A few weeks ago I was invited by the Republican Party of Sullivan County, New Hampshire to speak up there; then after the event, Sullivan County party Chairman Steven Smith issued a cowardly apology for my having spoken (even though he didn’t attend): Leftist politicians and media criticized the event with the usual smears and slanders, and so Smith had to jump at their bidding. I noted at that time that the Republicans richly deserved the label “the Stupid Party”; the Democrats, however, deserve the sobriquet “the Evil Party” just as much, as Raymond Buckley, Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, abundantly illustrates.
Buckley is a big man in the tiny world of New Hampshire local politics. Besides being Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, he is president of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, and vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee. In the run-up to my event there, he called me a “white supremacist,” apparently having confused me with Richard Spencer, and refused to retract when repeatedly asked to do so. I wrote to him asking for a retraction; he did not respond. My lawyer wrote to him asking him for a retraction; he did not respond. We are now discussing further legal action against this brazen and unrepentant liar for his libel.
The whole incident raises several important questions about the Democrats’ lust for power – and that of the Left in general. How much does Raymond Buckley want power? How much do his colleagues and friends? Enough to say or do anything, no matter how flagrantly dishonest, in order to get what they want? When Raymond Buckley began his career in public service, did he think, “I will defame and destroy anyone I need to in order to get what I want?” Or was his descent a gradual thing?
When he issued his statement calling me a white supremacist, Buckley had every reason to know that it wasn’t true. I’ve written 19 books and thousands of articles, and neither Raymond Buckley of the New Hampshire Democratic Party nor anyone else can find even a single racist statement in any of them. Yet Buckley was willing to attach this label to me, and to double down when corrected instead of behaving the way any decent human being would have and retracting his claim, despite almost certainly being aware that calling me this, as well as “anti-Muslim,” which I am not either, left me vulnerable not only to further vilification and abuse from your friends and allies, but to outright violence from the increasingly unhinged street enforcers of the hard-Left known as Antifa.
Is this something that makes Raymond Buckley happy? Yes, it very likely does. Of course, I have no illusions. I know I am not in the least important to him, and that my appearance in his state was just a stick he thought he could use to beat the Republicans, who were weak and spineless enough to give him what he wanted on a platter. He knew he could play the Stupid Party like a cheap fiddle, and he did. After that, I’m sure he hasn’t given the incident another thought, except perhaps a moment of annoyance as he chucked my lawyer’s letter into the trash.
But the whole incident does make me wonder: does Raymond Buckley have, at long last, any decency left? Does he have any conscience at all? Do the other Democrats in New Hampshire, or in the nation at large? Is there any line that they wouldn’t cross in destroying people so that they can gain or keep political power? The impeachment proceedings in search of a crime against President Trump strongly suggest that the answer is no, there is no line they will not cross, nothing they will not do. The national Democrats are clearly willing to destroy our very system of government in their quest for partisan dominance, and my unpleasant experience up in New England shows that this impulse didn’t spring out of nowhere. It is an initiative with large-scale grass roots support.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facbook here.
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