Boston, Massachusetts, mayor Michelle Wu has done a decent job of making enemies on both sides of the aisle. The Democrat Mayor is often subject to disruptive first amendment exercises, which have become a list of names.
According to reports, the Boston Police Department requested a list of those names from the Mayor’s office. You could assume (true or not) that they intended to determine if any of them presented any real threat to the Mayor. And while that sounds like something the police are supposed to do, if the list reads like a who’s who of your political opposition on either side of the aisle, as Mayor, your first response should be to stop the list from leaving your office.
The optics are terrible.
Walking along a parade route with a bullhorn shouting at you for 90 minutes is annoying but protected speech. Business owners who objected to targeted taxes directed at them are also among the names, according to Fox News, and why would you even mention them? There are even political opponents who oppose vaccine mandates, which looks petty.
It happened, and now Mayor Wu’s enemies list is national news.
But that’s not what got my attention.
The report invokes Nixon’s name several times, but that story is fifty years old. Why reach that far back when there are examples nearer to our own that were more devious or sinister and – given Wu’s party affiliation, Democrat?
Hillary Clinton had stacks of FBI files on her husband’s “enemies” and used to build dossiers for future use when needed. Rumor has it Obama did the same thing.
Obama is credited with the partisan weaponization of the intelligence and surveillance states against his citizens and (more famously) used the IRS to infringe on the rights of non-profit groups to engage in opposition speech before the 2012 Election with no cries of interference from the Left. The IRS stonewalled and delayed applications for non-profit status, demanding unnecessary details not required from left-wing groups. There were threats of audits against organizers, lawfare, and other forms of intimidation.
That same administration later targeted and spied on a presidential candidate, using the weaponized FBI to target the same man as President, along with his campaign and White House Staff.
Again and again, the Left has shown their inclination to develop and work enemies lists, including – more recently, the railroading of J6 protesters incarcerated without due process rights and parents who spoke out at school board meetings.
By comparison, Nixon’s list looks like a love letter, so why pick him? He was a Republican. Better to remind us of that than the more egregious violations perpetrated by more recent Democrat administrations. All of which begs another question. Who asked the Boston Police to ask the Mayor’s office for a list?
That might be the best story of all.
HT | Gateway Pundit