By Douglas V. Gibbs
The progressive left, which began dominating the Democratic Party during the dawn of the twentieth century, has always been a group pushing for collectivism. With each passing decade their similarities with their more radical mates on the left-side of the political spectrum has become more and more pronounced. Now, it’s pretty hard to distinguish between today’s Democrats and hardcore socialists and communists.
Along with their radical political desires a violent rage has also surfaced. The emergence of Donald Trump on the political scene has had them so out of whack, since he was such a devastating stick in their spokes, that one might even say that they’ve become downright violent. The manifestation of their violent thoughts have burst into plain view through Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and the recent attacks against ICE as they work to carry out their legal immigration duties.
Since Donald Trump has returned to the White House this year, disturbing trends of violent rhetoric and anti-American language have emerged even more among progressive Democrats. These trends are something that should concern every American who cherishes liberty, constitutional order, and civil discourse. While accusing President Trump, MAGA Republicans, and conservatives of extremism, today’s prominent Democrats have engaged in such extreme rhetoric that it borders on incitement and sedition.
The most glaring example came in November 2025, when six Democratic members of Congress, Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio, released a video urging military and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders.” The timing and tone of the video, coupled with National Guard operations in cities, ICE operations. and President Trump’s military actions in the Caribbean including taking out drug boats, led many to interpret this as a veiled call for defiance against the Commander in Chief. Trump himself called the video “seditious,” and the FBI has since launched an investigation into the elected politicians involved.
This is not an isolated incident. Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen recently tweeted, “Where are our military folks? The Commander in Chief is in the hands of our enemy!” That statement in any other era and under any Democratic President would be seen as dangerously suggestive of a military coup.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to claim that Trump and his supporters are the true threat to our country, despite the record telling a different story. From Rep. Maxine Waters urging mobs to harass Trump officials in public spaces, to Rep. Ayanna Pressley declaring “there needs to be unrest in the streets,” the left’s rhetoric has repeatedly crossed lines of civility and legality.
Even when confronted with these examples, Democrats like Rep. Jasmine Crockett deny any link between their words and political violence. “I challenge somebody to go and find a clip of a Democrat invoking violence,” she said. The Republican Party obliged, compiling a list of incendiary statements from her colleagues that includes calls to “bury them below the Capitol,” “choke them out,” and “punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”
This pattern reveals a deeper truth: the progressive left is not engaged in a battle of ideas, but a campaign of control. They project authoritarianism onto their opponents while embracing tactics that undermine debate, demonize dissent, and flirt with violence. Their strategy is not persuasion. Theirs is a campaign of intimidation and a threat of violence from the radical segments of their base.
As a conservative Christian and constitutionalist, I do not call for division, and I certainly do not call for violence. But I do call for clarity and well-defined contrast. We must recognize the danger of political rhetoric that erodes the foundations of our Republic. The Constitution is not a partisan document. It is an American document for all Americans that established our system of governance, and as a result (if followed) is the safeguard of liberty for all Americans. When elected officials suggest defying lawful orders or incite unrest, they betray that sacred trust.
That said, when Presidents Obama and Biden were in office, I was definitely on alert, and agreed with the statement “keep your powder dry.” While I do not subscribe to the recent violent rhetoric of the progressive left Democrats, I don’t believe embracing the opposite extreme is wise, either. But the Founding Fathers were clear. While standing against tyrannical government is not only a right, but a duty, in the Declaration of Independence is also says, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms which they are accustomed.”
Thanks to the Constitution we have tools of processes to take care of correcting tyrannical elements inside our system – and I am not talking lawfare and a frivolous use of impeachment as we’ve seen used by the Democrats. I am talking about election, informed involvement in our civic duties, and battling in the arena of ideas. If you don’t like the persons in the arena or holding office, so be it. Then work to replace them by debating policy. Let us uphold the rule of law, not mob rule. And let us never forget that liberty, once lost, is rarely regained without great cost.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
