Across the country, Democratic leaders are resorting to what I have called “rage rhetoric” as supporters are turning to actual violence, including arson and other crimes directed against Tesla. In Hawaii, Gov. Josh Green (D) even reacted to Novak Djokovic playing tennis with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by hoping that he is hit in the head. However, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, currently one of the top Democratic candidates for New Jersey governor, appears to have gotten an early lead in this race to the bottom. In a video that has now attracted interest in his run for governor, Baraka gives a full-throated endorsement of the violent and racist rhetoric of Nation of Islam leader (and raging anti-Semite) Louis Farrakhan.
In a newly released video from 2004, Baraka is shown applauding and embracing Farrakhan as he calls for violence and denounces White people as “demons.” Those “demons” compose roughly 52% of the state that Baraka wants to lead.
The video from a Newark church shows Baraka introducing Farrakhan as “the leader of every Black person.”
“I don’t think that there’s any man today, present today, that has the kind of moral authority or spiritual strength. Not president, not community leader, not political international activist, nowhere that has the moral authority, the historical and political framework, that the Minister Farrakhan has, that. Who can stand where he stands and truly say that he is the leader of black people anywhere and everywhere.”
The New York Post uncovered the video showing Baraka giving Farrakhan a standing ovation as he denounces non-violence: “We didn’t believe in no non-violence. The cracker hit you on your jaw, you break his neck. That’s the way we think.”
He also gives him a standing ovation in denouncing all white people as the “enemy.”
“Now the enemy comes in. You, the Crips, and the Bloods, they’ll send people in to give you rumors about your brother over there. These demons will even kill a policeman and then blame it on you. You dealing with a devil, man. You’re not dealing with righteous people. This cracker is the real devil. And you better wake up and realize that.”
Once again, this is the mayor of a major city and a leading Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey.
Baraka later arranged for Farrakhan to give a speech to over 1,000 high school students at Central High School in Newark, where he was principal.
Many on the far left shrug off such connections to racist or violent groups. It is reminiscent of former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, who 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. Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer.
With violence on the left increasing around the country, Democratic leaders continue to try to appease the most radical elements in their party. That was evident last week when Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) denounced the investigation into the attacks on Tesla dealerships and owners as “political weaponization.”
This is a long history of downplaying or shrugging off such violence, including some who seem to fuel the violence.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told George Floyd protesters in Minnesota to “get more confrontational” if a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin not guilty. And when Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was threatened in 2018 because she had not opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., mocked the concern over her safety with “boo hoo hoo.”
For her part, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to condemn left-wing mobs destroying statues and historic displays in her home city of San Francisco. Pelosi shrugged and said, “People will do what they do.”
In the case of Baraka, he appears to have a long history of associating with such violent and racist speech. In 2017, he organized another speech for Farrakhan titled “Separation or Death,” reportedly calling for a separate black state.
With the release of the videos, Baraka is standing firm in support of his association with Farrakhan, bizarrely defending his record of supporting “peace, equality, and equity.” He is blaming the “political establishment” for “false” claims based on these videos.
In his campaign for governor, Baraka is calling for voters to “reimagine New Jersey” and promising to “deconstruct the state budget and reassemble with equity as our north star; judging every decision as either a step towards equity or a step towards inequity.”
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.”
If you strip it down it is a call for Jihaad against white people.
Well, as we look at it from the Democratic side these were “mostly peaceful” statements. As much as I detest these rage comments, we still have to wait for the actual act, otherwise we are just thought police like in the EU and UK. Maddening but that is what we have to do.
Now if the acts turn into something like 2020 then we don’t sit passively but use every legal means at our disposal to fall on these miscreants like a ton of bricks.
I think Trump and the Republicans have many legal means to deal with these individuals and states. What if New Jersey suddenly has to defend every act that they try to institute, or California, or Maine, or Illinois or Oregon. I want the federal government costs covered and reduced but I am more than willing to yank every piece of federal money that flows to these states and hire attorneys by the boatload to lock those states up in legal hell.
You would in effect be hitting them by stopping their revenue and then running up their costs. Many of these blue states are so poorly run, they simply don’t have the money to deal with the legal onslaught. And remember most states have balanced budget amendments which will also limit their legal options due to cost.
It can be that goose / gander thing.
Also the 1960’s were worse. 3 major assassinations , Cuban missile crisis, riots almost every summer. National guard shootings on campuses, etc. The Vietnam war with hundreds of dead per week. It was a grim. I was there 1966-1970. The SDS was even loonier than some of the people we see now.
GEB,
Great comment. Recently read how a billionaire tech guy, and Democrat, was lambasting how the Democrat party has destroyed the failed state of CA.
Governor Murphy has ruined my home state. His policies are responsible for the mass migration out of the state that makes leaving the number one state in the country of citizens fleeing. And then he enacts a “Stay NJ” program to rebate 50% of property taxes back to seniors as incentive to stay in the state when we all know that he will raise taxes elsewhere to make up for the loss.
The Democrat Overton Window isn’t just shifting—it’s hurtling leftward. Violence is no longer condemned; it’s justified. Antisemitism isn’t whispered—it’s shouted from podiums and campuses. The mask is slipping.
It took Hitler just eight years to rise and launch extermination camps. It’s taken Democrats barely five to go from George Floyd to open hatred, sanctioned street violence, and raw antisemitism.
At this pace, they’re not inching toward totalitarianism. They’re sprinting.
I do hope that most are aware of the “familial/familiar” relationship between lewis farrakhan and the father of hakeem jefferies. This could explain quite a bit about the actions from the dem side of the aisle. Every acolyte of farrakhan should be exposed for the knot of hate and anger surrounding this click of anti-Semitic, American-hating miscreants.
Did you see the video clip yesterday of Elon talking about Tesla vandalism? He blamed it on media voices who are pushing out false narratives demonizing him about his DOGE work. He ends by saying, …”and we’re going to do something about it”.
Many of us feel it’s way past time to put our foot down against the media’s use of falsehood-laden ad-hominem attacks.
The question is HOW? I wish Musk would elaborate.
The good professor grappling with the legal aspects of free speech seems to think the best approach to “rage rhetoric” is to just complain about it in his daily blog. The one exception is defamation. What’s wrong with Elon suing these media voices who unfairly attack him personally as well as his car company? It’s too slow. The respondents in such lawsuits can ask for delay after delay. The damage takes place quickly, and can’t be undone years later when a court case concludes.
I remain truly mystified by Prof. Turley’s attitude as a lawyer and Constitutionalist about how far rage rhetoric should be allowed to escalate before the decisionmaking “cool” of society completely breaks down? For instance, right now the Dems would nominate AOC as their next Presidential candidate. Are you serious? That’s a reflection of how far half the country has strayed from calm, dispassionate thinking about what passes for sound leadership.
The U.S. is the least governable (able to cope with public issues in realtime) in my lifetime, perhaps except for the 1953 McCarthy “red scare”. I’m having a hard time seeing a way out of the present dystopic national politics without beginning to hold media execs and producers accountable for deceitful infowarfare. I don’t believe Madisonian freedom of the press goes that far, and the fact that defamation law in its weak, flaccid form even exists demonstrates that the power to dupe using mass media is NOT a freedom guaranteed by 1A.
Elon is correct. We need to “do something about it”. Experts like JT owe us some reasonable options to be weighing and sifting. We know the dangers of deciding what to do in a fit of rage.
Hey wait a minute. McCarthy was correct.
Which McCarthy? I would have to say Tail Gunner Joe was right all along.
In what way? You do realize that fake accusations of “communist sympathizer” became tools of snarky political competition — and were used in the workplace to sideline competitors for leadership positions?
The country was living in fear — not so much of Soviet Communism — but of such expedient, false accusations made purely for personal gain. It was an ugly time. And Joe McCarthy refused to quell the paranoia, he threw gasoline on it.
In what way do you think Joe McCarthy did the right thing? Explain.
I hope you realize that in the end Joe McCarthy was proven right. The Venona project, a secret intelligence operation vindicated McCarthy.
Pbinca,
“The good professor grappling with the legal aspects of free speech seems to think the best approach to “rage rhetoric” is to just complain about it in his daily blog.”
The professor painted himself into a corner. The reason why he can only complain about it is because he’s made the case multiple times that even speech media uses to sort-of-defame or paint in a bad light is protected speech (bad speech). His remedy for [bad speech] is more speech.
“Elon is correct. We need to “do something about it”. Experts like JT owe us some reasonable options to be weighing and sifting. We know the dangers of deciding what to do in a fit of rage.”
Elon is incorrect. He’s being a hypocrite. He does the same thing in his social media platform. Turley, ironically, defends Elon for doing essentially the same thing he accuses Baraka of doing. Endorsing racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. This is why it’s easy to rebut Turleys positions, he’s wildly inconsistent in his free speech views.
Elon is only incorrect insofar as his notion of “rule-of-law” is non-symmetrical, i.e. when he thinks of placing limits on others’ right to shape opinion through falsehoods, he would not accept the same constraint applied to himself.
It’s just the double-standard, where Elon, a powerful American, places himself in a position to authoritatively judge what is true vs. false. But if it’s someone else making the judgment, he’s not going to like it when he is taken to task for lying.
The idea most everyone is missing today is politically-blind justice — agreeing on rules, norms and law that apply the same regardless of political persuasion.
For speech freedom, this means: whatever speech freedom you want afforded you and your entourage, you are willing to cede that same level of freedom to those who hate you and would destroy you with infowarfare tactics if possible.
Since I have no interest in vexing or destroying others with crafty infowarfare, I’m agreeable to moderate limits (deterrence) placed on deceitful infowarfare. The motive is to protect and preserve what could easily be destroyed by too lax a concept of speech freedom — where people ruthlessly seek and destroy anyone who gets in their way. Who wants to live in that miasma except psychopaths?
Houston, the kids are not alright
There were enough FOOLish voters in Newark to elect him mayor. There is no reason to believe any different kind of result in the NJ gubernatorial election: 50% + 1 of the voters will be FOOLS and cast ballots for him. He checks boxes … D and black …that’s enough.
“. . . denounces White people as “demons.” Those “demons” compose roughly 52% of the state that Baraka wants to lead.”
Not a problem for his election chances.
NJ is D. D’s excel at white guilt and grabbing their ankles.
Whites only have to drop to 52% for New Jersey to become the New South Africa? They need to change the nickname to “the Gulag State.”
Rabid Diversity (i.e. class-disordered ideologies), Equivocation, and Indoctrination (DEI). That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion
Come on man – its New Jerky for God Sake what did you expect? The voters of that state know NO LIMITS to the self-flagellation they are willing to experience to SAVE DEMOCRACY (or at least their perverted view of it)! They vote for the BIZZARO and they SHALL RECEIVE THE BIZZARO and, as Schumer would say, “…reap the whirlwind…” that it brings! That whirlwind is usually insane taxes of all kinds, corrupt bureaucracy at all levels, out of control crime, Argentinian Cost of Living, and BEST OF ALL TOTAL CHAOS! Waiting for KIPLINGER’s “BEST AMERICAN SH!THOLE STATES” to see if New Jerky is KING (or is that THEY THEM QUEEN). The Dump of NEW YORK!
The same way that the media buried the Obama-Farrakhan photo they buried the story of Keith Ellison being accused of assaulting a woman in a Boston hotel while at a convention. They buried the fact that he was fine with antifa and that his son is a member of that odious group.
As for these cities like Newark, imagine that this bigot has a chance to become mayor while at the same time the city of Rochester NY had their mayor and POLICE CHIEF attack their own cops for coming to the aid of ICE when ICE needed assistance dealing with a van full of 8 illegals. The fellow LEOs came to aid their brothers in a dangerous moment and the mayor and POLICE chief lambasted them for doing so.
The left keeps moving the Overton Window to the point of insanity. A few short years ago Obama was deporting illegals and saying they should learn English. Today if you deport a KNOWN gang member they attack you???
Elections have consequences. What will it be NJ?
Nothing will change. If anything, it will probably get even Bluer. There are plenty of republicans in NJ, its just that they only make up about 40-45% of the voters
And do not forget the apoplexy of the Democrats and Monsieur Obama when, back in 2005, he was photographed standing proudly with Farrakhan at a gathering of the Congressional Black Caucus. The photo was deemed so radioactive and threatening to Obama’s future Oval Office aspirations that the photographer surrendered the digital disk from his camera to the Illinois Senator’s apparatchiks and promised to “keep quiet.” https://foxnews.com/politics/congressional-black-caucus-buried-2005-Obama-Farrakhan-photo.
The surname “Baraka” sounds a lot like the given name of Monsieur Obama, bringing to mind the adage that “birds of a feather flock together.” Farrakhan, Barack and Baraka… sounds like it could be a radical D.C. law firm…, no?
They buried that picture the way the Soviets would blot out ex-party members they wanted to disappear. Same tactic, same politics. LEFTISTS.
NJ Cities….have high schools where 87% of kids can’t read, and 100% can’t do math.
these schools are 90% funded by other taxpayers
look it up on US News World Report ranking of High Schools
it is TIME to STOP rewarding Democrats for failure
End all Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits, schools and students!
All BAN Public Unions…they just bribe democrats!
The professor continues to offer articles in which he mentions the “Democrat’s” and the “Left” as if they’re two different entities, they are definitely not.
Back to the article, NJ has become the east coast California. Newark at one time was a thriving safe city, Bambergers, S.Klein and Ohrbach were department stores catering to the community. Weekend shoppers would fill the city, folks from all over would come just to see Bambergers Christmas window displays. Residents could walk or take buses into Newark and never feel unsafe. The building of the “projects” was the beginning of the end, in 1967 the nail was driven into the coffin and the Exodus began.
It was also a city that had a strong industrial base. Right around the time that all moved out, Newark fell apart. Amazing coincidence.
Many large cities and urban areas just like Newark! All … blue; no other reasonable explanation for such declines but FOOLish voters.
This is a perfect example of why NJ is a “blue state”. Cities like Newark, Camden, and Trenton are full of Ras Baraka’s. If any two of those cities didn’t exist, NJ would be a solid red state. This is why I have to laugh at leftist that like to pretend that “blue states” are supporting “red states”. People living in blue states might pay more in federal incomes taxes, but the people that are doing so are the minority of republicans living in those places. Newark, Camden, Trenton, Irvington, etc. are not brain trusts filled with industrious, hard working people, they’re filled with gangs, drugs, and housing projects. That is who votes “blue” in these states.
THIS MAY SOUND CRAZY BUT…
It seems that people attracted to politics these days are different from those of previous generations. It seems they are prone to extreme positions with no reluctance to prefer solutions involving violence. We see cities welcoming violent citizens; we see leaders openly tolerant of violence upon others; we see a great decline in moralist leaders. This is manifest in cities and even countries where speech has become regulated. As well, many colleges prefer demagogues of power over the (former) insistence on understanding. The mayor of Newark is merely another example. This phenomenon is spreading.
I sincerely hope the citizens of New Jersey will do better for themselves and their children than Baraka.
This is not a big surprise, there are several photos of Obama paling around with Farrakhan. And, we know that a lot of the current wave of anti-Semitism started during his term.
“there are several photos of Obama paling around with Farrakhan.”
Your comment and mine, which I wrote a few moments ago, have much in common. Obama’s second term added to Biden’s four years is eight years. That is the time it took for Hitler to come to power and initiate concentration camps. Thank God for Trump.