While Al Gore wails about "digital brownshirts" who dare to write criticisms of the entrenched Left, the real variety of brownshirts have attacked Republican campaign offices across this country, shooting, stealing, and intimidating political volunteers in what certainly appears to be a coordinated effort to scare Republicans into silence. Michelle Malkin has compiled a list of attacks on GOP offices, including these:

* Orlando, FL - 2 GOP volunteers injured by AFL-CIO protestors storming the building

* Knoxville, TN - Gunmen shoot the windows out of Republican campaign office

* Gainesville, FL - Democratic activist punches GOP volunteer in the face

* Columbus, OH - A wounded soldier is assaulted by anti-war demonstrators

The Democrats not only seem to be losing their minds, they appear to be doing it on purpose. The latest example occured in St. Paul yesterday, in an office where I've done some volunteer service, when AFL-CIO goons barged into Republican HQ and commandeered the lobby and the building's intercom system to disrupt the work of Bush/Cheney volunteers:

Of the more than 300 workers bused in by Minnesota labor unions for the outdoor rally, about a dozen protesters pressed forward into the campaign headquarters' lobby. The protesters were trying to deliver plastic bins filled with postcards but found their way into the headquarters itself blocked by an eight-foot-long Bush/Cheney placard that had been upended against an interior door. ...

A Bush volunteer attempted first to shut the door against the protesters, then to push out several, including Jon Youngdahl of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, who struggled to yell through his bullhorn while the volunteer kept searching for a mute button on it. Others blasted airhorns in the lobby while one man pushed repeatedly on the campaign's intercom to yell his protest. ...

The noontime protest happened to come on the first day of ticket distribution for Saturday's presidential visit, and according to Bush/Cheney campaign spokesman Peter Hong, several dozen volunteers and ticketholders were trapped inside.

None of the protesters made it inside the offices, Hong said, but "obviously some of our people were concerned, especially those who came to pick up tickets who had children here with them."

Hong said the protest "reflects the frustration the Kerry people are feeling. If they could sell John Kerry, they'd be out doorknocking and phonebanking, not disrupting the proceedings of a rival campaign office."

Over in Milwaukee, we also have this incident:

More than 50 demonstrators supporting Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry stormed a Republican campaign office in West Allis at mid-day today, trespassing, creating a disturbance through the use of a bullhorn in the office and then refusing to leave when asked.

The Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW) condemned the action by Kerry supporters, and asked the Kerry campaign and the Democrat Party of Wisconsin to do the same.

“Do John Kerry and Wisconsin Democrats really believe this is conduct becoming of a presidential candidate and his campaign?” RPW Chairman Rick Graber asked. “It is unfortunate that Team Kerry feels the need to engage in such childish and obnoxious behavior. ...

Graber called the latest incident part of a disturbing trend of criminal conduct by anti-Bush forces in Wisconsin, pointing to an incident in Madison last week in which Bush-Cheney yard signs were stolen from the yards of three homes. The vandals then used chemicals to burn swastikas into the lawns of the homes, which were within a two-block radius of one another.

While I'm certain that a couple of local hacks will eventually use this occasion to wax poetic about the long and glorious history of organized labor in this area, the truth is that the AFL-CIO and the Democrats have started a deliberate campaign of intimidation to keep Republicans from volunteering for this campaign. It's ugly, and the people who do such things are ugly and should be called out as such. If this represents the face of the Democrats, then their earlier accusations that Bush is the new Hitler can only be called a classic case of Freudian projection.

My colleague, Mitch Berg, has this to say:

This is going to get much worse before it gets better.

I'll tell you why.

They say the worst wars are about religion, and they're right; the Hundred Years War, the Troubles, the Crusades, the Holocaust, and our current war all involve either one religion trying to stamp out another, a non-religious body trying to stamp out an ethic/religious group, a religious sect trying to destroy a secular one, or some combination of the above.

And to so much of the left, politics is religion - the core of the person's intellectual and moral being. To a person for whom the political is the personal, it's a short jump to seeing politics as the adjunct, or even replacement for, the spiritual.

I'm not sure I give them that much credit. The unions have been gasping for air for a couple of decades, their credibility shot as they continue their path to anachronistic oblivion. Instead of adjusting to meet new challenges and offer true partnerships with management, they instead have decided to go back to the thug tactics they employed in the nadir of their moral authority, cracking heads and daring people to stand up to them. This is nothing more or less than a crude grasp for the power they see slipping away when legitimate choice has been provided to people.

I'd say that after the wave of political violence they've initiated, they've proven themselves to be dangerous organizations. Maybe it's time to push through a federal right-to-work act that abolishes closed shops and mandatory dues throughout the US. At the very least, the Department of Justice should be investigating these related assaults as a possible conspiracy involving the AFL-CIO's leadership as well as some Democratic committees, and start some RICO prosecutions.

If we are to remain a free people, we cannot allow political violence to go unanswered by the rule of law. That, finally, is one parallel to Germany in 1932 that actually applies.

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» Democrat Party Gestapo Tactics from PunchTheBag
Democrat Party SS continues their violence against Republicans. Will we see John Kerry, John Edwards, Michael Moore, et al condemn these actions? Doubt it. See ProfessorBainbridge report. UPDATE: Captain's Quarters weighs in on the growing violent natu... [Read More]

Tracked on October 6, 2004 8:10 PM

» Democrate Jihadis on the March ... in Minnesota from Daisy Cutter
Democrat union thugs are on the march everywhere, including in Minnesota, Captain Ed reports. Democrats talk of disenfranchisement and intimidation, while they practice it. [Read More]

Tracked on October 7, 2004 12:03 AM

» Democrate Jihadis on the March ... in Minnesota from Daisy Cutter
Democrat union thugs are on the march everywhere, including in Minnesota, Captain Ed reports. Democrats talk of disenfranchisement and intimidation, while they practice it. [Read More]

Tracked on October 7, 2004 12:06 AM

» More Anti-GOP Violence from Ed Driscoll.com
Add to our list from Tuesday this incident:More than 50 demonstrators supporting Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry stormed a Republican campaign office in West Allis at mid-day today, trespassing, creating a disturbance through the use of a bu... [Read More]

Tracked on October 7, 2004 3:42 AM

» Violence Against Republicans from rightpundit.com
Captain's Quarters is all over the story of unions and others taking violent steps against Republican campaign offices through-out the country. In addition to the stories Captain Ed mentions, there were also attacks in the Tampa Bay area as well on... [Read More]

Tracked on October 7, 2004 9:03 AM

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» The "F" Stands for Fear from LeatherPenguin
As the campaign heads into the final stretch, Camp Kerry, threatened in what were considered "safe" states, such as New Jersey and Iowa, needed to do something to stanch the... [Read More]

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good entry. [Read More]

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