saw then is likely to be tame in comparison to what is coming.

We’re not forgetting Jan. 6. But that was an event fully out of character with conservatives and Republicans. And we remind readers that of the thousands who marched that day, maybe as many as 80,000, only 452 were violent and charged with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.” Fewer than 130 have been charged with vandalism or theft.

Neither are we forgetting the leftist violence we’ve seen in the last year on behalf of Hamas against America’s Jews, and before that the George Floyd riots, and the thuggery that occurs any time Antifa shows up.

Democrats have warned the country that Trump is a “danger to democracy,” a fascist, another Hitler. But it’s the Democrats who use the threat of violence to turn the election in their favor. “If Trump does win the election, the left in America will certainly riot,” says author and political commentator Douglas Murray. “They will make sure cities they believe they dominate go up in flames again.”

And they’ve apparently been considering the insurgent option for months. Jonathan Tobin wrote in the Federalist in February that Democrats “need a backup plan if the courts won’t do their bidding” to keep Trump out of the White House if he wins by “doing exactly what they labeled as ‘insurrection.'”

“A Trump victory would almost certainly set off bloody riots in every American city,” he said.

Hell hath no fury like the Democrats who won’t allow a peaceful transition of power.

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day – without fear or favor.

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