Democrats Are Losing Control of the Left

The ongoing spate of antisemitism and anti-Israel protests sweeping the country following Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilians last October are just the latest example of how the Democrat establishment has lost control of the radical left-wing activist class it has fostered and egged on for years. With a major election now less than a year away, the escalating extremism of these activists could cost Democrats big at the ballot box.

After Hamas’s terrorist attack left more than 1,200 innocent civilians dead, most elected Democrats – with notable exceptions like “Squad” members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar – condemned the violence and called for solidarity with Israel. But many of these same Democrats have since backed down from that stance amid fierce backlash from their far-left base, which has not only excused Hamas’s brutal actions, but even celebrated them.

While the mainstream media has been reluctant to report on it, this unrest stemming from the militant antisemitism on the left only seems to be increasing despite attempts by the Democrat establishment to quell it.

On January 6, for instance, as the press engaged in their annual campaign of smearing Donald Trump and conservatives as “insurrectionists,” anti-Israel leftists blocked a major interstate in Seattle, causing traffic to be backed up for six hours. The same day, another anti-Israel protest caused major gridlock on Chicago’s famous Lake Shore Drive.

A few days before those incidents, on January 3, left-wing protestors shut down the California General Assembly. Anti-Israel protestors also attempted to disrupt New Year’s Eve celebrations in New York City and Boston.

Elected Democrats have been largely powerless to stop or even discourage the alarming spike in antisemitism from their own supporters. On November 29, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer grudgingly acknowledged that the recent incidents of antisemitism were mostly coming from “people that most liberal Jewish Americans felt previously were their ideological fellow travelers.”

The backlash from the left against President Joe Biden, who has wavered in his support for Israel but also has not openly endorsed Hamas’s actions as his left-wing base wants him to do, has been severe. Polling evidence shows that young voters are abandoning Biden in droves over his refusal to demand Israel stop its war on Hamas. In perhaps the clearest evidence that Democrat leaders have lost control of their base, even young White House staffers are in open revolt against the president over his stance on the war.

While many Democrat leaders and corporate media pundits have expressed alarm over the anti-Jewish radicalism of the left-wing activist class – in between excusing leftists’ calls for genocide – the liberal establishment should hardly be surprised.

Back in 2020, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Democrats and the legacy media openly encouraged the chaos that gripped American cities for weeks – violence that was far more widespread and deadly than the heinous antisemitic demonstrations on American streets today. Democrat leaders like Chuck Schumer, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren all marched in anti-police protests that later turned to riots, while the Democrat Party embraced the imagery and themes of the radical Black Lives Matter movement at their 2020 convention.

Despite the George Floyd riots causing more than $1 billion in property damage and leading to dozens of deaths, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X, “The whole point of protesting is to make people uncomfortable.” The Democrat establishment tacitly endorsed this sentiment, signaling to their activist base that violence was acceptable so long as it is in support of a left-wing cause.

In 2020, that cause was the “Defund the Police” movement and so-called “racial equity.” In that case, Democrats were able to largely escape the blame for the violence and destruction caused by their activists with help from their media allies.

But nearly four years later, it seems the radicalism of Democrats’ activist class has finally caught up to them and is costing the party big with everyday Americans. However, after years of telling fierce partisans that they are accountable to no one and nothing except the edicts of woke ideology, Democrats have created a major danger for themselves and the country that they are powerless to do anything about.

If liberal activists are indeed waking the rest of the country up to the growing extremism of the modern Democrat Party and setting the stage for an electoral wipeout this November, Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.