Leftist groups openly plan mass disruption if Biden isn’t declared victorious. But media is more interested in stories of voter intimidation from the right.<\/b>
\nResistance Democrats want you to be worried about voter intimidation. They also want you to know that they will not be going gently into that good election night if President Trump wins again. It seems like threats of \u201ccreating serious disruption,\u201d as one Resistance group expressed plans to do if Trump wins, might be a worrisome voter intimidation tactic. (If someone told me he would bring mass chaos to the streets if I voted for a particular candidate, I\u2019d feel intimidated.) But the media and Twitter establishments are a lot more interested in a narrative where voter intimidation comes from the right. Much was made of emails circulating, allegedly from the extremist group \u201cProud Boys,\u201d threatening to \u201ccome after\u201d people unless they cast their votes for Trump. The Proud Boys denied sending the emails, and government officials eventually deemed the emails to be from Iranian hackers. John Ratcliffe, U.S. director of national intelligence, suggested that the emails may have been actually a plot to \u201cdamage President Trump,\u201d possibly by associating him with the Proud Boys or with voter intimidation tactics. Still, the \u201cright-wing voter intimidation\u201d narrative continued. CNBC aired a video insinuating that Trump was encouraging voter intimidation. \u201cTrump urged his supporters to go to the polls and look out for potential election issues,\u201d the video noted, before quoting Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring calling Trump\u2019s statement \u201cdangerous.\u201d Also cited in the CNBC video was Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who tweeted that Trump was encouraging \u201cvoter intimidation,\u201d and threatened to prosecute anyone who tried it. The Washington Post engaged in a hand-wringing exercise over \u201cjeering sign-wavers\u201d and \u201ccaravans of honking trucks.\u201d \u201cThere is an unmistakable effort underway to intimidate voters,\u201d the Huffington Post blared, citing \u201cbullhorns, honking cars with Trump flags, and shouting confrontations.\u201d HuffPo and other outlets have also expressed concern that voters who possess the legal right to carry a firearm may intimidate other voters by being armed. Democrats further erupted with cries of \u201cvoter intimidation\u201d when a Miami cop casting his vote wore a Trump mask. And after the Trump campaign captured on camera what appeared to be voters dropping off multiple ballots, not just their own, Pennsylvania\u2019s attorney general (and the New York Times) were more concerned that the videotaping might be intimidating voters than about the apparent voter fraud. Of course, this doesn\u2019t mean that every incident of voter intimidation is imaginary. Incidents like one posted by Ajay Rochester, in which demonstrators took down her license plate number and told her \u201cwe got your plates, we got you,\u201d are indefensible. However, for every legitimate concern of voter intimidation, there appear to be a host of examples of the media crying \u201cintimidation!\u201d at either a false or exaggerated story. After all, the \u201cProud Boys\u201d email wasn\u2019t from the Proud Boys. Trump never told his listeners to act violently at the polls, but to watch for instances of potential fraud. There is nothing inherently aggressive about legal and responsible concealed carry. Wearing a mask is hardly a threat to someone\u2019s safety, and neither is videotaping to reveal sincere concerns about ballot integrity. One looming threat the media doesn\u2019t want to talk about, though, is that of anti-Trump \u201cResistance\u201d and what they plan to do if Biden doesn\u2019t win on election night. A protest group called Shut Down DC is organizing an effort to \u201ccreate serious disruption if Trump really tries to steal the election,\u201d with a gathering in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. on election night. The group, which also encourages similar disruptions in other communities, says they are \u201cready to do whatever it takes.\u201d In the days following the election, Shut Down DC\u2019s action plan promises \u201cno more business as usual.\u201d It threatens to seek out members of Congress \u201cat the train station or the airports,\u201d or \u201cwe can meet them at their homes.\u201d In a \u201cStrategic Framework for Action Following the 2020 Election,\u201d the group says: \u201cWe need to show that we\u2019re ungovernable under a continued Trump administration. That means we need to be ungovernable.\u201d The plan includes \u201cblockading the White House\u201d as well as shutting down roads and government buildings. \u201cIt is our duty to ensure that Trump cannot steal the government, by using people power to prevent normal government business from proceeding,\u201d the memo continues. And their website suggests that they will not be satisfied with stopping Trump. \u201cWe are not seeking a \u2018return to normalcy,\u2019\u201d it says. \u201cRather, we see this as the time to rise up against the current crisis and move forward to dismantle\u2026interlocking systems of oppression.\u201d Shut Down DC isn\u2019t the only voice calling for protesters to \u201ctake to the streets\u201d and contest the election in any scenario where Trump wins. Ashley Dawson, writing for The Guardian, offered a how-to guide for \u201cplanning to defeat a coup\u201d if Trump doesn\u2019t leave office. It included strikes against an \u201cillegitimate government authority\u201d as well as asking other countries to \u201cadopt an economic embargo of the US.\u201d She also encouraged people to sign a \u201cpledge of resistance,\u201d directing readers to an article that explains such a pledge in terms of \u201cacts of civil disobedience\u201d and \u201clarge-scale disruption.\u201d Even where plans for protest haven\u2019t been publicly announced, businesses and communities are preparing for violence. Stores like Bloomingdale\u2019s are boarding up windows to prepare for looters, and everyone knows the looting and rioting seen this summer was not from Trump supporters. Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills will be closed in anticipation of \u201celection unrest.\u201d The police department has also encouraged businesses to board up their windows. In Washington D.C., some businesses are already boarded up. Mayor Muriel Bowser has told people \u201cwe do not advise parking or driving downtown\u201d on election night. Such signs point to plans for post-election turbulence if Trump wins or the election is contested. Of course, none of this justifies any kind of voter intimidation, from either side of the aisle. When actual intimidation happens, we should call it out. But while spinning false and exaggerated stories of right-wing threats, the left is ignoring perhaps the biggest threat of voter intimidation. Why? Because it\u2019s coming from their own ranks.<\/p>\n