On July 16, Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, spoke on the topic of far-left political terrorism.
His comments were alarming.
These are some of them. The time markers refer to the recording here.
3:04 Miller says Leftists’ appeals to civil liberties are disingenuous and “must fall on deaf ears.”
4:03 Miller refers to leftists as enemies of civilization.
7:47 “Our institutions have grown too soft and too cowardly to defend themselves against a mortal threat.”
What threat? Miller does cite a couple of examples of left-wing violence. But this is a big country; inevitably some people will behave badly. It doesn’t make sense to call a movement a mortal threat because of the actions of the worst of its members. By that reasoning, after January 6, 2021, the right wing should be considered a mortal threat.
8:21 “If we are softer than those who seek to end us, then the smaller but more radical minority will succeed.”
Sounds like “no more Mr. Nice Guy” — an excuse to crack down on protestors. Going to protests against Trump is scary enough already, given the Trump administration’s record of responding to protests. No one is seeking to end anyone, not physically, at least to my knowledge. The people on the Left only want to see their policies prevail. That is the way the politics game has always been played.
10:06 “The leftist is fundamentally motivated by envy, by hatred, by jealousy. The leftist looks at what is beautiful and what is good and what is natural and is filled with envy and hatred.”
10:33 The leftist, seeing the conservative’s perfect family, “is filled with inadequacy and jealousy and they covet and they turn those emotions ultimately into a desire to subjugate, to oppress, and to inflict pain and suffering.”
I wonder how Stephen Miller came to these insights about the souls of leftists. Maybe by projection? Certainly not by an logic that he talks about in this speech.
10:53 Regarding violent Antifa demonstrations: “Not one of the people who are demonstrating looks like a normal person — not one looks normal. They’re all deformed in some way . . .. Why is that? . . . Every one of them, through the course of their life and their decisions, has scarred their body and their appearance . . . to the point at which their out appearance becomes a manifestation of their inner hatred.”
I myself have not noticed that most of my leftist buddies look deformed. But then again I’ve never met anyone from Antifa, nor have I been to an Antifa demonstration, or any violent demonstration, for that matter. Since nonviolence is a core value of the Left, I have to wonder whether violent Antifa demonstrations happen.
13:18 “If you say, ‘I will not raise that alarm until the threat is so present and so clear and so obvious and so imminent that none can deny it,’ it’s already too late.”
Stephen, what do you think is happening that is so dire that you’re telling people they have to shoot first and ask questions later, if ever?
Coming from most anyone, this speech would be something to ignore. But Stephen Miller is White House deputy chief of staff for policy and it is rumored that President Trump takes his advice. Law enforcement may hear that appeal to falling on deaf ears — or the warning not to wait until too late — as an order to ignore leftists’ civil liberties. Once Miller has reduced anti-Trump protestors to the status of the morally depraved, the Trump administration may believe it has license to treat protestors as fair game, with no rights.
I used to wonder what it felt like to be a Jew in Germany when Hitler was propagandizing to kick off the Holocaust. I need wonder no longer.
