It was not that long ago the nation endured a so-called “summer of love” in which innocent people were injured and businesses destroyed amidst a level of urban mayhem unseen since the 1960s. This weekend, a clarion call rang out from an extreme pro-abortion activist calling for a nationwide “summer of rage.” Should her plea for violence become a reality, one wonders if this strategy will ultimately backfire.
Rachel Carmona, executive director for the Women’s March, addressed fellow radicals in the nation’s capital on Saturday, May 14, declaring, “Today is day one of an uprising to protect abortion rights. It is day one of our feminist future. And it is day one of a summer of rage where we will be ungovernable. Ungovernable.”
Ms. Carmona, whose website crows about her time spent studying in Havana, Cuba, and touts her law firm as one that “aggressively fights for your rights” and “won’t back down,” made these incendiary comments during a pro-abortion protest. Taking a page out of the handbook of self-avowed Marxist Angela Davis, who once said demonstrations are “rehearsals for revolution,” Carmona hopes her words will be the match that ignites a raging fire across America this summer. However, the radical left might need more than abortion to gin up the outrage. Sadly, a shooting in Buffalo, New York, this weekend just might be the ticket.
Hate Crime Time
Nothing gets the left into a frenzy more than a hate crime. Lest one forget, the George Floyd incident was what sparked the “summer of love” in 2020. On Saturday, May 14, 13 people were shot and ten killed when an 18-year-old mowed down shoppers in a grocery store. The shooter – Payton Gendron, is white and 11 of his victims were black. Law enforcement is reportedly reviewing a supposed white supremacist document written by the gunman. Within hours of the attack, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department will be “investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
Abortion rights and racism are more than enough justification to bring the faithful left into the streets this summer. But is violence an effective political tool? In other words, does it work? Liberty Nation’s Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner offers some historical perspective:
“Rage tends to work well in intraparty primaries when emotional intensity is at a premium. It tends to be less effective during general elections because candidates must appeal to the center of the country. The leftist rage of the 1960s and early ’70s was rejected by voters who elected Richard Nixon twice, the second time in a 49-state landslide.”
Leftists are wont to forget the most influential civil rights protests were of the non-violent variety: Rosa Parks, the lunch counters, the strikes, the marches. These were the methods that helped to bring about concrete cultural change in America. As well, violent over-reaction by a racially insensitive establishment helped sway many Americans toward the black cause. The hosing, gassing, the dogs, and the beatings were fierce enough to disturb the people’s conscience.
Thus, an argument can be made that those who are the most violent lose not only at the ballot box but also in the hearts and minds of Americans. The violence does not help but instead hurts their cause. Ms. Carmona and her disciples should think about that before taking to the streets for their “summer of rage.”