Last week, when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen was accosted in a restaurant by liberal activists while trying to eat dinner I found myself shocked. (Hard to believe that anything is shocking in 2018, I know.) We’re used to raucous town halls and counterprotests at rallies or when controversial speakers show up at college campuses, but this was something new. It was so far outside the traditional rules of engagement on the political playing field that it defied description. Of course, that was just a group of Democratic Socialists, so I found myself reasoning that if the public expressed outrage or dismay at such an affront, things might calm back down.

Not only is that not the case, we’ve now learned that the “social warfare” on display in that instance wasn’t an accident. It’s part of the new leftist playbook. By now you have doubtless heard about the similar assault on White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, though that one was executed by a business owner and her staff rather than an outside mob. And rather than being condemned, the verbal assailants are being actively encouraged in many quarters, including by members of Congress, specifically Congresswoman Maxine Waters. (Washington Times)

Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, called for total social warfare against the entire Trump administration, cheering on those who in recent days have attacked or rebuffed them at restaurants and their homes, and calling for more in that vein. “Let’s stay the course, let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” she said at a speech, the video of which was posted Sunday on social media by conservatives. She said all Trump administration officials should not be allowed anywhere in public.

This video tweeted by Ryan Saavedra captures Waters in all her glory.

Maxine Waters calls for attacks on Trump administration: "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere." pic.twitter.com/jMV7wk48wM — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 24, 2018

Now that the phrase “total social warfare” has been coined, it’s time for us to admit that this genie isn’t going to be put back in the bottle. Who would be the influencing agents on the left available to bring such forces to heel? The Washington Post editorial board made a halfhearted effort at throwing a red flag this weekend. But while they claim that Sanders and company should be “allowed to eat in peace,” they pepper the argument with so many mealymouthed apologies, explaining why they totally get why you would want to attack these people during “private time” that it doesn’t come off as much of an admonishment. The same goes for cable news outlets where liberals are saying, “of course we don’t condone this,” but immediately going on to explain why it’s completely understandable.

As I said at the top, if this is the new normal then there sadly isn’t much recourse available beyond fighting fire with fire. In the past, when political speech has gone beyond acceptable, legal boundaries, it’s almost never been met in kind. When the Tea Party held rallies where they obtained permits and stayed within designated marching routes or gathering areas, the Black Lives Matter movement closed down highways and airports or organized “black brunch” where businesses were closed down. When the right gathers petitions to not have a statue of Lenin in the public square, the left simply goes and tears down symbols they don’t like. And now we’re at the point where government officials must be hounded out of public spaces when they are off the clock?

This isn’t going to end unless there is an actual incentive for it to end. And the media isn’t going to supply that incentive since most of those folks either openly support social warfare or convey signals that they privately do. In the months which have passed since Donald Trump’s inauguration, the accepted rules of engagement have been thrown out the window and if you want that to stop you’re going to have to answer in kind. As I was saying on Twitter this weekend, the day is coming when the Democrats are going to take back the White House and one or both chambers of Congress. It may not be immediately, but it absolutely will happen sooner or later.

Nobody is going to get the message until Democrats and liberals find out that they don’t get a free pass to behave in this fashion and go unanswered. The next Democratic president should have impeachment discussions awaiting them when they get back from their inaugural balls. And while the media won’t do the work, the same number of Freedom of Information acts should be flooding every department in the executive branch and the offices of every Democratic congressman and Senator, just as they have since Trump took office.

And finally… yes. Those who somehow have free time apart from their jobs (a distinct disadvantage, I know) should be raising hell in restaurants, theaters and everywhere else during the “private time” of Democratic administration members. It doesn’t even matter why. Simply shouting down the socialists and driving them back to their lairs is apparently a tactic not requiring an explanation now.

Will that end the problem or end the Republic? I have no idea. But this can’t be a one way street simply because one team decided to throw the playbook out the window.