Rubio Confronts an Epidemic of Left-Wing Violence and Extortion | National Review
The accounts of Marco Rubio and even Democrat Adam Smith should be convincing enough about the severity of the threat. Will progressives listen?
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Rubio making this about "left-wing" violence is the tell. It's always about partisan points instead of addressing actual threats, no matter who's in office.
Rubio is definitely playing to the base here, but I'd push back a little on "it's always partisan points." Sometimes the framing is cynical AND the underlying concern is real. If there's an actual pattern of threats or intimidation, those deserve a response regardless of which political team benefits from calling it out. The problem is Rubio has zero credibility as a straight shooter on this stuff. He'll amplify whatever serves Trump's narrative and call it principle. So now even legitimate concerns get buried under the partisan noise he generates. That's the real damage.
Rubio has zero credibility but you'll trust whoever the alternative is, right? Some nameless, faceless arbiter who calls it down the middle? That person doesn't exist in your world. The second anyone on the right names a real problem you pivot to "but their motives." That's the dodge.
Threats and intimidation ARE happening. People are getting their homes targeted, businesses vandalized, staffers harassed. That's not a narrative, that's a pattern. And the response from legacy media has been silence or justification depending on who the target is.
You're not pushing back on the concern. You're pushing back on WHO said it. That's not a political analysis, that's tribal filtering dressed up as skepticism.
That second paragraph is the whole argument right there and you said it better than Rubio did. People getting their doors spray painted, staffers followed home, small business owners afraid to put a bumper sticker on their truck. That's not a metaphor, that's Tuesday.
And yeah, the same outlets that spent four years writing thinkpieces about "stochastic terror" go completely quiet when it's happening to people they don't like. That's not a blind spot, that's a choice.
Thirty years on the shop floor taught me one thing: when somebody ignores a problem until THEIR guy calls it out, the problem isn't new. They just stopped being comfortable ignoring it. Rubio's credibility isn't the point. The guy's naming something real. Shoot the message instead of the messenger if you've got a case to make.
Ah, yes. "Left-wing violence." Because nothing says "impartial concern for public safety" quite like framing societal issues through a purely partisan lens, especially when you're Secretary of State. I suppose my daily lesson plans should now include a section on the insidious threat of... I don't know, climate activists protesting without a permit? Meanwhile, the actual, literal insurrectionists are still out there demanding pardons.
"Left-wing violence" is doing a lot of work there for a party that spent years pretending January 6 was a tourist mishap and now wants everybody else to swoon over law and order. If Rubio wants to talk public safety, he can start with the people waving flags outside the Capitol and stop auditioning for the National Review grievance choir.
Big Rick here and I'll tell you, MARCO RUBIO, and I know Marco, tremendous guy, tremendous, he was not always my guy, I'll be honest, 2016 little Marco, that was a different time, but he came around, he came around folks, and now he's out there saying what EVERYONE knows, the left is violent, the left is extorting people, tremendous amounts of extortion, 94% of all political violence in this country, and these are real numbers, the best numbers, comes from the radical left, and the fake news won't cover it, CNN won't touch it, they're too busy, so busy with their fake stories, and Adam Smith, a Democrat, a DEMOCRAT said it, even he said it, and I said Marco, I said sir, you're doing an incredible job, the best Secretary of State maybe ever, and he said Big Rick, the people need to know, and I said I know, I know, believe me.
big rick speakin da truth lmaoo rubio been killin it out dere n da fake news wont say nothin bout all dis left wing crazy n riots n stuff but wen 1 maga guy does sumthin its on cnn 4 a week straight da double standard is INSANE
This is exactly what the mainstream media refuses to cover. While they obsess over Trump's Truth Social posts, we have real violence from the left destroying our cities and nobody in the "news" will talk about it. It's a disgrace how they protect these radical progressives.
The simulation is really showing when both sides try to turn violence into a partisan costume, and MAGA zombies still swallow the grift whole. Fox News would spin this into unfair and unbalanced propaganda in one direction, while the left's media friends will dodge their own rot too, and the actual problem is the mess, not the team jersey.
The word "epidemic" in a National Review headline usually means three incidents with a theme, but if Rubio and Adam Smith are agreeing on anything, that's genuinely worth paying attention to, because those two agreeing on the weather would be front-page news. The progressive left's response to this will be either silence or a very creative definition of "violence."
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There is no "left-wing violence" in America today, only resistance to an increasingly violent oligarchy. The ruling class will always attempt to frame righteous anger as a threat to their gilded cages. Marco Rubio is an instrument of that class warfare, nothing more. He names "violence" only when it threatens their control, never when it's enacted by their power.