Below is my column in The Hill on the rising rage of the holiday on the left as we approach the second Trump inauguration. From looking forward to harassment at restaurants to the purchase of Antifa-themed Christmas gifts, some appear to be planning for a hate-fest in the New Year.
Here is the column:
“May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.”
Those words, from Disney’s new Snow White actress Rachel Zegler, came shortly after half of the country, roughly 77 million Americans, voted for Donald Trump.
Only a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris and her supporters were rallying the country to choose “love over hate.” Now, the “joy” is gone. Tis the season of the liberal hate-fest.
As Washington prepares for the inauguration, we are seeing a return to rage.
During the first Trump administration, liberal servers and restaurant owners pledged not to serve Trump officials. Now, the Washingtonian is reporting on the planned resumption of the harassment of those serving in the Trump administration.
Zac Hoffman, manager at the National Democratic Club and “D.C. restaurant veteran,” told the magazine that abusing conservatives was only natural and understandable: “You expect the masses to just ignore RFK eating at Le Diplomate on a Sunday morning after a few mimosas and not to throw a drink in his face?”
One bartender stated that Trump people may “theoretically [have] the power to take away your rights, but I have the power to make you wait 20 minutes to get your entrée.”
Suzannah Van Rooy, a server and manager at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill, declared that she would not serve some Trump officials. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans,’” she said. “It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”
Beuchert’s later fired Van Rooy.
This campaign of hate is all too familiar to conservatives. Many remember when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family were kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. As others were denied service or chased from restaurants, Democratic members like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, supported such harassment.
For those restaurants not willing to follow the Red Hen model, the response was equally unhinged. Mariya Rusciano runs a D.C. pizza restaurant. She posted congratulations to Trump on X after the election to encourage everyone to come together as a nation. The response from Democrats was furious, filled with pledges to boycott the restaurant and force it out of business.
It is not just service and civility that are scarce in Washington. Even while accusing Trump of putting his political and personal interests ahead of the nation, Biden is now reportedly moving to veto a bipartisan bill to relieve pressure on our overwhelmed court system.
The Judges Act, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, would add 66 new judgeships to an over-worked court system. The White House supported the bill right up until Trump won the election. While some Democrats are still trying to get the White House to change its mind, liberal groups are applauding the expected veto “to prevent President Trump from having more vacancies.”
If Biden carries out his threat, it will be not only gratuitous but illogical. The bill deliberately staggers the addition of judges over the next decade so that presidents of both parties will presumably be able to appoint them. Moreover, the Senate is still closely divided, and “blue-slipping” (whereby senators can hold up some nominations) remains in effect.
More importantly, the reason for this bipartisan effort is due to a dire need for our courts. Judges are drowning in dockets with rising caseloads. In 2004, the number of cases in district court pending for more than three years was 18,280. This year, there are 81,617.
If justice delayed is justice denied, our court system is becoming a tar pit of injustice, with litigants left without verdicts or relief for years.
The word of the intended veto stripped away any pretense of the White House putting the public interest before politics. A veto would put rage before reason.
In my recent book, I discussed how addictive rage is. People do not like to admit it, but they like being angry. Sometimes, people can choose madness as a release from reality. It offers a righteous license to slip from the bounds of civility and decency. It allows people to harass Republicans in restaurants or to scream profanities outside of their homes.
It allows a president to say that he might block judgeships for a struggling court system, just because he does not want his successor to make any of the appointments.
It is the reason 41 percent of adults under 30 believe that killing others, like healthcare executives, is justified, according to an Emerson College poll.
We cannot seem to shake this rage addiction even after an election or during a holiday committed to peace and understanding. One liberal site, Crooked Media, is actually selling holiday items featuring the violent extremist group Antifa — one of the most anti-free speech groups in history, which routinely attacks journalists, speakers, and conservative demonstrators.
Created by former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, the Crooked Media site is selling a line of Antifa items for liberals, including Antifa onesies for infants and “Antifa Dad” shirts to seemingly celebrate political violence.
It seems the joy, bipartisanship, and civility have all expired like last year’s eggnog. Even Disney’s new Snow White seems to have taken the cue from the Evil Queen and treated this election as “a blast of wind to fan my hate.”
And we are not even at the inauguration yet.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
There is a zero chance that the die-hard Democrats, probably half the party, will ever change. This is personal to them, and that is why you see them doing silly, childish things like attacking Trump signs, or hieing away to safe spaces when something disturbs them, like a MAGA hat. Democrats have become infantilized, and fragile, by their own hand. They believe silly, and stupid stuff, like trans-women are real women. They believe there is nothing wrong with biological men competing in women’s sports. Likewise, they believe in open borders and defunding the police – until those silly notions affect them personally.
Adults should be serious people, and they should see things as they are, not how they imagine them to be. But that die-hard group of Democrats will not change, and they will be encouraged to remain vapid, credulous, immature people by another group of sinister folks who make money off their mental dysfunctions. When what a person believes conflicts with reality, you get cognitive dissonance, and to make the pain go away, one either has to change their beliefs, or cope with the contradiction, somehow – often becoming childish.
As my friend, Gen AI says,
“Cognitive dissonance, which is the mental discomfort caused by holding contradictory beliefs or performing actions that conflict with one’s values, can sometimes manifest in behaviors that might appear “childish” because it involves attempts to rationalize or justify actions that go against one’s own internal standards, often through denial, deflection, or simplistic reasoning, similar to how a child might handle conflicting situations due to their developing cognitive abilities.
Key points about cognitive dissonance and childishness:
Immature coping mechanisms:
When experiencing cognitive dissonance, people might resort to immature coping strategies like blaming others, making excuses, or simply dismissing the inconsistency, which can resemble how children deal with difficult situations due to their limited perspective.
Lack of self-awareness:
Children often lack the self-awareness to fully understand the implications of their actions, leading to behaviors that might seem inconsistent with their stated beliefs, mirroring cognitive dissonance.
Black and white thinking:
Children often think in very simple terms, categorizing things as “good” or “bad” with little room for nuance, which can be seen in how someone experiencing cognitive dissonance might try to justify their behavior by forcefully denying any negative aspects.
Examples of how cognitive dissonance can appear “childish”:
“It’s not my fault”:
Blaming external factors for a negative outcome even when partially responsible, similar to a child blaming their toys for a broken object.
Denial of responsibility:
Refusing to acknowledge the negative consequences of one’s actions, like a child saying “I didn’t do it” even when caught.
“Everyone else is doing it”:
Justifying a behavior by claiming that others are doing it too, even if it goes against personal values, reflecting how children might rationalize actions by citing peer behavior.
“They believe silly, and stupid stuff”
Which is a fatal flaw/anti-survival trait for anyone who inhabits the real world. Trump should do his best to remove all of the Fedgov crud that insulates those idiots from that real world, and all reasonable people should do whatever they can to help break down the social versions of those barriers. With that realized, those fools will need to either wake up (meaning become truly awake, not the pathetic lampoon of wakefulness known as “woke”) or die. I prefer the former alternative, but find either one to be acceptable.
Wait a sec. There are ads on TV telling us “Time Out Against Hate”. The problem is that the libs redefine their hate to political activism. So those ads are really on directed to conservatives apparently.
Why not make political belief a protected status like gender, color, race, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, etc?
It is a protected status in DC already.
The U.S.’s West Coast and East Coast Camps are going to keep gnawing at it while the Heart of the Country pays for it.
That’s to say, that They know very well that the economic-game of levering-up and up the price/cost of Life with assets that have next to Zero residual value, while They suck in the Fiat Dollars (Bankrupting the Country), taking something-for-nothing (Free – for Them), to live a grandiose Life style.
They are desperately afraid that Trump (et.al. Supporters will take Their-Game away. We’ll it’s High-Time that it’s done. After all isn’t the hypocrisy of the Democratic-Despots been preaching economic-equality for All, exactly that … Level the Playing field.
The Trump Camp has hit the ground running:
Panama Canal – If your going to have a World War, then damn straight the Panama Canal is vitally crucial.
Crypto – If your War is going to Bankrupt your World Reserve Currency (Dollar$) and put the Country in Default, then switching to a new kind of currency is vital in order to keep the physiological and economic hedge.
IMO, the Bond Market will be the first to reconciled into Crypto, the other Market Instruments will follow,’disappearing the Insolvent ‘Debts’, and The World will come out with a Clean-Slate (New Ledger),
A new Ledger is exactly what ‘Crypto’ is – a Cryptographic-Ledger. The States will follow because they are all running deficits of some kind and want to get that Debt-Monkey off Their Backs.
After all isn’t this what all Politicians have been counting on? The Get-Out-of-Debt-for-Free Day-of-Reckoning. (I know Gavin Newsom and the State of Illinois have been counting on that)
In God We Trust – and God has so delivered (Crypto) US from Evil (Debts).
It’s a Brave New World – Hold Tight!
Coastal states pay more federal taxes than many non-coastal states.
Donnie Von Schitzenpantz will flail for about 10 days and move on to some other idiotic subject. He has the attention span of a gnat.
Crypto is a scam. Period.
How much does NYC, Chicago and LA get to house illegals, give welfare to millions, give medical care to millions, educate illiterate illegals, give to court systems and police?
But the Politicians will use Crypto:
1. because it’s there
2. because they can
3. because it’s the escape they so desperately need
Wally, first, coastal urban areas have always been wealthier, even in the Reagan era. Liberals didn’t rejuvenate our urban areas. They are in fact wrecking them.
Second, if you really care about working people, why do you keep insulting them by suggesting they deserve to be poorer? That’s basically the subtext of your comment, Wally. Snide, clueless, limousine-liberal snobbery is what it sounds like. That’s why you lost.
Third, a better comparison would be red counties versus blue counties. Upstate NY does quite well, but they don’t vote Democrat. Many Democrat-run counties, including urban ones, are poverty-stricken. Move to sunny Baltimore if you disagree.
Fourth, selling off our factories to China and crashing our living standards with immigration doesn’t make anyone better off except the coastal snobs. That growing income gap doesn’t make them heroes. Again, that’s why you lost.
Figure it out, Wally.
What do the coastal states do best? Push paper. Those states are filled with a lot of middlemen and profiteers.
“Beuchert’s later fired Van Rooy.”
Thus the expression: When you’re motivated by revenge, dig two graves.
The strongest supporter of abortion to ever sit in the WH has now granted clemency to mass murderers and child killers.
Hey Dennis, Gigi and all you other morons supporting corrupt Joe Biden, congratulations on him taking the party into the toilet before he slithers out of the office.
The Left is showing its true colors for a change. It no longer hides, attacking from ambush and in the shadows. It’s out in the open now and is recognized as the 21st century’s equivalent of the Brownshirts of the 1930s. Can’t influence society in the arena of ideas, of legitimate political debate, so they revert to threats and intimidation, and even violence. We understand who and what they are. Our patience and commitment to higher ideals is strained. It won’t take much to light a conflagration that will not easily be quenched. But, perhaps that’s necessary.
I LIKE MANY OTHERS is the reason we’re no longer Democrat we left hatred behind
Why would any Trump employee, supporter, family member, or anyone who looks like they may lean that way eat in a place where you have no idea what is happening to your food in the kitchen? Those DC people are nuts!
Polls? I wish polls were taken before the market is flooded with propaganda, but that never happens. Polls are just the result of the propaganda, to gauge if the propaganda is working or not.
As far as young people, no surprise they responded that way. Young people are big consumers of propaganda, because they live on their phones, and even when off their phones, their daily lives are saturated with entertainment, which is of course a large exporter of not only political propaganda but pop culture and consumer directed propaganda.
Young people also have a higher tolerance for violence and disorder. Which is a separate, societal issue to be worked on.
Despite all that, Gen Z is our best hope. There’s a lot of representation there of maga, anti-establishment, pro-first/second amendment, some libertarianism, and some traditionalism/conservatism, with that last one emerging as a contrast to their parents who are too liberal and materialistic.
These people have broken minds, many have been conditioned by the Marxist media, many by Marxist government officials and many by Marxist professors.
They now are motivated by hate, envy and sloth.
Give the gift that keeps on giving, Kill a Commie for Mommy
The liberal only has enough potential love to fuel their narcissism and cannot share.
Okay commenters, let’s bring on the rage …
If Trump manages to accomplish his promised, and very much needed task of drastically reducing the Fedgov bureaucracy, and deploying most of the remainder to some remote area of Northern Montana, the problem of such s’tunts in DC acting out their childish tantrums should be largely self-resolving.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Maya Angelou.
Prof. Turley, I understand this hatred from the left is disturbing to you. But it is not something new. It is just closer to the surface thatn it has been in the past.
In this past election cycle the left completely jumped the shark. They did everything in their power.
Many of us no only beleive that the left cheated in 2024 (and to a lessor extent in 2022), but that they only reason there was not large3 scale cheating in 2024 is that Republicans recruited 260,000 poll watchers primarily focused on the polls in those states and specifically those cities were fraud was likely in 2024. Further a small army of lawyers was on call instantly should the need arrise and finally even left wing nut courts like the PA Supreme court finally realized they had gone too far and while not restoring actual integrity to our elections atleast made the most obvious and egregious forms of fraud like counting undated ballots that arrived after the election impossible.
While I know that you and many on democrats do not share the view that election fraud in 2020 (and to a lessor extent since) was quite common place and more than likely enough to flip the election, but beyond the actual evidence of illegal ballot harvesting and other lawlessness in 2020, the behavior of democrats since is further proof.
Would those who were censoring social media on a massive scale prior to Musk also engage in election fraud ?
Would those who conducted fraudulent J6 and impeachment hearings, destroyed evidence and suborned perjury also engage in election fraud ?
Would those who weaponized government against political enemies putting people like former Democrat rising star Tulsi Gabbard on terror watchlists, or spying on cathloics, or SWATTING prolifers and republican political enemies or targeting parents concerned about the education of their children – would those also engage in election fraud ?
Would those who targeted a political opponent using a long list of Garbage legal theories – those that made it to the supreme court losing 9-0 – would they also engage in election fraud ?
Would those who lied to us about the obvious incompetence of the stitting president until it was impossible to lie any more,
Would those who suddenly picked as their presidential canditdate someone who had not received a single vote for president in any primary anywhere ever – would they engage in election fraud ?
Would it surprise me that the same people who think it is OK to murder healthcare executives, would commit election fraud ?
This is not even close to the complete list of malfeasance engaged in or supported by MOST democrats.
This is malfeasance that the shrewed is and most reprehensible politicians of the past – people like LBJ who DID engage in large scale election fraud did not attempt becuse they never dreamed they could get away with it.
This is NOT your fathers democratic party. Though oddly too many of its leaders are our grandfathers.
No it is not surprising that these people would engage in election fraud.
It is not surprising that they would refuse to serve people they disagree with politically.
Almost nothing these people would do surprises me.
But on Nov. 5th 2024 the country said “You Don’t matter anymore”
I did not understand until after the election how big a deal this election was.
We have left wingnuts – many who post here, claiming because Trump only got 49.8% of the popular vote this is not a mandate.
And that MIGHT be true – except that the 2024 election despite being the most expensive in history, despite having by far the longest election cycle, and the most attention by the media and social media, and alternate media, still fell millions of votes short of 2020.
Either there were millions of fraudulent voted in 2020, or several million Biden voters while unable to bring themselves to vote for Trump sat out the election kinowing that likely would lead to Trump winning.
Either way this was a massive rejection of the left.
The #1 reason exist polls reported for voters choices was “the left had gone too far”
I beleive Peter Theil is right, we hit “peak woke” in 2020, and we are in the midst of a massive backlash and a return to normal.
While it is a bit hard to call Trump a normal president. The FACT is a Romeny or McCain could not have stood up to the onslaught that the left launched against the republican candidate,
Further – I am sorry but the left wing nut rage at Trump is NOT justified or mostly Driven by Trump’s confrontational nature.
That is THE successful defense against the lies of the left.
Do you think for a minute that those who did all the chicanery to “Get Trump” would not do the same against DeSantis, or Rubio or Noem or any other republican that it looked like might win ? Especially if that Republican had a platoform with planks similar to Trumps that nearly all have super majority support ?
The election is a big deal – because since Trump won, the tactics used against him will NOT work again, and everyone – including those on the left now knows that.
One of the reasons that Trump ultimately corralled the entire GOP behind him was specifically because if the lefts efforts to “Get Trump” worked – no future republican could get elected.
In the end it was necessary for the GOP for nearly all republicans and for a majority of the country to support Trump regardless of his imperfections – because a democrat victory would mean a continuation of the same immoral tactics not just for another 4 years, not just against Trump. But against anyone the left opposes.
This is also why the left turns most viciously on their own for minor heresies.
The left, progressives, the democratic party has made itself into the party of hateful hating haters, that it claims to abhor.
But I am not worried – they have had to crawl out into the sunlight their have been exposed for who they are, and not only did 77M voters LOUDLY say FU to the woke left,
but millions more said it quietly – by not voting – well if they are real in the first place.
Well said. You brought up so many valid points and I agree it just begins to describe their culture of hate. May President Trumps 4 years be most successful and may the pendulum keep swinging right until this culture of hate can be eviscerated. Thank you for your response as it took much time and thought.
John Say-GREAT review and summary. Does not leave me much to say. You said it all.
Now we just have to steel our hearts and minds to handle the hysterical and probably violent onslaught that may come our way.
Sen Fetterman has become a good voice of reason and moderation. I can disagree with him yet still admire him. The DNC should pay attention. By the way, I have noticed the senator’s wife has been incredibly quiet as HIS voice has become more pronounced and moderate.
John Say,
Great comment. Watching them eat themselves, lack of self-awareness and self-reflection, watching them double and triple down on their already failed policies gives us more and more chances for wins in 2026 and 2028.
The obvious solution to a shortage of judges is for us to become far less litigious as a society. Of course, one would not expect a lawyer to articulate such a sensible solution.
So true. Liberals should be as nice and as caring and as supportive of the glorious makeup-drenched orange dumbbell and his stellar non-sycophantic nominees as the respect-driven conservatives have been toward Brandon the last four years.
Waiting 20 minutes for food and disrupting the transfer of power because a deluded manbaby lied to his cult are entirely equivalent (no, the former is worse!).
The lady doth rage-protest too much, again.
Your not a liberal.
A liberal is someone who prizes liberty.
The real liberals in this country are libertarians.
We make SOME allowances for “60’s liberals” like Dershowitz and Turley” – but the woke progressive left is ILLIBERAL.
ROFL
You don’t matter anymore.
Who listens to those who either lied or were duped by lies about Biden;s competence for 8 years ?
Who listens to those who either lied or were duped by lies about the collusion delusion ?
Who listens to those who either lied or were duped by lies about left wing government censorship ?
Who listens to those who either lied or were duped by lies about the Hunter Biden Laptop ?
Who listens to those who either lied or were duped by lies about how wonderful Bidenomics is ?
….
If you want to be taken seriously – you need to be right about SOMETHING occaionally.
BTW Most of us are not “Rage-Protesting” – the bitter hatred of those on the left. We are shining light on it,
exposing you to the world for the hateful hating haters that you are.
John Say-you are on a roll. Keep it going.
It seems to me more of us on the right are perplexed, hurt, or downright heartbroken by the hate than motivated to give it back. Too many of us have friends and relatives who have reacted to the election in exactly the same way as the woman quoted in the column – “my hate of those who voted for Trump is not political, it’s moral,” attempting to cover their frankly outlandish feelings with a blanket of self-righteous rectitude that implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) impugns the character of even parents, siblings, and cherished friends.
As my husband has pointed out, these people knew our politics before the election; if their objections are moral, why is it only now that they’ve decided they can no longer associate with us?
John Say,
Exactly!!
“I Will Not Be Leaving Quietly”
You can hate me, try to break me
Talk me down and denigrate me
You can try to silence every word
But I will not be leaving quietly,
..
And you can mock me, try to out smart me
You can shame me and try to blame me
You can do your best to shut me up
But I will not be leaving quietly, no
Cry much, soy boy? The orange ‘man baby’ you leftist tools hate will be the one to secure the border, end wars, fix the economy and make us energy independent again…all things you leftists hate, and all are problems leftists caused. Once you are able to stop the flow of tears and crawl out of your safe space, try to look at the bright side: You have the same options as your sacred cows in Hollywood….you can always pack your bags and get out. I hear Cuba is nice this time of year.
You have bought into the propaganda about Trump that was spewed to protect the Deep State. Pretty much everyone who meets him says he is not the caricature that the media and Democrats describe. Once they meet him they like him. And that includes a lot of life long Democrats. All of his children and grandchildren love him. They didn’t leave lap tops behind that exposed corruption, drug addiction, and depravity or a diary that talked about him showering with his daughter, which she stated may have contributed to her and her half brother have drug and sexual addictions. He may have been married 3 times, but he never failed to take care of his children or grandchildren children or denied that one of them didn’t exist. He isn’t the creepy old man that goes around sniffing women and children’s hair or grabbing them whenever he was close to them like Biden did. He may have made an uncouth remark when he was not running for president, and off camera, but Biden actually did what Trump ran his mouth about saying you could do and they would let you. Biden did grab and many did not let him. Trump has always been rich and not bad looking. Where were all these law suits before he ran for president? They didn’t exist. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, and totally pushed by a corrupt system, both media and governmental.
How about making any trans person wait 20 minutes? How about making any woman wait? How about any minority? How about any Democrat? How about any Jewish person because you hate Israel? LOSER!!!!!
Just a thought. If a bartender carded a trans customer for an alcohol purchase, it would raise red flags if the gender listed on the license (and photo) did not match the individual presenting the ID. Hey, it could be a fake ID. If I owned an establishment that required a liquor license, I wouldn’t want to put it at risk by serving him/her/it.
Complete delusion. But I would expect no less from a hardened leftist.
Civility from the now progressive Dems died a long time ago. IMO it began with the terrible treatment of SCOTUS appointments by GOP presidents. Moderate Dems were purged from the party and the “need not apply” message went out. The Dems are tearing down the foundational institutions that support our self-governing democratic republic. They discarded debate and comity for political warfare and destruction of the opposition. It is no wonder the disease has spread to the pubic as well.
This trend is foolish and quite shortsighted. While it may satisfy an immediate hunger, it will starve democrats of long term success because it’s exposing the true nature of modern progressivism: elitist, self serving, hateful, divisive. They’ve become the very thing of which its adherents accuse Trump and his supporters. A word of advice: continue at your peril, it’s immensely unpopular and unattractive.,