Webb: Presidential primary or bar fight?

If politics becomes a bar fight, everybody loses. 

Let’s remember what really happens in a bar fight. I’m speaking from experience, having been in them and having run the bar where the fight broke out. It’s hardly ever limited to the two people who start it. 

{mosads}Often friends and allies get involved on both sides, and then there’s the spillover to others who join in for whatever reason. If it gets wild enough, no one knows where the punches and kicks are coming from. In the end, a bunch of people get thrown out, the good time is over and sometimes there are injuries that require further assistance — and maybe handcuffs. 

The point: More people lose than win, if anyone does. And how often do participants wake up with a hangover?

This is complex when it comes to the presidential primary season. On both the Republican and Democratic side, many like the fighting spirit coming from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Others may have tried to get into the fight, like Marco Rubio, but they just couldn’t land enough punches to make a difference. 

There exists responsibility here for the parties: Both Trump and Sanders and the other candidates running for the White House should set the proper tone for the fight for a better America and how their supporters should act. The seething anger of many Americans is due to a failure by the political class and government, which can be easily stirred to the level of being counterproductive. It’s up to the candidates to demand that their supporters tone it down; that doesn’t mean not to defend themselves when attacked, of course, but the key here is that they be attacked first when they react. 

With respect to the hardcore leftist organizations like MoveOn.org, Black Lives Matter and other George Soros-funded entities or otherwise, it’s become obvious in recent years and from recent actions that peaceful disagreement is not their chosen method. They would rather disrupt and shut down those they disagree with, as they have attempted to do at Trump rallies and in the past at other candidates’ events. Their combination of Cloward-Piven and Saul Alinsky tactics are both effective and dangerous. These tactics when mixed with political fervor can lead to more violence, which is the ideal for many leftists in their fantasy of achieving revolution. 

For the supporters of Trump and other Republican candidates in 2016, there is also a responsibility. There are better ways to shut protesters down, such as by blocking them physically, being louder with chanting and using signage to surround them. Turn your camera phones on them. If they get violent first, defend yourself as allowed under the law. 

Instead of fighting over who’s right, how about focusing on what’s wrong?

The establishment fears losing the party, which is made up of the people it has in effect abandoned on too many issues. We as a nation are largely disgruntled because of failures by both political institutions and government at large. 

Americans of all backgrounds and political affiliations have seen the rise of Trump as a projection of strength, even if they don’t agree with him. 

Trump will have to find that balance between bombastic speech and burnishing how he will govern on conservative principles, however. Sanders will likely not rebut his leftist base; he’s not the nice old codger that some project. He is a smart and dangerous leftist who knows what it will take to break down society and get closer to his dream of a socialist America. 

No more bar fights. Let’s engage in a fight for American exceptionalism, which has worked because of conservative principles and a once more-principled Republican party. 

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City and is a spokesman for the National Tea Party Federation. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.