This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The rage that fills the current Democrat political agenda in America is dangerous, according to a constitutional expert.
It is Jonathan Turley, whose career includes not just teaching the Constitution, but advising Congress on its requirements and even representing members in constitutional disputes, who said, "Rage gives people a license to say and do things that they would not otherwise say or do. It is addictive, it is contagious, and it is dangerous."
Yet, he pointed out in a recent column, Democrats returned to that agenda almost immediately after the tragic assassination by a reportedly rage-filled radical of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law and George Washington University, explained in his column that now a prominent Democrat is calling for more rage.
"Let your rage fuel you," were the words coming from Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor as a Democrat in Virginia.
Turley recalled the words, in a Star Wars movie, from the series-long bad guy, Darth Sidious , the evil emperor, who said, "Give in to your anger. With each passing moment, you grow stronger."
Turley noted, "There was barely a respite from the rage rhetoric after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on the ICE facility. Gov. Gavin Newsom is back this week to calling his opponents 'fascists' while other Democratic politicians are back to calling ICE 'fascists.'"
He warned, "Across the country, politicians and pundits are fueling rage, encouraging voters to embrace it."
And he said, "Rage, however, comes at a cost in politics."
"We are seeing the result of rage rhetoric all around us. That includes the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on ICE agents in Texas this week, in addition to violent protests around the country. Rage allows you to deny the humanity of those you disagree with. Recently, two sisters were caught on video destroying a memorial to Kirk. Kerri and Kaylee Rollo were later arrested. However, they immediately opened a GoFundMe site to call for donations for 'fighting fascism' and Kaylee wrote 'my sibling was fired from their job.' Hundreds of donors gave the sisters thousands of dollars as a reward for the latest such attack on a Kirk memorial," he explained.
He said there have been warnings that violent rhetoric "was crossing over into political violence."
"Democratic politicians have spent months ratcheting up the rhetoric against ICE agents, who have suffered more than a 1,000 percent increase in attacks, including the recent sniper attack."
He cited Newsom's repeated calls for the use of rage rhetoric.
Others joined, he noted.
"Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who has used violent rhetoric in the past, declared that ICE agents were acting like 'slave patrols' in hunting down immigrants in the streets. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) used a commencement address to denounce 'Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons… just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.'"
And Boston Mayor Michele Wu claimed ICE officers are Trump's "secret police."
Such rhetoric has been "adopted by a wide range of Democratic politicians," he said.
"Rage is a powerful narcotic. The problem is when it becomes an addiction. There is always a certain percentage of the population that will believe such hyperbolic claims," Turley warned.
"Those are the people who end up trying to kill jurists like Justice Brett Kavanaugh or politicians like Trump. It was also seen in the assassination of Democratic politicians earlier this year in Minnesota," he said.
And he noted like all addictions, the solution comes only after the addicted wants out, a move he said is not yet evident.
"This fever will only break when voters clearly reject the politics of rage," he said.
