The Patriot Post® · The Politics — and Perils — of Rage

Pro-abortion advocates won’t like this analogy, but it’s apt, so here goes. Spoiled children, and nearly all two-year-olds, at some point give rage a try — kicking, screaming, throwing things, faces wild-eyed and contorted with fury. If it works, it becomes their go-to tactic to get whatever they want.

Sound familiar? In the days leading up to and following the Supreme Court’s June 24th reversal of Roe v. Wade, factions of the pro-abortion Left have repeatedly erupted with angry protests, vandalism, disruptions of religious services, and endless social media invective. The group called Jane’s Revenge promised a “night of rage” and delivered several.

It doesn’t help at all when our government leaders fan the flames. President Joe Biden called the Court’s decision “outrageous,” asserting that “the health and life of women are now at risk.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pronounced it “one of the darkest days our country has ever seen.” Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and others joined the chorus enthusiastically.

That kind of overcooked vitriol is nothing new. We’ve seen it repeatedly in angry demonstrations over controversial issues including social justice, gender, climate, even the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.

I’m writing this column on Independence Day, fully mindful of our priceless freedom of speech — I’m exercising it right now — and which of course includes the right to protest. But those precious freedoms can never be construed as license to violence.

The problem of course is not just angry words. Rage — uncontrolled fury — is always just one short step away from violence. In 2020, we watched rampaging mobs impose nightly mayhem on cities across the country. That summer of rage may have been prompted by genuine concern about racism, but its final tally was dozens of deaths, countless injuries, livelihoods destroyed, and property damage in the billions of dollars.

Recently, we’ve had frightening near-misses. Two weeks ago, the FBI intercepted an armed man ready to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. Last week in Arizona, following days of pro-abortion protests, state authorities installed a razor wire barrier to protect their own Capitol from the increasingly agitated mob.

When civil unrest is prompted by perceived social ills, political leaders — like permissive parents — tend to step back and tolerate the temper tantrums. Media repeatedly characterized the 2020 riots as “mainly peaceful” protests, asking viewers to ignore the nightly videos of violent, destructive mayhem. Last month, authorities took no action to stop or penalize clearly illegal protests at the personal homes of conservative Supreme Court justices. And just as in dealing with two-year olds, the temper tantrums continue unabated.

While most of the staged angry public protest comes from the Left, the Right is not immune to the temptation. Then-President Donald Trump’s personal fury about the 2020 election results, and that of some of his most ardent supporters, followed the same pattern.

There were sound reasons for skepticism about the 2020 election outcome. The Leftmedia’s deliberate burial of valid, discrediting information about the Democrat candidate, and the sweeping, late changes to voting processes (ostensibly necessitated by COVID), both clearly contributed to Biden’s astonishingly high vote tally.

There’s nothing immoral or illegal about challenging election results, even when those challenges are declared by opponents to be “baseless.” Both sides do it all the time. But it was Trump’s pure rage that triggered his own frenzied, frantic dispute over the election results; that inspired his followers to embark on a dangerous and slippery slope of boisterous, angry protest and then invasion of the U.S. Capitol; and that kept him from cooling those flames once lit.

Congressional Democrats have spent the past two years building the case that the January 6th rioting was an armed insurrection against the United States government. That’s nonsense. The simpler, broader truth is that it is just one more example of unbridled fervor snowballing to toxic effect — not unlike genuine concern about racial justice that somehow degenerates into wanton destruction in American cities.

Whether from the Left or Right doesn’t really matter. What matters is that unfettered anger accomplishes nothing good and often causes real harm.

Cooler heads must prevail, and it’s up to all, leaders and ordinary citizens alike, to make that happen. Uncontrolled rage is not just an obstacle to meaningful resolution of abortion, or social justice, or election matters; it’s at the root of the broader violence issues, including spiking urban crime and mass shootings, that are plaguing our nation.

A spate of temper tantrums by adults old enough to know better is uncivilized behavior; and it’s far more consequential than dumping your Cheerios on the kitchen floor.