Democrats are losing the battle to win the hearts and minds of average American voters. They know they’re losing, and reacted Saturday by stepping up the violence in one instance, and shutting down conservative thought in another.

Portland, Oregon, was the scene of the violence. Quillette editor and photojournalist Andy Ngo, who often covers fake hate crimes allegedly committed by conservatives, as well as violence committed by liberals, became an Antifa victim himself.

Ngo, who’s both gay and the son of Vietnamese immigrants, was covering an Antifa demonstration when the group assaulted and robbed him.

“Attacked by Antifa. Bleeding,” he wrote. “They stole my camera equipment. No police until after. Waiting for ambulance. If you have evidence of attack please help.”

Jim Ryan, a reporter for the Oregonian, posted a thread of tweets and videos from the event, including the moment Ngo was attacked.

“Milkshaking” — throwing milkshakes at conservative figures — has become a popular practice of the left both in the United States and abroad, and it was even applauded by The New Republic in an article headlined, “Why Milkshaking Works.”

But the Antifa crowd took the practice over the top. Instead of cups containing a concoction of ice cream, milk, and flavorings, they allegedly contained quick-drying cement.

Also on Saturday, Brandon Straka, founder of the #WalkAway (from the Democratic Party) movement, was scheduled to host an LGBT-Walk Away Town Hall at Chicago’s Theater Wit. Straka, who is also gay, founded the organization when he realized Democrats were no friend to minorities.

The town hall had been scheduled months in advance. Then Friday — while Straka and his crew were making final arrangements — the theater cancelled on him.

“My team & I went through hell 2day. We were violated in every possible sense. Being in an unfamiliar city& labeled a fascist hate group, our event cancelled by @theaterwit <24 hrs b4,” Straka tweeted. “1 hour ago, we got a call from a woman who heard we were in trouble.”

Leaving the Democratic Party now constitutes a hate crime.

At midnight, they found a new location, and the event was moved to a government-themed venue called City Hall, located in the Windy City’s Fulton Market district.

Straka, a former lifelong Democrat, says anyone is welcome in the #WalkAway movement — Republicans, independents, libertarians, pro-Trumpers, and anti-Trumpers — just not Democrats.

As security expert and frequent Fox News contributor Jim Hanson observed, “Apparently leaving the Democrat party is apostasy punishable by exile.”

That doesn’t seem to work in reverse, however. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hi., is aware that there are still some Republicans that are anti-Trumpers, and he asked them to join the Democratic Party. There’s just one hitch: Keep your political opinions to yourself.

“Never Trumpers are welcome to the coalition,” he tweeted. “It’s just that they can’t dictate the terms that’s all.”

Any party or organization that closes itself to new or differing opinions is setting itself up for failure.

Any party or organization that answers thoughts and ideas with violence is also doomed to extinction.

Liberals like to call themselves progressives, however they’re anything but.

Last week a Chicago waitress allegedly spit in the face of Eric Trump, the president’s second son. Although technically a battery, and a disgusting one at that, he declined to press charges. Nonetheless, someone started a GoFundMe account — for the waitress.

And that’s the new normal. The Washington Post published an editorial Saturday claiming that “new rules apply ... if you're directly complicit in spreading hate or perpetuating suffering, [read “Republican”] maybe you should consider dining at home.”

More speech, not violence and suppression of speech, is the correct response to ideas with which you disagree. And when liberals resort with these tactics it means only that they have no response, they have no counterpoint, and they’re fresh out of ideas.

It also means they have already lost, and November 3, 2020, will confirm it.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports - Click Here.