Now that that Antifa’s brutal and barbaric physical attacks on a peaceful, right-wing rally has prompted the Left to revise its view of the group as “peace activists,” law enforcement can turn its attention to monitoring them in the same way it does other extremist organizations, such as the KKK and the neo-Nazi movement. (It’s beginning to appear that Donald Trump’s initial reaction to the events in Charlottesville, which many on the Right considered a “moral disgrace,” many not have been as tone-deaf as originally deemed.)
One proposal some Americans have made via White House petition is officially classifying Antifa as a terrorist organization.
That actually already happened. The Department of Homeland Security formally classified the group’s activities as “domestic terrorist violence” in April 2016, according to Politico. The same article notes:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Federal authorities have been warning state and local officials since early 2016 that leftist extremists known as “antifa” had become increasingly confrontational and dangerous. …
Since well before the Aug. 12 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly, DHS has been issuing warnings about the growing likelihood of lethal violence between the left-wing anarchists and right-wing white supremacist and nationalist groups.
Writing at Medium, Jacob Wohl adds:
As the Trump campaign began to sweep across the nation, the Antifa anarchists [sic] groups instigated violence at Trump rallies, and other right-wing events. California was the primary base for the early organizers of the terror group. Instances of violence began cropping up in areas from Orange County to the San Francisco Bay Area.
He then raises this question: Given the various reports by federal authorities of a well-funded, well-resourced collection of “anarchist extremists,” why did the Obama administration and especially his DOJ fail to take action against Antifa?
Wohl doesn’t provide an answer, but one possibility can be gleaned from Barack Obama’s reactions to two previous protest groups: The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. Obama saw the Tea Party as subversives, despite their peaceful protests, and even referred to them on one occasion by the obscene term “tea-baggers” (which refers to a perverse sex act performed by gay men).
In contrast, Obama hailed the Occupiers are “peaceful dissenters” carrying out “acts of civil disobedience.” (David Thoreau must turn in his grave every time the Left blocks traffic, as Occupiers did on the Brooklyn Bridge, in the name of civil disobedience.) He even paid homage to them in his 2012 State of the Union address.
When it came to respect for the law and simple hygiene, Tea Partiers always obtained permits before assembling in a public park and were careful to police the grounds on their exit. Occupiers, in contrast, simple showed up at whatever venue had been chosen, and when they left, the grounds behind them were strewn with litter. (Ironically one of the items of clutter they invariably left behind were their protest signs.)
Still Obama supported the Occupiers — right up until the time they rejected him as just another member of the establishment.
What Obama liked about the Occupy movement was its politics, or what he believed their politics to be, which is to say an embrace of Marxism.
It was probably the same presumption that led him to look the other way when he received reports from his own FBI warning him about Antifa.
Another aspect of Obama’s legacy that should come back to haunt him?