New York Governor Kathy Hochul told Republicans who aren't happy with the work Democrats do in New York state to “just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?” (She later declared she was only speaking about Republican candidates, not regular voters.)
If Democrats were to have their way, Republicans would not be welcomed in Florida either. Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate challenging governor Ron DeSantis, said this the week that, “Those that support Governor DeSantis should stick with the governor and vote for his administration. I'm not interested in your vote. If you're a hater in your heart, leave it there. … If you are haters, you'll wander off into your own personal world.” The common message coming from Democrats will be that all Republicans — not only politicians, aren't welcome in society.
Democrats have a history of this type of rhetoric. The then-candidate for president Hillary Clinton drew criticism in 2016 when she told Trump supporters they were “deplorables.” But now the hatred is all over the place and repeated by presidential candidates up and down the list. Democratic political pundit Juan Williams tried to justify Biden's stance on Fox News Sunday by using the Capitol violence of January 6th. However, Karl Rove noted that Biden's Inaugural address, which promised “Unity,” was delivered following the incident.
The risk to democracy posed by the Democrats' hateful rhetoric should not be undervalued. Republican supporters are feeling apprehensive -at present – because of “cancel culture” in the workplace, for instance, and also by the notion that there's the double standard of justice that allows left-wing activists to cause riots while incarcerating ardent Trump supporters for trespassing at the Capitol.
The backlash may be visible at the polls in November, but regardless of the outcome of the election, the wounds will take some time to heal.
