Last year, I testified in the Senate on Antifa and the growing anti-free speech movement in the United States. I specifically disagreed with the statement of House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler that Antifa (and its involvement in violent protests) is a “myth.” What was most striking about that hearing was the refusal of Democratic members to condemn Antifa’s activities or recognize the scope of anarchist violence even as riots raged in Portland, Oregon and other cities. Indeed, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, famously walked out of that hearing after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, challenged her to condemn Antifa and leftist violence.
Now, Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler who previously blamed former President Donald Trump and the federal government for violence is calling on citizens to stand up to the “self-described anarchist mob.” I am not sure why Wheeler added “self-described” but his belated recognition of the threat is still welcomed. He notably did not specifically condemn Antifa, including the homegrown and notoriously violent Rose City Antifa (RCA).
Wheeler called for the city’s residents to assist authorities in their efforts to “unmask” members of the “self-described anarchist mob” who continue to riot and loot in the city. Portland is in a state of emergency and riots have continued for years. Indeed, Democratic leaders in the city appear to have finally worked through all of the “stages of grieving” identified by psychiatrist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. They began with denial and transference in blaming federal authorities and Trump for the violence. They then joined protesters in angry denunciations of the federal government is seeking an alliance.
They then bargained with the groups. (They did not go as far as cities like Seattle in allowing actual “autonomous zones” last summer, but avoided confrontations and limited police responses). Wheeler himself was criticized for failing to act against the rioting but insisted that he was trying to find a middle road of “compromise” with the groups. The riots, of course, continued and intensified. After a period of depression when the rioting continued after the Biden election, they have finally made it to acceptance.
That progression however is not evident with other national and even state Democratic leaders. Democratic leaders continue to avoid criticizing Antifa and some like Nadler deny their very existence. This level of fear and denial is precisely what Antifa has struggled to create. As I have written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association. Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. He told one committee last year Wray stated “And we have quite a number — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”
Some Democratic leaders not only recognize Antifa but support it. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany. His son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa as riots raged in his city last summer.
Notably, one of the witnesses from the Senate hearing last year was conservative journalist Andy Ngô, who was previously attacked by Antifa members in Portland. He wrote a book about the group but stores like Portland’s famed shop Powell’s Books have banned it from its shelves. When musician Winston Marshall congratulated Ngô on his book, he was condemned and later issued a cringing public apology. Ngô recently had to leave the country due to the attacks and death threats from Antifa and other groups. One does not have to agree with Ngô to support his right to speak or oppose the efforts to block people from being able to buy or read his book. Yet, the “deplatforming” campaign against Ngô, his book, and anyone who praises him is a signature of Antifa.
Wheeler’s success in “getting to acceptance” was not easy. He was repeatedly targeted himself by protesters at home and at restaurants. Finally, as riots continue for a second year, Wheeler is willing to rally the public against “self-described anarchists” while avoiding the forbidden reference to the real “A word”: Antifa.
Wheeler’s fear of confronting the Rose City Antifa is rather conspicuous given the prominence of the group in Portland. As I noted in my Senate testimony, the RCA is arguably the oldest reference to “Antifa” in the United States. In 2013, various groups that were part of ARA, including RCA, formed a new coordinating organization referred to as the “Torch Network.” This lack of structure not only appealed to the anarchist elements in the movement but served the practical benefit of evading law enforcement and lawsuits.
The RCA and other aligned groups have little patience for free speech. It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’” Indeed, Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists… From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.” It is an illusion designed to promote what Antifa is resisting “white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism, and genocide.” Thus, all of these opposing figures are deemed fascistic and thus unworthy of being heard.
The signature of the group is the same orthodoxy and militancy that characterizes groups that they oppose. Like its counterparts in right-wing groups like Proud Boys, Antifa has a long and well-documented history of such violence. Bray quotes one Antifa member as summing up their approach to free speech as a “nonargument . . . you have the right to speak but you also have the right to be shut up.”
Notably, when George Washington University student and self-professed Antifa member Jason Charter was charged as the alleged “ringleader” of efforts to take down statues in Washington, D.C., Charter declared the “movement is winning.” He is right. It is winning because politicians, the media, and academics have refused to recognize it for what it is: a violent, anti-free speech movement. Wheeler’s indirect criticism is tiny blip in a sea of indifference or denials from other leaders. That is all that Antifa needs to win. Silence.
With all due respect Jonathan, I think you vastly underestimate Antifa when you say that it’s “a violent, anti-free speech movement.” Antifa is so much more than that. They literally want to take down the US government, and their anti-police actions are even more frightening than their anti-free speech thugery. Without a functioning police force, there is no law & order — continual street chaos is the beginning of social dissolution. The Democrats may think they can somehow benefit from this “controlled” chaos, but it has a tendency to get out of control. The constant accusations of “racism” at everyone and everything establishment is just the rally cry. But the Democrats are aiding and abetting the demise of democracy when they refuse to allow the police and prosecutors to do their jobs and stop this insurrection. We’re dealing here with outright sedition, insurrection and criminality. These are not kids — they are committed revolutionaries and only a short step away from real armed violence.
They are the armed wing of the Democratic party
American Hamas
When they were allowing people to film them last summer Antifa members said clearly they are anarchists and not Democrats. Someone or organization is obviously funding them but the Democrats I know do not support the burning down of cities. One night I will never forget, I stayed up watching Youtube and a black woman who was middle aged and had put all her savings and efforts into building a small business showed up and it had been burned out. The tears running down her face hopefully are not what Democrats want. And Christopher Wray brushed it all off by saying Antifa was simply “an idea.” No, it isn’t.
Foggy World:
Re-read that bit in Turley’s post about how Democrats refused to condemn Antifa. Biden used the feeble excuse that Antifa is an idea not an organization. It doesn’t take a membership card or member dues to make an identifiable movement that burns down businesses.
Do you think Antifa members are more likely to vote Republican or Democrat, especially since Bernie lost the primary?
Antifa is a Leftist organization.
Prominent Democrats WILL NOT go on record condemning them. Antifa falsely condemns capitalism and conservatism as fascist. Democrats falsely condemn the Republican Party and conservatives as fascist. They would not want to discourage that support, even with all the property damage and financial ruin to businesses that come with it. Just like BLM riots.
ANTIFA are terrorists. That’s truth. However, we should still offer them due process. But make no mistake as to what they are.
Here’s a truth everyone should learn:
Just an organization or movement claims to have altruistic motives doesn’t mean it’s true. Judge by the fruit.
PeTA claims to be for the ethical treatment of animals. Yet they have horrid high kill rates at their “shelters.” They’ve been found guilty in a court of law of stealing pets off their owner’s property and immediately euthanizing them. They’ve harassed horseback riders and carriage drivers, and tried to cause accidents.
By their fruits, they are judged to harm animals. No matter what they say, their actions indicate they’d rather pets be dead then owned by humans.
Antifa says they are against fascism and racism, but what they do is cause widespread property damage to innocent business owners, terrorize citizens, target people for violence and harassment based on race, oppose capitalism and support the slavery of socialism, and interfere with the free speech rights of conservatives who believe in limited government and strong individual rights.
By their fruits, do we know Antifa.
Does he consider those who created the “autonomous zones” in various parts of the country to be anarchists?
Baby steps, I guess. At least he condemned anarchists.
I still want him to condemn Antifa and all violence on the Left. Republicans rightfully condemned the one, single day of violence where their supporters stormed the Capitol. It’s not hard to call out bad behavior, even when it’s on “your side.” Same rules for everyone. Democrats stormed the Capitol and Senate Offices during the Kavanaugh Hearing. I still haven’t heard Democrats apply the same reasoning and call them seditious.
“Portland is in a state of emergency and riots have continued for years.” This is Left violence. Those aren’t Republican voters out there in autonomous zones.
Some are saying to arrest the ANTIFA thugs. What good will it do? Kamala will just bail them out. You vote for it you own it and ironically it owns you.
True enough.
Now is a good time to remind all, how much money Soros invested to elect leftist anarchist to prosecutors offices all across the nation.
A big IF, these rioters are charged, or charged up to felony jail time. then how diligently they are prosecuted in court. Or if they are permanently delayed until witnesses can be contacted by Soros goons.
Now that the election is over all that burning and looting have become bad things. The leftist population of Portland cheered on the resistance but now they want the riots to go away. Poverty awaits. People and businesses will not be moving to Portland because they know that the Mayor will not have their backs. Next their tax base will dry up. Will all those upstanding tax paying ANTIFA members bail them out? I say, let them stew in it.
These type of threats and intimidation have spread all over the Pacific Northwest & the nation. a civil society cannot survive this way. The thugocracy needs to be put down Hard! “Puyallup WA’s Motion Church on Friday cancelled an upcoming event with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, claiming that it wasn’t safe to hold the event due to what was going to be a lack of police protection in the wake of threats against Kirk and the church.” https://thepostmillennial.com/motion-church-cancels-charlie-kirk-event-cites-lack-of-government-protection
“Beer For My Horses”
Willie man, come on, six o’clock news
Said somebody’s been shot, somebody’s been abused
Somebody blew up a building
Somebody stole a car
Somebody got away
Somebody didn’t get too far, yeah
They didn’t get too far
Grandpappy told my pappy back in my day, “Son,
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done.”
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree,
Round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street
For all the people to see
We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
Too much corruption and crime in the streets
It’s time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send ’em all to their maker and he’ll settle ’em down
You can bet he’ll settle ’em down
That justice is the one thing you should always find
You gotta saddle up your boys
You gotta draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing, “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.”
– Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, 2002