There is an old saying that is not only worth repeating, but also worth chiseling in stone, casting in bronze, and possibly turned into a nice piece of home décor all done up in needlepoint:
“When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
I know, I know. It’s been said ad infinitum, and even ad nauseum, but the sad truth is that the Democratic Party rounded a corner from which there may be no return. I was raised a leftist, and was a party loyalist right up until the early 2000s. During that time, I met many people who were further to the left than I, and a few who were so far gone that it was impossible to have a conversation with them about anything, be it politics, sports, or the weather. That said, I honestly do not recall ever meeting anyone who advocated violence. I’m not arguing that they did not exist, but it may be that they were so few and far between, or located so deep in the Democrat substratum, that I didn’t know they were there.
Of course, that was political light-years before the advent of Donald Trump and all of the variables that characterize (or perhaps plague) the 21st Century.
Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic nominee for state Attorney General, finds himself in the middle of an unexpected spotlight. As reported elsewhere, in August 2022, in a series of text messages, Jones expressed a desire to murder then-Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert. Jones also commented that if his Republican colleagues died before him, he would…ahem…relieve himself on their graves, so to speak. By now, most people have read how Jones hoped that Gilbert’s children might die in his wife’s arms to prompt Gilbert to change his political stances. Jones recently issued an apology of sorts to Gilbert and his family, which was posted by Virginia TV station WRIC, stating that “Virginians deserve honest leaders who admit when they are wrong and own up to their mistakes. This was a grave mistake, and I will work every day to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them as Attorney General.”
Mistake? Is that what they are calling it these days? That’s one helluva “mistake.”
Jones continues to enjoy the support of Virginia Beach Democrats, who opine that Jones will serve with “integrity and accountability adding:
Recent press may have spotlighted past mistakes. We say, let those without sin cast the first stone. Jay Jones has taken responsibility, apologized, and shown he is committed to serving with integrity and accountability that his public record already shows. Virginians deserve a leader who learns, grows, and stands for everyday people—and Jay is that leader. (sic)
Nothing to see here, folx, move along.
It would appear that Virginia Beach Democrats are more interested in defeating Jason Miyares than in electing an AG who does not entertain ideas about killing his opponents.
WRIC had a statement from gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger:
After learning of these comments earlier today, I spoke frankly with Jay about my disgust with what he had said and texted. I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words. What I have also made clear is that as a candidate — and as the next Governor of our Commonwealth, I will always condemn violent language in our politics.
That’s rich coming from a woman who made a joke about Winsome Sears and Jim Crow era segregation.
Former Biden advisor Neera Tanden engaged in “whataboutism” and dismissed the matter as a “private conversation” on Meet the Press.
BONKERS. Neera Tanden excuses Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones calling for the assassination of a Republican leader and his kids as just merely just a “private conversation.”
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 5, 2025
Utterly disgraceful. 🤡🤡🤡🤡
pic.twitter.com/N5KEyFZHPU
All of this seems more than a little tepid, especially in response to a candidate who would rather kill a Republican than Hitler or Pol Pot.
So do they mean it when they say they want to kill us, or not?
Let me explain this to you as only a former Democrat (or maybe the United Federation of Planets’ Ambassador to the Romulan Star Empire*) can.
Yes, and no.
No, because they would never go so far as to pull a trigger or even order a hit themselves. They believe that they are engaging in eloquent political wordplay, or perhaps some sort of exaggerated statecraft. After all, we live in desperate times, they argue, and the racist, fascist Trump Machine is a clear and present danger. That being the case, incendiary rhetoric is needed to mobilize the people so that they take to the streets to protest and show up at the ballot box as many times as is necessary to restore “Democracy.” They will claim that their language is meant to inspire, not incite. At least, that is what they tell themselves and their followers.
Furthermore, many, if not most such candidates are so far removed from the lives of ordinary citizens (or remember such lives dimly, if they ever lived them) that they have no clue about who is listening to them, or the potential for disaster that comes from uttering or texting those remarks. Kruiser’s Morning Briefing about the disconnect between coastal elites grousing about ICE and the realities faced by those in border states comes to mind.
On the other hand, yes, they do mean it.
Note: None of these elites seem to care about assassinations or the threats of the same when someone takes their words seriously. Because on a visceral level, so deep that even the elite leftist may not realize it, they are on board with such things. Witness the number of gleeful and victorious posts following Charlie Kirk’s death from people who we otherwise thought were more or less normal.
Due to the combination of scholastic indoctrination, the MSM, internet threads, and all of the usual suspects that have been chronicled elsewhere, the Left-Wing Legendarium is out of control.
In this Legendarium, you have the ancient Jedi: the older people who marched in protest of Vietnam, and burned draft cards and bras. And, to their credit, many also fought for civil rights. But over time, those tales grew in the telling, and were passed on to many in Gen X. At least in my house, stories of rebellion took on the same status as “Beowulf” and Pyle’s legends of King Arthur. Those stories were passed down with the warning that the work was not yet complete.
Now, we have people who believe that they have been ordained to fulfil the prophecies of old. The people in black bloc and keffiyehs, and those who harass and assault ICE agents, or set fires and break windows for a quick paycheck or simply for the fun of it, do not merely see themselves as inheritors of the Legendarium. They are not modern-day incarnations of JFK or MLK. They see themselves as JFK and MLK as they should have been. They are shining heroes and heroines. They are knights errant on a quest for a Holy Grail of “Justice” that even they cannot adequately define. This is true not just for the rank-and-file, but for their leaders and handlers. The difference is that the leaders can feign dignity and integrity with tepid remarks, while inwardly smiling at the carnage they have created.
So perhaps, in answer to my own question, yes, they do mean it, but they find legitimacy by telling themselves they do not. And what is worse is that they believe themselves.
*I chose the Romulans because, as any Trekker worth his salt will tell you, the Klingons, while inherently violent, maintained strict codes of honor. The Romulans were known for their penchant for treachery.
