Congressman Adam Smith says ‘totalitarian’ protesters are ‘trying to silence anyone who dares to disagree with them’

Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing “leftwing fascism” or “leftwing totalitarianism”, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are “challenging representative democracy” and should be arrested.

“Intimidation is the tactic,” said Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee. “Intimidation and an effort to silence opposition … I don’t know if there’s such a thing as leftwing fascism. If you want to just call it leftwing totalitarianism, then that’s what it is. It is a direct challenge to representative democracy now.”

Smith was speaking – before the outbreak this week of mass protests on US college campuses, many producing arrests – to the One Decision Podcast and its guest host Christina Ruffini, a CBS News reporter.

  • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    53·
    2 months ago

    “You come to our town hall meeting, it’s one thing to try to get attention. They got their attention. But literally, they wouldn’t stop screaming insults at me. They wouldn’t … even let me answer the very questions they were raising.

    “I got two words into it and they started screaming at me again. So this is a different thing than your standard protest. In my view, the solution to it is if they are committing a crime – which by the way, shutting down a freeway, shutting down an airport, intimidating people, there’s a crime – [they] ought to be arrested.”

    Protesting at public figures’ homes should also be subject to arrest, Smith said.

    “The point of it is intimidation. And I think it is harassment. It’s a crime, and I think [they should] be arrested for it.

    It sounds like what he is complaining about is protestors not being civil, not letting him speak at his own event and going to his house. I don’t know if that’s a fair complaint given the circumstances, but a little different than the headline implication that he’s broadly accusing people objecting to Israel’s actions of being fascists.

    • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 months ago

      The part about letting him speak might be reasonable. Let the man speak and see if he’ll say something helpful.

      Everything else… well, boo-hoo, being harassed at your home certainly beats having your children murdered by drone attacks.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 months ago

      When every answer starts with blaming Hamas for the IDF continuing a genocide you’re going to get shouted down.

      The point of a Town Hall is to see what your constituents want. I think they made it very clear.