Many grassroots Patriots watching the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse were understandably worried whether the jury would be intimidated by the mob. After all, someone working for NBC tried to follow the van carrying the jury. There had been attempts to film the jury. Rittenhouse’s lawyer has revealed he received death threats.

In just about any other case, this would be recognized for what it was: the deprivation of a fair trial by trying to intimidate the jury and defense lawyers. That campaign failed in this case — Rittenhouse was acquitted by the jury, and his lawyers stayed on. But grassroots Patriots cannot rest easy.

This isn’t the only time these threats have turned up. There is an open question whether these tactics succeeded in the trial of Derek Chauvin or during the legal battles after the 2020 election.

Put it this way: Can anyone be sure of a fair trial when Maxine Waters can threaten riots over the “wrong” verdict and not face repercussions? What are your chances when a group like the Lincoln Project can threaten to doxx lawyers who decide to represent you with the intention of forcing their withdrawal?

If these are allowed to continue, then the right to a fair trial is a dead letter, at least for those in deep-blue parts of the country who are down the pecking order in the minds of the Left. Over the years, grassroots Patriots have developed a rational basis to believe that the Left views them as deserving less than the full panoply of rights.

You don’t need the word of your Patriot Post team: Just watch Joy Reid or others on MSNBC. Outlets like CNN and MSNBC, which have lost viewers to conservative networks, now regularly target their right-of-center competition, either through hosts like Brian Stelter or contributors like Malcolm Nance (who regularly compared Donald Trump and his supporters to ISIS).

It wasn’t just Trump who has been targeted over the years with these smears. Ask Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan about how the Left lied about them. Remember how John McCain was smeared? All of those happened before Trump ever ran for office.

Ask what that long record of lies and hatred might provoke someone receiving a steady diet of that sort of talk to do if they were an ordinary person. Then ask yourself what might happen if they had actual power. Might they decide that it was a moral obligation to “fortify” elections in one way or another in order to save America’s soul?

Keep in mind, the Left has, over the last decade, gone after the First Amendment through a variety of methods, including abuse of power, corporate redlining (whether coerced by government or not), and plain-old mob violence targeting events.

The fact is, steps must be taken to preserve our rights. Part of it may involve using our First Amendment rights to have state and local officials take the logical steps to prevent intimidation, like sequestering juries. But much will have to come from grassroots Patriots convincing their fellow Americans to act despite the threats. Because if our fellow Americans are intimidated by the mob, our rights are as good as gone.