Radicals, Democracy, and Self-Control

“Growing anger” among the Democratic base has “morphed into a disregard for American institutions, political traditions, and even the rule of law,” Axios reported Monday after interviewing more than two dozen House Democrats. The disturbing revelations not only reveal the radically self-centered character of the Democratic base, but it also sounds a warning note about the future prospects of the American republic.

Multiple lawmakers confirmed to Axios that, at townhalls and in one-on-one meetings, activists demanded more violence. Even after the escalatory antics of staged confrontations, “Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough,” an anonymous lawmaker complained. “There needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public.” Said another, “Some of them have suggested … what we really need to do is be willing to get shot.”

The dissatisfaction among Democratic demonstrators seems to stem from the fact that their party lost the 2024 election. For the first time in six years, the Democratic Party controls neither the House nor the Senate — not to mention the White House — thereby limiting their ability to enact legislation, implement policy, or even stage investigations. For a progressive movement that indoctrinates itself with the myth of its own inevitability, such stagnation is nigh intolerable.

“We’ve got people who are desperately wanting us to do something,” said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), one of the few lawmakers named in the piece. “No matter what we say, they want [more].” The appetite for bizarre stunts, fed by online influencers, has now crossed over into the political arena, proving every bit as exhausting, destructive, and all-consuming as it seems. “It’s like … the Roman coliseum,” complained another anonymous House Democrat. “People just want more and more of this spectacle.”

Roman arenas required an ever-increasing supply of slaves and prisoners to stock the gory spectacles. That involved not only constant warfare, but it also eroded society’s regard for human dignity, thereby eroding society itself.

The present progressive appetite for political spectacle is informed by a Marxist worldview that has jettisoned Christianity’s regard for human dignity, and that has reimagined all human relationships essentially as power struggles. This worldview provokes a relentless, exhausting drive toward social revolution, which aims at upsetting social order in a misguided attempt to right perceived wrongs against some oppressed class.

In practice, however, Marxist tactics usually just involve constant destruction of powers-that-be, with no thought to constructive rebuilding. At a constituent roundtable, one House Democrat tried to pitch a constructive approach to countering Republican colleagues. “I actually said in a meeting, ‘When they light a fire, my thought is to grab an extinguisher,’” the legislator recalled, “and someone at the table said, ‘Have you tried gasoline?’”

This is radicalism through and through. It has much in common with the street “protests” that have snarled traffic, defaced property, and injured law enforcement officers for at least the past decade. It has nothing in common with ordinary Americans who simply want to own a home, raise their family, and be left alone, according to the normal pattern for families since the beginning of time. We might call this divide “the radicals versus normies.”

Ironically, the radicals have no one but themselves to thank for the electoral misfortune of the Democratic Party, which so proximately caused their agenda to stall. During the four years of the Biden administration, these forces aggressively lobbied the administration to implement their radical agenda to the hilt, without bothering to persuade normal Americans that this agenda was advisable — because, for them, relationships are all about power. Having once glimpsed what these radicals intended for America’s future, normal voters collectively rejected their vision and delivered the White House back to Donald Trump by a surprisingly large margin.

But the radicals failed to learn the correct lesson from this defeat. From the vantage point of their consequentialist ethic, the main problem is simply that “civility isn’t working,” another House Democrat was told, and that his party must “fight to protect our democracy” — a phrase which they understood to mean literal violence, not as a metaphor.

This is fundamentally illogical. America’s system of government is premised upon the peaceful transfer of power, allowing the public at regular intervals to choose the officials who represent them by ballots, not bullets. Using violence to oust a duly elected official would be a coup, and it would herald the end of America’s constitutional system, not its preservation.

Not that the radicals care. Since they believe all relationships are about power, they have no more regard for popular representation than they do for civility. Such norms are only useful insofar as they deliver power to their preferred operatives; otherwise, they can be discarded as readily as yesterday’s newspaper.

Irrational passions may also play a role. Yet another Democrat fruitlessly tried to persuade the radicals to channel their frustration into retaking Congress in 2026 but concluded, “people who are angry don’t accept that. They’re angry beyond things.”

Such radical, irrational anger will ultimately prove unpersuasive. In a diverse, pluralistic society, persuasion is the art of convincing people with different interests, backgrounds, and beliefs to support one’s own position through reasoned argument. Persuasion is difficult and time-consuming, but it is the only sure means of building lasting coalitions that can effect policy change under an elected system of government.

But the irrational anger of contemporary leftist radicals cannot be bothered to slow down and explain their reasoning to people who don’t already share it. Perhaps more importantly, persuasion is not about power; in fact, it acts as a foil to power. This makes it distasteful to those who believe power is everything.

At this point, elected Democrats have a choice to make. They could try to placate the radical rabble, engaging in ever-intensifying confrontations with the Trump administration, at great risk to both their own personal safety and the future tranquility of American public life. Some elected officials have already embarked upon this hazardous road. Or they could ignore these radicals, thus starving them of power, and pivot again to the persuadable middle. It is quite possible that the malcontents who clamor loudly at their townhalls are astro-turfed, just like the fake protestors who earlier this year clamored against DOGE’s work in Republican townhalls. In that case, the best strategy would be to simply ignore them.

This is because the radicals’ agenda is fundamentally opposed to America’s tradition of ordered liberty. Civic freedom can only yield prosperity if citizens first govern themselves. But these radicals show no self-control. Their violent outbursts betray the violent passions that control them (James 4:1-2). Their illogical emotionalism, their refusal to persuade, their insatiable lust for political bloodsport all tend toward the same conclusion: these radicals do not respect America, nor do they even respect the Democratic officials they goad towards violence.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

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