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Portland descending into leftist madness

By Rachel Alexander
web posted August 13, 2018

Portland, Oregon has gradually become the laughingstock of the country. The far left began moving there in droves a few years ago, taking over the city and transforming it to their liking. Taxes and regulations increased. Many of the changes involved implementing more aggressive environmental laws, some which seemed based on junk science. Money was directed into public transit instead of relieving motor vehicle traffic congestion, leading to the fifth worst traffic in the nation. The TV comedy Portlandia emerged, making fun of the city’s nuttiest aspects.  

The far left in Portland became obsessed with protesting white supremacy through violence. They claim that Portland is full of white supremacists who must be stopped — but that only makes the left look bad, since Portland is now predominantly comprised of the left. The history of racism that once plagued the state has mostly dissipated, as generations have died out and laws have been rescinded. Notably, all the lefties moving there aren’t making the city more diverse. It is one of the whitest big cities in the U.S., at almost 78 percent. Only 2.2 percent of the population is black.

Since Portland’s left cannot find many real white supremacists to complain about, they falsely label conservatives as fascists, Nazis and white supremacists. The right-leaning organization Patriot Prayer, which was founded and led by non-whites, has attempted to hold rallies in the city. The far left refers to Patriot Prayer as the alt-right, in order to lump them in with white supremacists. But this isn’t true. Founder Joey Gibson, who is half-Japanese, says his ideology is libertarian. The rallies are given patriotic names like “Stand Against Communism” and “Freedom March.”  

The Patriot Prayer demonstrators are met with violent protests by Black Bloc and the ironically named Antifa. Antifa claims to stand for anti-fascism, but their tactics of suppressing conservative speech through violence is akin to fascism. The lefty anarchists dress in black with their faces covered up to avoid identification by the police. They hurl fireworks, rocks and bottles at the demonstrators and police. The police wear heavy armor to avoid being hurt and launch flash-bang grenades to disperse the fighting. Gibson reports being attacked multiple times at his rallies. The counterprotesters are often successful at getting the police to shut the rallies down.  

Recently Patriot Prayer held another rally. Predictably, counterprotesters engaged in violence. Activists struck a reporter from The Oregonian/OregonLive in the head, drawing blood. A major thoroughfare, Naito Parkway, was shut down for much of the day. At least four people were arrested.

In June, Antifa and other radical activists advocating for open borders surrounded the local ICE office. They trapped workers inside and got the office shut down for a week. Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as police commissioner, refused to provide officers to diffuse the situation. He tweeted, “I do not want the @PortlandPolice to be engaged or sucked into a conflict, particularly from a federal agency that I believe is on the wrong track. If [ICE is] looking for a bailout from this mayor, they are looking in the wrong place.”

After a week, federal police from out of state finally showed up to re-open the office. Protesters camped out for 38 days, leaving feces and dirty needles behind. They held signs that labeled ICE employees as Nazis and white supremacists. They harassed a family that operated a food cart across from the ICE office until the family shut it down.

Last year, a burrito restaurant operated by two white women was forced to close after activists accused the pair of “cultural appropriation” for learning to make tortillas from women in Mexico. The Portland Mercury called the closure a victory, "Because of Portland’s underlying racism, the people who rightly own these traditions and cultures that exist are already treated poorly."

Imagining racism where very little exists serves no purpose but to exacerbate racial tensions. The left claims that the right is full of white supremacists. But if that’s true, why is far left Portland home to more white supremacist accusations than other areas of the country? And if the left is such a mecca for minorities, why aren’t they flocking to Portland? The truth is when the far left takes over, you can expect elements of racism (toward right-leaning minorities in particular), anarchy and fascism, which doesn’t make for a very pleasant place to live. ESR

Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, and other publications.

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