Below is my column in The Hill on the Democratic establishment struggling to fend off attacks from the far left in their party. After years of fueling the mob, leaders from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are finding that the mob has its own ideas about revolutionary change that do not include them.
Here is the column:
“You’re next!”
This chant, at the victory celebration of the Democratic Socialists this week, was a message not for the oligarchs or the billionaires, but for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic establishment. They were threatening that Jeffries would be the next to lose his House seat to a socialist candidate.
It was a scene that has recurred throughout history, as establishment leaders are overtaken by the very mobs they sought to use for their own purposes.
For years, Jeffries has joined other Democrats in fueling the rage on the left in the hopes of becoming the next House Speaker. Whether calling for supporters to “fight in the streets,” denouncing the Supreme Court as “illegitimate” or posting an image of himself brandishing a baseball bat, Jeffries sought to portray himself as a class warrior worthy of the mob’s support.
Other Democratic leaders followed suit — especially Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. It was Schumer who yelled threats at conservative Supreme Court justices in front of the court. A deranged man triggered by such rhetoric in the media later attempted to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Schumer and others portrayed their opponents as Nazis who threaten the very existence of democracy, and they stoked class conflict to inspire resentment for the wealthy.
Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison — now Minnesota’s attorney general — celebrated that Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump and his supporters.
Figures like Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) (who is reportedly worth half a billion dollars due to his wife’s inherited fortune) have attempted to ride the rage wave by advocating a billionaire’s tax that is presumptively unconstitutional.
By the time these establishment figures realized their armchair-revolutionary rhetoric would not convince the mob, it was too late.
Jeffries and figures like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had endorsed candidates such as Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who perhaps more than anyone else personified the problem. He was the attack dog of the establishment, fueling rage and promising a spate of impeachments. But what the left saw was a trust-fund baby who had inherited a fortune, owns three houses, and has publicly pledged to use his inheritance to fund his reelection. He came across as the Democratic Richie Rich, and he lost on Tuesday by more than 30 points.
In my book Rage and the Republic, I discuss how these Democratic leaders are following the same self-destructive pattern of prior establishment figures in history who thought that they could use mobs against their opponents while hoping that they would be overlooked.
The American and French Revolutions were contemporary movements based on Enlightenment principles. But whereas our Revolution went on to become the world’s oldest and most stable republic, the French Revolution became the blood-soaked Terror. The French Revolution was not some spontaneous uprising of the proletariat or underclass. It was led by relatively affluent figures on the left, from aristocrats to journalists to lawyers. Maximilien Robespierre, who would later declare terror a virtue, was a lawyer who helped organize the revolutionary Jacobins.
These educated and affluent figures turned to working-class radicals as their muscle to terrorize their opponents. And not long after executing aristocrats and clergy, the radicals turned on the Jacobins themselves. “Moderates” were sent to the guillotine by Robespierre and his henchmen as they clung to power. But eventually, the mob came for them, too.
After the Terror, French writer Jacques Mallet du Pan wrote, “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”
After candidates endorsed by socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani easily swept aside the establishment candidates in Jeffries and Schumer’s backyard, politicians and pundits began to panic. They never imagined the mob would turn on them.
Even liberal media figures such as Ezra Klein and pandering academic figures have become targets of the left. Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who has called for the effective trashing of the U.S. Constitution, had law students staging protests in his own home.
Others have sought to stay at the front of the mob. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) denounced the lengthy sentences handed down to nine violent Antifa figures in Texas for their roles in the ambush and attempted murder of a police officer who had responded to the disturbance they were creating at an ICE facility. The officer, Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross, barely survived a bullet to the neck.
In the meantime, the mob is continuing its rush toward socialism and communism. One of those elected in New York, Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, bragged about how she wiped her hands on the American flag as her fellow victors pledged to tear down core institutions, including the Supreme Court.
In Michigan, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is soaring in popularity after campaigning with virulent anti-Semite and extremist Hasan Piker. Piker was on hand to celebrate the recent victories as speeding along the socialist agenda to end capitalism and has promised the mob that “the American empire is going to inevitably fall.”
For some of us who predicted the rise of the American Jacobin movement, there is little joy in seeing Democratic establishment figures consumed by their own mob. They have been feeding a rage addiction in this country. Now they express surprise as protesters celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk and display guillotines at protests for those deemed enemies of the people.
After starting a brush fire, they have found themselves engulfed in the same flames with their targets. With Democratic voters now expressing support for socialism in record numbers and politicians pledging radical changes to our political system, they have proven again to be what Soviet communists called the “useful idiots” of the American left.
If history is any measure, we may soon find ourselves in the same position as Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes, who was considered the Thomas Paine of the French Revolution. When asked what he had done during the Revolution, the old abbot pondered the question and answered: “I survived.”
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
Well, it looks like the good professor called it correctly.
Establishment Democrats thought they could control the mob but the mob turned on them.
Heck, the DSA was not even quite about it. They have been saying it out loud since 2019, Reeling Democratic establishment accuses socialists of exploiting ballot access
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/reeling-democratic-establishment-suggests-policing-primaries-pushing-back?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home
The establishment Democrats painted themselves into a box. They need the DSA supporters and votes while the DSA takes seats from the establishment.
The question now is what is the establishment going to do?
This time is only superficially like the 1960’s. The economy was different (We had a more pervasive manufacturing base), The war we were involved in was much bloodier with hundreds of casualties being called out weekly, We had 3 major political assassinations, the 2 major political parties were far closer being left center and right center. The Red and Blue states were far more purple and the only solid block was the South after the Civil Rights Laws, The campus demonstrations were far more widespread. So there were similarities but also major differences.
The Democratic Socialists are there but it is unclear as to how widespread they really are. Most of what we talked about today occurred in New York, maybe somewhere else like Minnesota, Washington and Oregon and California but their effect outside of those areas are very unclear. And even California seems more craziness than outright socialism / Communism. It will also be interesting to see how well it does when the money leaves and will the DSA just be fighting over the wreckage in those same states while the rest of us move on. New York is important but it is more and more only a shadow of what it once was. Even revolutions have to have money and theirs is leaving fast.
Texas has 31+ million people and Florida 21+ million people and yet the state budget of NY (20 million people )exceeds their combined state budgets. How long can NY last and not crash with spending at that rate, socialist or not.
“the only solid block was the South after the Civil Rights Laws”
I’m so tired of seeing this canard. The South still voted Democrat for DECADES after the CRA. Heck, the first Republican elected to Governor in GA since the Reconstruction was in 2000!
Agreed. along with the refusal to accept that Democrats are responsible for the Civil War.
Watching these Democrats try to weaponize rage without getting splashed themselves makes me picture them chumming the water for sharks while they’re still in the water. The French Jacobins learned the hard way that mobs don’t stay on a leash for long.
Indeed. The mob us already coming for Robespiere. It won’t be long before the Thermidorian reaction sets in. I shudder to think what that will look like.
These people are demented and satanic. Hopefully most of America wakes up to see what the modern democratic party that the Obama regime ushered in has become — and only that democratic party will be engulfed in the flames and destroyed along with the communists and socialists.
The idea fancied by this piece — of conservatives being entertained watching mainstream Democrats turned on by the radical progressive mob — is alarming in its arrogance and aloofness.
Real, engaged conservatives like William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan would be competing intellectually with progressives to propose solutions to our gathering disasters — the decline of marriage and birthrate, the slow poisoning of food and water infrastructure by chem pollution, the coming collapse of fiat currency under cascading stacks of debt, the empowerment of cartels and police-state dictatorships exploiting unregulated tech, the near-horizon threat of biowarfare and cyber-anarchy fueled by unregulated AI / biotech.
The tone of this piece is simply to sit back and mock the naive, clueless activism of the left. At least they recognize the impending failures and think “something should be done”. No, their solutions are old, stale and proven failures.
The opportunity therefore is for conservatives to offer a better mousetrap. That’s what winners do. Where is the inventive thinking on the right?
pbinca,
I respectfully disagree.
We are not entertained. Mildly alarmed, not really surprised. The good professor has been talking about this for months if not over a year. Bill Maher has been pointing it out for just as long if not longer. And, we have been saying the solution, not inventive just common sense, is to get off the stupid and crazy, kick the stupid and crazy out of the Democrat party and get back to kitchen table issues that all Americans are really concerned about.
I do think Republicans could do a better job at messaging. But at the same time, dont interrupt you opponent when they are making a mistake.
“Holy ‘liberty, equality,and fraternity’ Batman!” These two must’ve been asleep at the desk when the lesson learned byMaximilian Robespierre was taught. They thought they were opening the borders to a nation of sheep, which they would shear and use the wool to their own purposes.What they’ve come to learn is that the wolves were within. Hoisted by their own petards, as are the pathetic electorate who supported them in 2020. A word to the wise going forward. Do not ‘democrat’ the Red state you flee to!
The reality is although the Founding Fathers were deeply flawed individuals, their “constitutional democratic republic” model of government has been the least evil model of government ever created.
The Founding Fathers viewed all government bureaucratic systems as a necessary evil. No government model is good, but anarchy (no government) is the worst option.
Both Republicans and Democrats need to simply start following the American model of government. If we had done so, the vast majorities of America’s blunders would have been prevented.
From the unconstitutional interment of American citizens during World War Two, to the Vietnam War, to the illegal conduct of J. Edgar Hoover, to the blunder in Iraq to 25+ years of Cointelpro blacklisting of innocent Americans.
Simply start following the Founding Father’s blueprint.
Theirs was an honorific culture. Defaming a public person could result in being challenged to a duel. Sneaky, subterfuge approaches to conflict were considered meek and cowardly. Courage and valor in the public sphere was expected.
Now compare that to how your typical 2020s CEO, politician, lawyer, professor, consultant or influencer operates. Everything is “image” and “messaging”, meaning you slyly manipulate the way others think toward your advantage.
Inauthenticity, calibrated to not arouse blowback, is an expected part of the everyday toolset.
Today’s America is the opposite of an honorific culture. Right vs. wrong has been blurred beyond recognition for those ambitious enough to want to get ahead. Rules and norms are to be gamed for advantage.
This is the opposite of an honorific culture. It is a cauldron of barely concealed deceit and mistrust.
Every President since George H. W. Bush has epitomized these declines in character.
The majority of American citizens see the mob’s rage, and don’t like what they see. The path to America is not to publish comments that adopt the mob’s rage. The path to America is this … read the Declaration of Independence, read the Bill of Rights, read President George Washington’s Farewell Address, always vote at every opportunity, and pray. It’s that simple.
National Socialists like Mamdani and AOC and Bernie and Tlaib and Chevalier are the same as their forebears in the 1930s.
We’re talking about the difference between holding secret meetings and printing pamphlets vs. the vast toolset of the internet, social media, AI-generated video, and closed chat rooms for subversive plotters. Other than that and the pervasive reach it implies, they’re the same.
I hate being vindictive, however, I cannot help but to rejoice over the Left’s crumbling downfall as Jon predicted. They have become the greatest hypocrites in history. Loaded with money and power and real estate holdings, fine art, jewelry, tax deferred investments, they should have seen this coming, too.
Caitlin Clark knows something about hypocrites. Single-handedly, she, and she alone, has revolutionized women’s professional basketball, making it a commercial success once thought impossible. As she lifted the entire flailing enterprise to its new coveted status, her peers couldn’t help but exact physical and psychological vengeance upon her. Grateful for bringing them to the Promised Land, they have turned on her to try to destroy her, literally.
Eh, C’est la vie
Excellent point
Hey people! How many times has Turley dumped this post on you; changing the names as the background changes, expanding the article each time to include news events.
ANON needs their sippy cup.
And yet you read his articles? That means Turley is the winner!
For the name calling subjects who reply on here: “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers.” Socrates
All they need to do is get out of their basement and enjoy life. Ranting is a curable disease.
In the 19th century, our politics was not consumed by fanaticism. There were political contests, but elections were not considered matters of life and death. It was not considered then to be a legitimate tactic to jail or assassinate your opposition. Why has the relative civility disappeared? The answer lies in the growth in the power of government, esp at the federal level. Now if you gain control of the federal government, you can dream about controlling millions of lives.
Why is running for Congress so expensive? Because its worth it.
Just as France recovered from the Reign of Terror, America recovered from our prior iteration of leftist anarchy in the 1960-70s, the turning point being exemplified in film Dirty Harry. Leftist radicalism always breeds its own opposition, which, in the present case, is spelled MAGA. And while the Democrats are ripping each other to shreds, MAGA is recruiting all the normies who’ve had enough of it.
The 60’s-70’s is nothing compared to the current iteration. No. MAGA will not save the USA. What about the RINOS, are they eating MAGA? And even if the Dems are shredding each other, it gives DSA an opening to insert itself. Its different now. Very different. There is no playbook to deal with DSA etc.
@Anonymous
I think so too. This goes much deeper than just activism gone awry as in that time period, and though I’m onboard with the observation of Robespierre 2.0, that was not global in a technologically connected world. We have a real mess on our hands.
To think, just a few minutes you were insulting me.
One significant difference is the economic obstacles facing young adults. In the 1970s, anybody with a pulse could get a job standing at a machine. The hippie movement died out as its protagonists were absorbed two-by-two into marriages, jobs and childraising. Those doors are blocked for over half of today’s 18-24 year olds.
The economy (Smith’s Invisible Hand) doesn’t value kinship formation, and considers pregnancy and babies negatives to current productivity.
Culture (the institution of marriage) has been cannibalized by economics.
Conservativism has simply choked in the face of slowly-gathering negative trends, blaming rather than taking responsibility and inventing. In terms of creative ideas to solve big, complex problems, the cupboard is empty.
Let’s list a few of the big, complex problems:
Out of control federal deficit spending year after year
Out of control welfare programs fraught with fraud
Totally broken election system with corrupt mail in ballots and inaccurate voter rolls
Over 20 million illegal invaders in our country
Broken education system
True leadership could easily solve every one of these problems but both parties only keep enriching themselves with no accountability. Voting for DSA, now that’s a real solution!
Conservatives are not creating these problems
Re: “ One significant difference..”. There are separate interests having a dog in this hunt. The first are the tempest tossed wretched refuse from teaming foreign shores who were welcomed here with the hopes of being manipulated into s voting bloc, but whose interests were in ‘free stuff’. Then there’s the Endemic under class in this nation whose needs, wants, and desires have never been met due to the failure of addressing and rectifying a constellation of causes contributing to their woeful state. They find employment as paid protesters and engage in civil disobedience or worse in the service of the social warrior of this generation.Finally, there are the educated elite, who have been raised in a socialist environment under the control of the government of their parents from the day of their conception to their graduation from the university of their choice or beyond, never ever having had to earn a dollar on their own, helicoptered to death. heaven forbid they should scratch a knee, and obliged to take remediation courses In activities for daily living in that they haven’t the slightest idea of life beyond Apple Pay. This is the lot the DSA takes pride in and who may serve. They’ve already shown that they can and will.
I think the 60s-70 left wing lunatics were slightly worse. The Weather Underground was regularly bombing federal buildings. A few of the Weather Underground leaders were later rewarded with tenured academic positions at major universities where they were employed for many decades. Black Panther Angela Davis went on the lam as a fugitive from justice for felony murder after buying the gun used to assassinate a sitting judge in his courtroom in open court. She was acquitted and went on to be the Vice Presidential candidate for the Communist Party. She has been a college “professor” and lecturer where she has indoctrinated rich, privileged college students for like 30-40 years. A Communist Party member successfully assassinated JFK. The Charles Manson cult of mostly college educated left wing white nitwits engaged in high profile killings in hopes of starting a race war. The Left did, in fact, inspire blacks to destroy their own communities in race wars in LA, Detroit, and other cities. In the ’72 Olympics, terrorists killed Israeli (Jewish) athletes. The far left Red Army Faction in Germany kidnapped and killed senior executives at some German corporations.
There are clearly many similarities between the two eras.
In the current era, some Democrats and many on the Left who want the state of Israel to not exist support the Hamas mass murders of over 1000 innocent Israelis (this is far worse, though analogous to Munich in ’72). Mangione became a murderous hero of the Left after he allegedly shot an insurance company executive in the back in cold blood (analogous to RAF in Germany assassinating corporate executives). The Left’s rhetoric has inspired at least 4 assassination attempts against Trump (analogous to JFK assassination). The Left prodded blacks into destroying their own communities with the BLM movements a few years ago (analogous to Watts riots).
To me, at least so far this era seems slightly less chaotic than the 60s-70s era. But it is a subjective judgment call.
I’m Surprised that there’s not more socialists and a socialist Democratic Party instead of the Trump deranged haters that are there now. After all, socialism is spoonfed to kids from elementary school through universities, particularly the elite universities and that has been going on for generations. This is the generation of speech as trigger violence.
You are not a university educator, you have no idea what goes on inside and university, except for the nonsense Turley spoon feeds you and you then go off on a tangent. So you think this generation is easily triggered huh? What about you? Spoon fed geriatrics yapping away like idiots, all day, every day. No life huh?
@Anonymous
Yes, many of us do, including the Professor, and we equally know what daycare looks like, hence the ease of comparison.
You are a common idiot, thinking you are smarter than everyone. To include yourself with the likes of Turley clearly indicates you are delusional – you can’t think for yourself, Turely does it for you. You idiot.
shut up
Delusional Moron Anon!!
“So you think this generation is easily triggered huh? ”
You post PROVES it idiot.
Take it easy, stress is bad for your heart,
OK Jimmy.
It’s time for your nap.
Re: “You are not a university educator..” Perhaps not, but WE might be university parents and the expectations from administrators, faculty, and students on campuses across the nation were clearly illustrated in the days following the massacre of Israelis on October 7th.
This is written as though the dems were sane and acting in good faith themselves, which they were not and will not, even without the mob. Their actions in this matter were just one aspect of their idiotic chicanery and we needn’t parse totalitarianism or suicidal insanity into categories.
They are all cut from the same cloth, and they have already begun saying in effect that the modern left are one big, happy, globalist family (i.e. ‘a big tent’). Sounds an awful lot like a regime to me, and it stinks all the way around.
WTF are you yapping about man? Every day, all day you yap nonstop and say nothing. Empty words. You think you make sense? ou old people are delusional.
Take a break, a week or 2, then come back. Maybe just disappear. That would be nice.
@Anonymous
There, there, it’ll be snack time later and you can have your nap. Finish your coloring book.
Don’t forget to change you adult diaper before sitting down jimmy.
FY
This is not me, it’s anon replying to themselves.
This is not me, it’s anon replying to themselves.
@Anonymous
This is another part of your ilk’s folly – we are not snow flakes and you can’t get under our skin, and it’s also why your socialist faux intellectualism doesn’t land for people with IQs above 100 and the ability to think critically. It’s fun watching you try, though, like watching a five year-old Kung Fu fight the air.
Never claimed any political affiliation Jimmy. You assume because its counter to your braindead ideology. You don’t understand arguments for argumentation sake.
You are stupid old man, spending your last days here thinking you’re an intellectual when in fact you are a common idiot.
What is the old saying. . . It takes an idiot to know an idiot. You win!
Anonymous, I understand your anger, it must be so frustrating to have no job, no girl friend, no house or apartment, no car, no friends and a huge college debt from your 6years studying left wing inanities. But fear not, you can live in the basement for another 30 years and then your parents will die and you will finally get the house. Enjoy your anger, I hope it eats you alive every single day.
HullBobby,
Well said.
Many of the youth, Gen Z are failures to launch. Rather than being productive members of society, they have to resort to leeching off their parents for nearly everything.
They may get the house, but who is going to take care of them? They are going to be dependent on whatever wealth their parents leave to them. Then what?
I am reminded of the time I warned our employees’ union lawyer that the head of the UAW was being dishonest about the competitive realities of the auto industry and that large benefit and wage increases, would result in plants relocating and lost jobs. The lawyer said it’s just the way union leaders talk. I said many members don’t have time to read the WSJ and may believe him. I was right and they voted themselves out of jobs over and over. That is certainly one reason membership declined from 1.5 million to less than 400,,000 in 30 years.
Similarly, Jeffries and Schumer are discovering that many will believe their lies and act on the rage. Don’t these politicians have children and grandchildren and care at all about their future? So weird.
Stupid comment. 1st of the day, more to come folks. Buckle in.
Burn it all down. Destroy the USA. Destroy MAGA.
Sure. Because you’d love living in the ashes. The privileges you enjoy did not and do not just appear as if by magic. You are an idiot, and even the left no longer considers it to be the useful kind.
Oh oh, bad morning dickhead? Why even respond, you idiot? You bit and now you’re the ahole of the day.
@Anonymous
Do you need your noise cancelling headphones, sweetie?
Oh oh dickhead is back with more stupid.
Who the low IQ posters are without telling us directly. so far you’re doing a great job!
Low IQ adam is at it again. Why even bother responding, you idiot?
Look like MAGA has destroyed the Dumbocrats to me.
And yet no comment from Truley when the MAGA extremists destroyed the moderate side of the Republicans.
MAGAs are doing the first two already.
Perhaps the Republicans will have a brief reprieve from the mob (alt. “The Blob” in Steve McQueen’s first movie) as it consumes its parents. But is the mob ready to go it alone? They think so, but it may be risky.
The take on the Blob is good. The risky part gets us to political messaging. One the conservatives might consider is the best way today to get across Ralph Nader’s take on the Corvair: unsafe at any speed.