“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents.”
That was Rep. Maxine Waters advising activists on how to oppose the Trump administration’s now seemingly terminated policy of separating parents of illegal migrants from their children. To ensure that the effects of this policy are undone, she reasoned, activists should harass individual members of the Trump administration and make them know “they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
Thus on Monday night, protesters gathered outside the home of White House policy adviser Stephen Miller. On Friday night, before Waters spoke, the proprietor of a northern Virginia restaurant asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave. A few nights before that, a crowd of protesters shouted slogans outside the Alexandria home of homeland security chief Kirstjen Nielsen.
Confronting and harrying public officials in their private activities isn’t a new thing. Earlier this month, about 60 disability activists protested outside the home of HHS secretary Alex Azar to demand that he authorize a ban on shock therapy. Last year, activists followed FCC chairman Ajit Pai to his home for the purpose of protesting Pai’s proposal to end “net neutrality.” In 2015 protesters were arrested outside the home of former Vice President Dick Cheney. If we kept going back, we would recall protests in 2004 outside the Washington D.C. home of then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the Iraq War.
What was significant about Maxine Waters’ counsel to Democratic activists wasn’t anything she said. Indeed, harassing individuals and organizations for objectionable political opinions is a longstanding practice on the Left. Sit-ins, die-ins, walkouts, “occupy” protests—progressives engage in these tactics far more often and effectively than conservatives ever will.
Not that they aren’t interested in trying. President Trump criticized Waters for “calling for harm” to MAGA supporters while, at the same time, issuing a sly threat of his own: “Be careful what you wish for Max!” This from a man who has called for violence against the opposition—not protest, but actual violence—on multiple occasions. Recall, just as a sampler from Trump’s campaign: “Part of the problem . . . is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.” (On March 11, 2016, at a rally in St. Louis.) “The audience hit back. That’s what we need a little bit more of.” (On March 11, 2016, at a rally in Palm Beach.) And of course: “I’d like to punch him in the face.” (On February 23, 2016, at a rally in Las Vegas.) It’s not just Maxine Waters who should be careful what she wishes for.
But what was most significant—and most hopeful—about Waters’ words was that they drew a trenchant rebuke from the top Democrat: Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. “I strongly disagree with those who advocate harassing folks if they don’t agree with you,” Schumer said in the Senate on Monday. “If you disagree with a politician, organize your fellow citizens to action and vote them out of office. But no one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That’s not right. That’s not American.”
We agree with Schumer and applaud him for repudiating Waters.
Confrontation politics might feel good but we suspect it won’t produce long-term success. Sustainable victories in politics come from persuasion, from convincing agnostics and opponents that your argument is right. Politicians who do this well—Ronald Reagan and, yes, Barack Obama—turn moments into movements and movements into consensus by persuading enough people that their vision for the country is the correct one.
That’s what a healthy politics looks like.
