Back in the 80s, a friend of mine attended the University of Wisconsin's Milwaukee campus. At the time, he was a Democrat who worked for the Dukakis campaign. During his time in college, a Milwaukee area conservative talk radio host, the now-retired Mark Belling, came to campus to give a talk.
That talk, he said, was disrupted and cut short by Leftists who were unhappy with Belling's presence on campus. It was this incident that started to shift his political ideology rightward, and he spent the rest of his adult life a staunch conservative.
Disruptive, violent protests are not anything new to the Left. They even predate my friend's experience at UWM. Back during the 1960s and Vietnam, radical Leftists caused trouble in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, throwing rocks and bottles at police. That was followed by the 'Day of Rage' in Chicago in October of the same year. The Weather Underground carried out a series of bombings, including the U.S. Capitol in 1971, the Pentagon in 1972, and the State Department in 1975.
That behavior has continued into the 21st Century, where Leftists are routinely blocking roads, destroying property, and threatening political opponents. And it's always the Left's default behavior.
They don't attempt to discuss, persuade, or reason with their political opponents. They jump right from electoral defeat (or police shooting or war breaking out in Israel) to violent mobs wreaking havoc and destruction. I'd say they're children throwing a temper tantrum, but none of my children ever committed arson when they had a meltdown.
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Most recently, the target of their outrage is Elon Musk and Tesla. Leftists have protested at, shot up, and set fire to Tesla dealerships and service centers. They've threatened Elon Musk with physical harm and death. They've also doxxed Tesla owners, vowing to harass them until they've proven they've sold their vehicles.
Despite what writers for The Atlantic think, this is the actual definition of terrorism.
It's terrifying. I'm not a Tesla owner, nor do I have a desire to own any EV. But I also know that the Left is dangerous and nothing is stopping them from going after me; I'm just lower on their list of targets. Tim Walz cheered the crash of Tesla stock; it's abundantly clear they'd applaud me for losing my job for guilt-by-association.
Thankfully, the second incarnation of the President Donald Trump administration doesn't seem to be taking these actual acts of terrorism lightly:
Attorney General Pam Bondi also vowed 'severe charges' for these domestic terrorists.
The mistake of every Republican administration dating back to Gerald Ford is a failure to adequately crack down on these violent Leftist protests.
The only way this ends -- the only way -- is if people start doing hard time behind bars.
There is a cultural rot on the Left that encourages this violence. Jasmine Crockett said she wants activists to 'take down' Tesla and Musk for her birthday and Jimmy Kimmel said Elon Musk deserves the harassment and vandalism (no word on what the innocent Tesla owners did to deserve it, but I digress)
Kimmel doubles down: After playing clips of Tesla arson attacks, Kimmel then accuses of Elon of “trying to drum up sympathy for himself” —
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 20, 2025
— then explains to Elon why he deserves it:
"When you pull out a chainsaw to celebrate firing thousands of people, they get mad." pic.twitter.com/0QGTHkV6bf
Those aren't just comments, they're marching orders.
Marching orders to guys like Clarke-Pounder.
He's just the foot soldier working at the behest of Democrats and radical Leftists (and their NGOs). But guys like Clarke-Pounder are also adults who freely chose to firebomb Tesla chargers. They should not be insulated from consequences.
If the Biden administration could find a grandma who sneezed in the direction of the Capitol on January 6, the Trump administration can find these bad actors and charge them federally.
And the Trump administration needs to do that, and it needs to be vocal and transparent whenever charges are filed and sentences handed down. They need to make it very clear this behavior has no place in America and the full weight of the federal government will be used to put an end to it.
When the other foot soldiers see their comrades doing a few decades in a federal penitentiary, no amount of NGO money or egging on from Jimmy Kimmel will be enough to convince them to risk suffering the same fate.
