Left keeps playing footsie with mob

Political violence has come to Nevada, and it’s ugly.

On Tuesday, Wilfred Michael Stark, a tracker with the far-left Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, allegedly attacked Kristin Davison, the campaign manager for GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt. Davidson said Stark aggressively burst into a room and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. Stark refused to let go until physically restrained, leaving bruises on her arm.

It’d be natural to write this off as a random incident. But this wasn’t Stark’s first offense, and opponents of Republicans have grown increasingly hostile.

Start with Stark. American Bridge fired him after the incident, but why did it hire him to start with? This wasn’t even the first time this year he was arrested for assaulting a female Republican staffer. In March, after a hearing, he allegedly pushed the female press secretary of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He was also found guilty of disorderly conduct during a 2017 political event in Virginia.

It may be tempting to blame Laxalt’s Democratic oppenent, Steve Sisolak, for Tuesday’s incident, but that would be a mistake. Super PACs can’t legally coordinate with campaigns, and Sisolak’s campaign properly condemned the assault.

Yet this is hardly an isolated incident. Two Minnesota Republicans said people who disagreed with their politics attacked them within the past week. The husband of Maine Republican Susan Collins recently opened a letter that the writer claimed to have tainted with ricin and mentioned her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. A screaming mob in D.C. chased Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife away from their table in a restaurant two weeks ago. Liberal groups made disrupting the Kavanaugh hearings an explicit part of their strategy. Launching a screaming barrage at a U.S. senator, as Cruz and Sen. Jeff Flake can attest, is a sure-fire way for a leftist to go viral and gain media coverage.

Democrat leaders have provided rhetorical cover for many of these actions. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who has campaigned for Sisolak, said recently, “When they go low, we kick ’em.” In June, California Democrat Maxine Waters called for the harassment of Trump administration officials. Hillary Clinton said last week that Democrats can’t be civil with Republicans until they regain power. The liberal media have participated as well. A CNN host refused to let her guest call a screaming group of protesters banging on the doors of the Supreme Court a “mob.”

The standard for holding politicians culpable for political attacks carried out by one of their followers should be high. Sen. Bernie Sanders wasn’t responsible for the Bernie-Bro nutcase who shot GOP Rep. Steve Scalise last year, because Sanders never called for violence. This is an appropriate distinction, even if some in the mainstream media continue to erroneously blame Sarah Palin for inspiring the shooting of Gabby Giffords.

It’s great that Democrats condemn acts of violence. It’d be better if they didn’t lend verbal and moral support to the individuals and mobs that are harassing and trying to intimidate Republicans.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.