Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2025
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by AMAC, Robert B. Charles
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2 Comments
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When leftists – ideological extremists disavowing diversity of ideas, free speech, faith, and individual liberties in our Bill of Rights – lose politically and legally, they go violent.
President Trump won decisively in November 2024, despite two assassination attempts. So did “common sense” Americans. They shifted Congress from radical agendas back to “normal.”
Normal involves tolerance of differences, encouragement of constructive disagreement, love of history, faith, and freedom. “Normal” is about seeking truth, not once, not twice, but daily. We do that – how our republic was conceived – by non-violent reference to our Bill of Rights.
In fact, the whole idea of a Bill of Rights – and Articles I, II, and III – was a non-violent way to preserve respect for our God-given individual liberties with due process, equal protection, and majority rule.
The opposite of this approach is to suppress liberties, imagine ends justify means, and allow violence to rise. While history is filled with “isms,” dangerous ones are Marxism, communism, socialism, fascism, and power gained through violence, maintained with fear.
Now we come to the present. The US Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court are in the hands of those who subscribe to due process, equal protection, individual liberties, and see America as a continuum, who respect the Constitution, and non-violent exchange of ideas in pursuit of truth.
This is infuriating to those who thought America was coming their way, headed toward one of those isms above, ready to give up individual liberties in favor of centralized power, one that disrespected – but with ideologically purity – freedom of speech, faith as a centering force, the right to keep and bear arms, right to be safe in homes, to expect due process and fairness.
They are now defaulting to what they have, violence. Years ago, working in India, I experienced the violent influence of Marxists, what they called Naxalites, their motto: “Justice comes through the barrel of a gun.” In a republic, it never does, but they were highly violent.
These influences – those who choose violence as a way to power – are making an appearance here. Look at recent events. After the 2020 violence, we see violence on campuses against anti-abortion protestors. We see Republican headquarters burned, senior executives – like the pharmaceutical CEO – killed, and last week the Governor of Pennsylvania, himself a Jewish Democrat, victimized by what seems to be violent antisemitism, his home forcefully attacked.
Where does this lead? What is happening? Unfortunately, until such episodes of violence are firmly condemned by all state and federal leaders in both parties, they will tend to grow.
Historically, after the American Revolution, pre- and post-Civil War, later in the 1920s with organized crime, communism, and boss rule, then again in the 1960s, which saw three major assassinations and widespread violence, political violence is stopped only if nipped early.
What does this mean? It means we are at a fork in the road. The political process has – legally and peacefully – produced a turn toward openness, stability, limited government, greater order, security, safety at home, and economic reorientation. Violence cannot be allowed to upset that.
To see the results of this favorable turn, keep the process moving, be true to our peaceful, constitutional origins, we must not tolerate political violence. That should be a new and firm conviction by all in politics. If not, we may find ourselves sliding in the wrong direction, quickly.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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