The Madness Rises

By Noah Rothman

Monday, July 07, 2025

 

Some Democratic voters now apparently believe that the most valuable contribution their elected representatives can make to their shared cause is to be shot. That tells you something about the level of esteem in which Democratic officials are now held by their own voters.

 

“House Democrats told Axios they see a growing anger among their base that has, in some cases, morphed into a disregard for American institutions, political traditions and even the rule of law,” read one of several disturbing observations in Axios reporter Andrew Solender’s latest piece.

 

One unnamed House Democrat said the activist class has suggested that legislators must “be willing to get shot” by law enforcement or other rogue elements. The lawmaker affirmed that “there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public.”

 

That jibes with what the over “two dozen House Democrats” told Solender about the base’s bloodlust. Some dismissed the demands as the misplaced zeal that affects activists who spend too much time online. Others were less sanguine. One compared the milieu in which Democratic voters steep themselves to the “Roman coliseum.” “People just want more of this spectacle,” he said.

 

As is often historically the case, those who advocate political violence are not the heaving masses that progressives imagine will form the vanguard of the revolution. Rather, these calls are coming from voters who “tend to be white” and “well-educated,” residing comfortably “in upscale suburban or urban neighborhoods.” Another thoroughly intimidated Democrat attributed calls for violence to “economically very secure white people.” That checks out, particularly given the extent to which this crowd assumes that others will be meting out and bearing the brunt of the violence they apparently welcome.

 

There’s a lot going on in this story. It reflects the Democratic base’s utter contempt for the utility of the Democratic Party’s elected leaders, their uncharitable assumptions about how trigger-happy American law enforcement is, and the activist class’s deeply misguided belief that political violence begets positive outcomes. It is civic illiteracy in its most menacing form.

 

We cannot say we weren’t warned. For months, the activist class on the left has warned that their appetite for “violence” is unsated. We would do well to take these repeated admonitions seriously.