Asymetric evil

Salena Zito is always worth reading. From In front of a Philadelphia abortion clinic, Democratic lawmaker shows us the darkness of the cultural divide by Salena Zito.

When Brian Sims first ran for state representative in 2012, he ran as a new pro-business voice. He was going to be a bridge-builder, brimming with commonsense ideas on pocketbook issues.

Sims never met that promise.

Instead, he became many other things: an outdoor adventurer who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, a partisan attack dog who accused fellow state Rep. Martina White of saying she wanted to deport all immigrants, something his staff had to admit she never said, and a celebrity activist whose lucrative, nationwide speaking circuit earned him an ethics investigation.

He also became the guy who tweeted a photo of himself wearing a suit and a smirk and raising his middle finger to the vice president of the United States as Mike Pence headed to Philadelphia.

OK. A local politician who did not live up to his own promises. That's a dog bites man story. The incredible news follows.

Last week, Sims decided to film his own harassment of a woman outside an abortion clinic here in Philadelphia, calling her an “old white lady” and her beliefs “grotesque” to her face and to the camera. The clear plan was to incite his audience against this peaceful protester, whom he saw as clearly bigoted and evil.

The whole act opened the window for Twitter observers into a dark, dark place in American culture, a gaping divide none of us quite know how to navigate.

And while Sims’ harassment was, on the one hand, shocking, it was expected. A politician abusing his power thusly to crush religious conservatives is exactly what so many of us have been bracing for.

This was no outburst in the heat of a debate. He wasn’t reacting to a stressful situation. It also wasn’t a talk show appearance that went sour, nor was it a barroom brawl. He wasn’t caught off guard at his home or his office or a campaign event.

This was an emboldened, out-of-touch, arrogant elected official who woke up one day last week and made a conscious decision to go to Planned Parenthood for the express purpose of fighting and badgering.

And he chose a woman, standing by herself. And he didn’t start a dialogue. He didn’t introduce himself. He badgered her. Repeatedly. Relentlessly. Angrily. He badgered an enemy he himself described as an old lady.

Then he badgered women younger than he, asking his Twitter following to identify them and expose them for the crime of being anti-abortion.

Sims not only chose to do this; he did this with malice aforethought.

And how do we know that? Because he himself filmed it. This wasn’t caught on film by an anti-abortion activist or passerby. Sims filmed it all on purpose. Then having done these things, having behaved this way and then, presumably, having viewed this film, he released it with great fanfare and regaled himself for what he had done and asked people to send money to, in essence, support their shared views, values, and cause.

We must reflect on this. This is the extreme Left acting out in public in exactly the manner they ascribe to conservatives: confrontational, intimidating, police tactics, berating women, threatening the First Amendment.

The one point Zito misses is something I have read elsewhere. She reports, "Then he badgered women younger than he." Well, yes. From other accounts it appears that they were 15 and 16. If accurate, this gets a little more repulsive than it already is. An adult male member of the government verbally assaulting young girls while threatening to dox them. For no reason than that he disagrees with their legal and common opinion about abortion.

The radical fringe seems to be determined to prove to the mainstream population that the radical fringe are evil and should not be entertained as part of the community. That is not a desirable outcome but it seems like the goal towards which they are working. They want to be the Westboro Baptists of the radical progressive movement.

Sims seems to have consciously chosen to be the public progressive face of intolerance, hatred, bigotry, violence and totalitarian coercion. It is not an attractive face. And what kind of mind makes that deliberate choice is baffling.