Moral equivalence between fascists and antifa? Absolutely

Footage emerged last week of masked ruffians beating a man as he writhed on the ground at Berkeley’s campus. What had he done? The goons assumed, without evidence, that he was an alt-right supporter, or at least a Trump voter.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that he actually held extreme views. Would that have mitigated the assailants’ crime? Most of us, I hope, can see that it would make no difference. Battery is battery. I wrote in this column a few weeks back that it is a short distance from “punch a Nazi” to “shoot a Republican.” Either political violence is legitimate in a democracy, or it is not.