Commentary: The real threat to America is from the right wing, not street protesters

American cities are shaken by violence — much of it the work of disguised police provocateurs and uniformed officers. Nevertheless, the liberal public has been quick to condemn the “violent protests.” Meanwhile, Mr. Trump is fanning the conflict by issuing escalating threats of violent reprisal. His followers, armed with vehicles, are taking the cue, and are taking matters into their own hands.

It is my duty as a historian with an interest in defending democracy, equality and the rule of law to place these events in perspective, and to remind the liberal public who share my political values of their own duty.

To paint the militant opponents of right-wing ideology as a dangerous, violent threat has long been a staple of the authoritarian’s playbook. There was never a wave of repression that was not couched in terms of keeping the peaceful citizens and their property safe from dangerous, left-wing elements. When the German Parliament burned in 1933, the newly appointed coalition government led by Adolf Hitler pinned this act on communists, and used it as a pretext for mass arrests of those Germans who might have been in a position to resist the Nazis’ rise to absolute power. This Reichstagsbrand followed on many years where the far right had been building a narrative of dangerous, violent left-wingers that had to be stopped, with the Nazi Party presenting itself as the only force capable of wielding the ugly but necessary tools to stamp out this threat.

Trump’s designation of “Antifa” as a terrorist group is precisely part of this historical tradition.

There is nothing to be gained for the friends of democracy by chiming in to the siren song of peace and property from the right. By condemning the “violent protests,” you are not in fact siding with peace against violence. You are siding with violent right-wing activists and politicians and their allies in law enforcement, against the very people whose militancy might yet save your rights from Mr. Trump and his fans.

American history has been driven by violent conflict. On three memorable occasions, the liberal public in this country has shown the necessary resolve to fight out a conflict that was forced on them by the enemies of equality and democracy.

The Civil War and World War II are the most recent cases, and are rightly held up as shining examples of America’s role as a beacon of freedom around the world.

But the first example was the American Revolution, where the calculated destruction of private property was part of the toolbox of colonial protest. Consider the Boston Tea Party, which targeted the flagship commodity, tea, of the most powerful global corporation, the East India Company. To find a modern equivalent, imagine dumping a shipping container of iPhones into Oakland harbor. Consider, too, the ransacking of the house of Massachusetts Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, a loyal servant of King George, by some of the same patriotic activists.

Moderate revolutionaries like John Adams recoiled in horror from the violence. After all, they could easily identify with the plight of a wealthy professional like Hutchinson. What if that mob came for them, too? In the end, however, Adams and his peers realized that the threat of Britain to American liberties was real, that it was accompanied by a willingness on the part of the King to use violence, and that the patriots would need all the help of the militants they disdained if they wanted to defend their freedom against the British.

It is high time for today’s liberals and moderates who still consider democracy and equality tangible goods worth defending to realize the threat posed by Trump and his followers. The alternative they offer is white supremacy, raw patriarchy, and authoritarianism. No matter whether you abhor the “violence from the left”, most of which is fictional at any rate, it is essential to realize that you share the same enemy with the protesters in the streets. You owe it to yourself and to your professed ideals not to throw them under the bus, for if they are taken down, you will be next.