Sun Sentinel Broward Edition

Democrats, is the sky falling?

- By John Kass John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His Twitter handle is @john_kass.

Just what will the rage-filled American political left and their Democratic Party handmaiden­s do when they take power?

Given their recent calls to mob action, harassing Republican­s and their families out of restaurant­s and movie theaters, spittle flying from angry mouths, America is right to wonder what will happen when the left holds the federal hammer in its hands.

The end of Donald Trump is a dream they chase, just as they chased White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family from the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va..

But just about the last thing any American wants to dream about is the rat cage strapped to your face before a thorough confession of political sins. Then come the other rituals, from the shaving of heads to the public walks of atonement, with Maxine Waters cackling and shrieking in the background.

Oh, pardon me. I’m sorry. Did I just type “rat cage”? What was I thinking?

With all the easy references in media to “Nazis” these days, a dehumanizi­ng term applied to Americans who dare believe their country should have secure borders, I thought perhaps a small mention of “rat cage” might be acceptable, too.

I apologize. My hyperbole is wantonly irresponsi­ble. And what makes my sin worse is that now we’re being told by the voices of reason to take a step back and remember a time of gentle civility in America, before Trump and his brutish, vulgar ways.

So, let’s remember those civilized times, shall we?

It seems almost quaint to remember Hillary Clinton kicking more than 60 million people to the margins of American culture. She sentenced them to eternal limbo in her “basket of deplorable­s.” Remember?

Her audience tittered and giggled. A few wise Democrats saw this instantly as a horrible mistake, just as Chicago Democrat David Axelrod now understand­s that the ugly sounds coming out of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters’ mouth — and the larger Democratic orgy of public shaming of Republican­s — are terrible political mistakes.

But by then it was too late. America heard her words. And more than 60 million of them voted for Trump.

It wasn’t the only reason she lost the election. It wasn’t the Russians. Clinton was the dowager empress of a discredite­d Washington establishm­ent, 2016 was the year of insurgency, and her “deplorable­s” comment became a rallying cry.

Shaming is a goad. It keeps people in line, lest they stray and are devoured on social media as a lesson to others.

Americans aren’t big on shaming. They don’t like it when it comes from the Twitter feed of some anonymous troll with a cartoon head.

They like shaming even less when they envision themselves as the next target, up close, their families surrounded, the screamers in their faces, flecks of spittle flying. What comes after shaming? Pain.

But the left loves to publicly shame those who challenge them. The left’s attacks on conservati­ve speakers at college campuses was but a precursor to what’s happening now.

Americans don’t mind debate. What they do mind is picturing themselves ordering a chicken dinner and being told to leave because of their politics, as happened to Sanders.

Or shouted at in a restaurant, and outside her home, as is happening to Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security.

Or being yelled at and allegedly spat on as was Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a theater where she hoped to watch the documentar­y on the gentle Mister Rogers.

Spittle, hate, shaming and Mister Rogers?

Won’t you be my neighbor? Waters, the Los Angeles Democrat considered a hero and wise woman to some, argued publicly that those loyal to President Trump should be hounded, publicly.

“And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” Waters said at a rally the other day. “And you push back on them.”

This is exceedingl­y dangerous. It begs violence. And if it happens, it will rightly be put in the lap of the Democrats.

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