A former Democratic candidate in California described the 2018 midterm elections as “Civil War 2” in remarks she gave while campaigning. In fact, she called them that three times. Given the uptick in harassment and incivility the last few months, this seems particularly dangerous — and telling.
“For the next three months, our lives are going to be devoted, devoted and dedicated, to making sure that everybody we know and everybody we don’t know, gets out to vote,” Laura Oatman, a Democrat who dropped out of the primary to support Harley Rouda, declared at a campaign event for Rouda. “This is Civil War 2, guys. Civil War 2.”
Oatman repeated it a third time. “So, Civil War 2. We’re not using bullets, we’re using our votes,” the former candidate declared. “The battlefield is in November and November is coming!”
America Rising captured the moment on video.
In the heat of the family separation scandal last month, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told liberals to harass Trump administration officials outside of work.
“If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, at a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters urged. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton described this as “the very definition of mob violence.”
Women in the Trump administration like White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen have been accosted at restaurants and at home.
When a shooter targeted the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, liberals rushed to blame President Donald Trump before any motive had been discerned. Waters received a death threat. Trump supporters yelled at CNN’s Jim Acosta to “go home” from a political rally.
Is this the country we want to become? Trump Derangement Syndrome is plunging America into a tragic incivility, and the Democrats twisting the Bible against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and liberals blaming conservatives for the “culture wars” are only making it worse.
Americans need to rediscover civility, the art of disagreeing on political issues but getting along on the major things. Unfortunately, liberal “progressive” ideologies insist on “deconstructing” alleged inherent biases in America’s system of free markets and limited government. Defenders of the American dream are branded “racists,” “sexists,” homophobes,” and worse because they uphold the Western tradition and American values.
Just as the liberals pushed action from the Supreme Court, encouraging it to read new “rights” into the Constitution, so they attempt to redefine America into oblivion, upholding the “oppressed” minorities as proof that the entire system is corrupt.
Liberals can of course demand change, but they need to acknowledge the peace, prosperity, and opportunity America already achieves, and work together with others to make America a better version of itself, rather than attempting to rip it up by the roots.
Unfortunately, it seems the Left and the Right are shouting at one another, rather than listening. That is indeed a recipe for incivility and worse. Let’s pray Oatman is wrong and the midterms do not become “Civil War 2.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member