It’s difficult not to question the motivation of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. The Democrat wants to revoke permits for what he describes as “an alt-right rally” after two good Samaritans were stabbed to death while defending a pair of Muslim women from a racist mad man.
While that might ostensibly sound like the decent thing to do, Wheeler stands to gain the most politically from the awful tragedy.
“I am calling on the federal government to IMMEDIATELY REVOKE the permit(s) they have issued for the June 4th event and to not issue a permit for June 10th,” the mayor wrote on Facebook just two days after the attack. “Our city is in mourning, our community’s anger is real, and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate an already difficult situation.”
Questions over the constitutionality of that request can be quickly set aside. No friends to fascists, the Oregon chapter of the ACLU swatted down the mayor yesterday with a single tweet.
1. The government cannot revoke or deny a permit based on the viewpoint of the demonstrators. Period. https://t.co/P9gcNPAumH
— ACLU of Oregon (@ACLU_OR) May 29, 2017
Arguments about the character of the groups, Patriot Prayer and #MarchAgainstSharia, can also be dismissed for two reasons. First, liberals like Wheeler love to use labels to dismiss organizations they hate. Second, even if those groups are truly deplorable, making martyrs of them only furthers their cause.
Any prospect of censorship raises the profile of extremists. Consider for instance, how the stock of right-wing provocateurs like Richard Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos have skyrocketed after they were kicked out of CPAC and the college campus of Berkley respectively. Martyrdom has helped, not hurt, their brands.
Wheeler knows all this. He couldn’t have expected his Facebook post was never going to convince the federal government to overturn 228 years of precedent. Predictably, it only fed the flames. So there’s only one bleak and unfortunate conclusion: an ambitious politico seems to be making the most of a crisis.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
