
Joel Mathis wrote an interesting article titled, “The GOP’s sneaky attempt to paint the majority as an angry left-wing mob.” He cites a number of GOP Senators such as Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Orrin Hatch of Utah “have all used the m-word to describe Democrats in recent days.”
What was Mathis offended by?
He seems to be particularly offended by President Trump’s remarks at a rally in Kansas where some protesters showed up. Trump said, “You don’t hand matches to an arsonist and you don’t give power to an angry left-wing mob…and that’s what they’ve become.” Mathis says Trump was speaking of Democrats.
I wasn’t at that rally so I don’t know. Trump may have been referring to the protesters, and they may have been Democrats, I don’t know. Mathis contends these people represent the majority of Americans and are unfairly and inaccurately being portrayed as a mob by the GOP.
According to the news media protesters repeatedly interrupted the Senate judiciary hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. These protesters picket those hearings, confronted senators when they exited the hearings, and continued to protest after Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation, even to the point of storming the doors of the United States Supreme Court. The doors held.
They seemed to be an angry left-wing mob.
Based on the news clips I saw the protesters seemed angry. Though he has as yet to record a single decision on any case the protesters have opposed Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation fearing he may help overturn Roe v. Wade, and abortion rights have typically been a left-wing issue. And the difference between a majority and a mob is, a majority respects the rule of law and a mob defies it.
I do not know the protesters political affiliation, but Trump’s characterization of them as “an angry left-wing mob” does not seem unfair and is definitely not inaccurate, and I agree it would be foolish to give any kind of power to such a mob.
The lynchings of a minority at the hands of a majority should be a powerful reminder of what happens when a majority becomes a mob. Booker T. Washington said, “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”
We have a responsibility to oppose mob-rule.
The responsibility to oppose mob-rule is an established biblical principle, “You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice,” Exodus 23:2.
In the end I do not want to be ruled by any group purporting to be a majority, moved by sentiments such as anger to override the rule of law, and take the law into their own hands to impose their agenda.
I do not care how people label themselves or what Joel Mathis thinks; if they act like a mob, they’re a mob.