Pavlich: Lessons from the left on incivility

It’s been a little over one year since Republicans were targeted for assassination on a field in Alexandria, Va., while practicing for the annual congressional baseball game. They weren’t targeted because of their gender or because of their skin color. Instead, they were specifically targeted because they were Republicans. How do we know? The assailant made sure of it.  

“I actually left right before the shooting happened and had an interaction with, who I believe, was the shooter based on the profile that I saw on TV. I have given a statement to the Alexandria Police Department this morning,” Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) said during an interview with MSNBC at the time.

{mosads}“After I heard about the shooting, they asked me to come down there because I did have an interaction with someone in the parking lot who asked me if the team practicing was a Democratic or Republican team. I told him they were Republicans,” he continued.

This part of the story was quickly buried, along with who the assailant really was: a regular Occupy Wall Street protestor and a Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer. He targeted his political enemies with violence, rather than with ideas or by winning elections.

After this horrific scene played out, nearly killing Republican Whip Steve Scalise (La.), one would expect Democrats to proceed with caution, extra care and a heightened level of civility — especially after their fellow Americans were targeted by someone firmly planted on their side of the political aisle. Unfortunately, that is far from the case and the rampant incivility continues.

Just last week at a Washington, D.C., restaurant, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was chased out by an angry mob after sitting down for dinner. That wasn’t enough and a few days later a crowd descended on her home chanting, “No justice, no sleep!”

The situation echoed an incident last year when Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was met with protesters who blocked her entrance into a local school building. When she tried to leave and get to her car, security guards had to quickly move her while pushing protesters away.

Over the weekend, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant simply because she works for the Trump administration.

“Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so,” Sanders tweeted.

All of this is hardly surprising considering the left’s regular embrace of these tactics. In fact, over the weekend Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told a crowd in Los Angeles to mob any Trump administration official they find at any place and any time.

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” Waters said.

We are certainly living in a time of political polarization, but until the left starts leading by example, they should spare the right lectures about civility and coming together with their fellow man.

Ironically, in the weeks leading up to the election, leftist commentators predicted Trump supporters would be the ones engaged in violence and mobs if Hillary Clinton won. The opposite has occurred and is ongoing.

While the left regularly deploys intolerance, its members accuse the right of doing the same. Lectures about civility require taking the high road and that certainly isn’t the place Democrats and their activists currently stand.

Pavlich is the editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.