The following post originally appeared on Bacon’s Rebellion

by James A. Bacon

At Virginia’s Democratic Party convention three days ago, Senator Tim Kaine wrapped up the proceedings with a good old-fashioned bashing of the party’s political opponents.

“Democrats like building. Republicans like to tear down,” he told the party faithful, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“There is a battle between those who stand up and stand together and those who would tear us apart, and we are faced with the greatest teardown artist in the history of American politics,” he said, referring to former President Trump.

The irony of Kaine’s remarks, at least as reported by the RTD, is that he had nothing to say about the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had disrupted the convention earlier in the day. A group of banner-carrying protesters had walked down the main aisle as a woman screeched — and I mean screeched — “Democrats, Democrats, can’t you see? Gen-o-cide is your legacy!”

There is an old saying that for Democrats there are no enemies to the left. But lefties don’t reciprocate the tolerance. A motley coalition of the self-described “oppressed” have joined in their denunciation of Israeli “settler colonialism,” the American “war machine” that equips the Israelis, President Joe Biden for his support of Israel, and everyone in the Democratic Party establishment who supports Joe Biden.

Outside the convention held in downtown Richmond, protesters targeted Senator Mark Warner and Democratic Party gubernatorial hopeful Abigail Spanberger. Stu Smith, proprietor of the StuStuStudio account on X, aggregated video of protesters chanting:

“Mark Warner, go to hell.”

“Spanberger, go to hell.”

More chants:

“Palestine will live forever.”

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Not all pro-Palestinian protesters engage in moronic, mind-numbing chants. Some are capable of stringing coherent sentences together. The fellow in this video explains why they are so upset with the Dems:

We are witnessing an unwavering loyalty from the Democratic Party to the Zionist entity. … Our state (Virginia) is central to the imperialist project, home to the Pentagon, major shipping ports, corporate headquarters to tech and weapons manufacturers.

Virginia Democrats at the convention adopted a resolution calling for peace and harmony in Gaza, a cease-fire, release of hostages, and humanitarian assistance. The resolution commended President Biden, condemned “all forms of violence and extremism,” and urged all parties to pursue a diplomatic resolution.

View the clips and draw your own conclusions, but the pro-Hamas protesters don’t seem to be interested in compromise and negotiation. They are rude and belligerent. With minds addled by the truncated discourse of social media, they have nothing to offer in the form of reasoned debate. In a less deranged era, they would be voting for Democratic Party candidates and rallying against Donald Trump. But they are so far left that they seem incapable of distinguishing between Biden and Trump.

Responsible Democratic leaders could distance themselves from the nihilistic militants in a bid to seize the rhetorical middle ground, but they seem reluctant to do so. Kaine passed up the perfect opportunity to couple his expected obligatory blast at Republicans with the assurance that Democrats also reject those on the far left who would “tear us apart.”

But he didn’t. His Republican rival for Senate, Hung Cao, might ask him why not.