ANALYSIS/OPINION:

We have a genuine chicken-or-egg issue regarding antifa and the Democratic Party’s true believers. On the one hand, we have the violent liberal group antifa, which exists to punish and hurt people for not believing as they do. On the other, we have the Democratic Party and “mainstream” liberals who exist to punish and destroy people and companies for not sharing their opinions.

It’s now obvious antifa and the Democratic Party represent the same disturbing agenda: Attack, defame and attempt to destroy those who do not share your opinion. The only issue now is this: Who’s influencing whom? Whatever the answer, the party that insists it represents mainstream liberals has abandoned everything it once stood for.

For quite some time, the media has portrayed the anarchist group antifa as a rogue group, not aligned with and certainly not a “liberal” group. While occasionally showing up where there’s an excuse to riot and attack the police, their tactic of threats, intimidation, disruption and obstruction is generally aimed at conservatives.

Antifa demands censorship of those who don’t conform, and punishment of entities that dare to facilitate free speech — in between throwing balloon bombs of urine and feces at law enforcement, of course.

The Democratic Party version of this is to demonize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, as many in the party’s leadership call for the dismantling of the agency itself.

The Democratic Party’s decline has been slightly more measured, but its preference and instinct to harm those who dare to hold different views has been regularly on display.

Just last week, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman learned burger restaurant chain In-N-Out had donated $25,000 to the California Republican Party. The first natural reaction of this man who has attained the highest party office in a state the Democrats completely control politically was to call for the destruction of the wildly successful California company.

Mr. Bauman tweeted, “Et tu In-N-Out? Tens of thousands of dollars donated to the California Republican Party … it’s time to #BoycottInNOut — let Trump and his cronies support these creeps … perhaps animal style!”

His first instinct was to smear, insult, divide and then call for In-N-Out’s destruction. It was also classically representative of the problem hounding the party — it was a reaction based in emotion and the desire to divide with no consideration of what it really meant or the impact it would have.

Mr. Bauman called for the destruction of In-N-Out, which pays its workers $13 an hour, $2 higher than the California minimum wage.

In December of 2017, Business Insider reported, “A fast-food chain rises above almost every other company in the US when it comes to how much employees love their job. In-N-Out Burger ranked No. 4 on Glassdoor’s list of the best places to work in 2018. In that spot, it beat out Google (No. 5), Lululemon (No. 6), and Microsoft (No. 39).”

Not only that, but at In-N-Out a worker can rise to be manager of their location, which comes with a $160,000 salary.

Inc.com reported, “These In-N-Out managers make more than the average salaries of lawyers, software engineers, and architects in California (about $115,000 for the first two professions; $112,000 for the architects).”

In-N-Out, a privately held company, is based in Irvine, California. It is also a company with religious roots and prints Bible verses on their cups and burger wrappers. Maybe in Mr. Bauman’s eyes, that was their actual crime.

After this leading Democrat’s desire to seek and destroy, the backlash at attacking such a successful and loved company in his own state caused Mr. Bauman to backtrack and announce he wasn’t being serious. This call for a boycott by the state party chief was also disowned by the … state Democratic Party.

But don’t be fooled. As a California Democrat, I can tell you it’s not that they disagree with his attitude and sentiment, it’s that he was too honest about the party’s totalitarian nature, an admission too close to the midterm elections.

There’s more fallout from another brutally honest Democrat’s actions. In June, The Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, kicked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family from its restaurant. The ensuing outrage and economic damage to the region caused the owner to resign from a business group for the area that she headed.

Now, The Washington Times reported, “A small town in Virginia is trying to recover its image after The Red Hen restaurant famously refused to serve President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The Roanoke Times reported Sunday that a regional tourism board is pulling together emergency funds to boost its digital marketing campaign. Normally that money is saved. But officials agreed the region is in desperate need of positive coverage.”

While In-N-Out and The Red Hen are two discrete events, they represent the core attitude of what has become the Democratic Party and liberal activism in this country. They lose politically because Americans are rejecting their policies, and without the ability to persuade, their instinct is to bully, intimidate and harm. Make no mistake, this is the Democratic platform, it will only get worse, and people of good character must call it out and reject it for what it is.

• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk show host.

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