Democrats are in an uproar over the death of anti-ICE activist Renee Nicole Good, killed Wednesday when she drove her car toward an ICE agent while engaged in obstructing their work. This includes Hawai‘i Sen. Brian Schatz, Sen. Mazie Hirono, and Rep. Jill Tokuda, whose commentary aren’t really getting any scrutiny locally.
First thing I notice is that Schatz and Tokuda used their personal X accounts, rather than their official accounts. Right off the bat this tells me they’re trying to put some distance between their words and their public role, as if that were possible. They don’t write under pseudonyms.
Schatz had this to say on his personal X feed:
Tokuda posted this:
So a lot of finger-pointing here, but none where it belongs. What is it that put Good out on the street in the first place? What led her and her wife to join something called ICE Watch, organizing with fellow travelers to willfully going out to interfere with ICE operations?
Someone planted in her head the idea that she was resisting an illegal authoritarian regime and for that, we can thank, in part, Schatz and Tokuda themselves, who have been enthusiastic purveyors of such language for years.
I’ve written before about Schatz’s overheated rhetoric.
Here's Tokuda, just one day prior to the Minneapolis incident, doing something similar, albeit with a more pleasant demeanor.
That post opens with a lie. There was no insurrection. There was a riot, mostly spontaneous. What impact do you think it has when a Congressional representative keeps insisting that there had been one? (And isn't it odd the way the word "propaganda" figures so prominently in her post?)
Our democracy endured because it was never threatened in the first place. And in this defense of democracy that she’s praising, surely Tokuda remembers that it included shooting a woman to death?
The federal action she’s praising includes Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd killing Ashli Babbitt.
Comparing her two messages, one might conclude that when feds shoot a woman trespassing in her workplace, it’s good and honorable, but when they do so protecting themselves or our communities, it’s an impeachable crime.
Here's Hirono, using the word "regime" deliberately, still sending the message that there is some evil to resist:
Rep. Ed Case, at this writing, doesn't seem to have posted anything about the ICE shooting. On the subject at hand, there is this recent, more ambiguous post. Something important happened, something unsaid, we're supposed to remember what.
Schatz, Tokuda, and Hirono, are among a chorus of voices that have been radicalizing their followers to regular and ongoing protests and obstruction of federal law enforcement. Now they're waving the bloody shirt of the woman they radicalized to further their political obstruction of a duly elected president, in furtherance of … what, exactly?
Bizarrely, the wholesale embrace of an entire category of lawbreakers. For some inexplicable reason, Democrats have chosen, as the hill they expect other people to die upon, illegal immigrants rather than the citizens who actually elected them.
You can sympathize with those who broke the law in pursuit of a better life in America, but the fact is, even the sweetest and kindest of them are quite literally outlaws. They can no more expect to stay than you or I could if we took a trip somewhere and just never came home. There isn't a nation on Earth that wouldn't send us back for breaking their immigration laws.
The weirdest thing of all is, the Democrats have been doing this so loudly and for so long, that you almost have to work to remember: This is insane!
It’s not just the things that Schatz, Tokuda and Hirono say that makes things worse. It’s what they don’t say. They know full well that Congress itself passed the immigration laws that the Trump administration is enforcing. These laws are binding on the executive branch. Trump didn't make up these laws and agencies out of thin air. Congress did. It’s interesting that the “my democracy!” crowd, always prattling on about the supposed authoritarian Trump, never takes responsibility for having passed these laws in first place, and demonstrates no willingness to change these laws through the democratic process.
If you don’t like the immigration enforcement going on, the grown-up, civilized, democratic thing to do is introduce legislation changing those laws, debate it, vote on it. Instead we have the entire Democratic party, top to bottom, from Congress to street-level obstructionists, attempting to negate duly passed laws through riots, protests, emotional manipulation, foot-stamping temper tantrums and the pursuit of martyrdom.
There’s nothing democratic about any of that. It's emotional totalitarianism in place of peaceful debate.
And side note: If your goal is totally open borders — which would be the net result if the street theater protestors get their way — you better have a plan we can discuss for how America is supposed to support as many as 8 billion people, because that’s who would qualify for entry.
I'll end on this, since Tokuda's post includes a cherry-picked video with narration meant to minimize the danger faced by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Well, there are other videos you might want to consider:
If Hawai‘i's Congressional reps are so concerned about insurrections, they might want to spare a post or two to talk Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz off the ledge of launching Civil War II:
A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.
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A. Kam Napier can be reached at kam@alohastatedaily.com.
