Shapiro v. Clooney: Two Democrat Parties – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

I live in suburban Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Across the Susquehanna River and a couple of miles distant from downtown Harrisburg, where, on the just-back-from-the-banks of the Susquehanna, behind a black fence, sits the official, decidedly majestic, Governor’s Mansion that Pennsylvanians provide for their sitting Governor.

I’ve been in it somewhere along life’s road. Built in 1968, a successor to the line of official residences following the first governor’s residence purchased by the state in 1858, the Georgian-style building is beautiful. Filled with Pennsylvania history, it has been home to eight Pennsylvania governors.

The current occupant is Governor Josh Shapiro. The governor, a Democrat, is, like a couple of his predecessors, also Jewish. (RELATED: Who Is Josh Shapiro?)

Did that last fact launch the 2:00 in the morning attack on the governor this past Sunday? In which attacker Cody Balmer, 38, managed to squeeze through the black iron fence surrounding the Mansion, break a window, and toss two Molotov cocktails inside, setting the building on fire while the governor and family were sound asleep inside. A fire that did serious damage to a section of the history-laden building. (RELATED: The Left Loves Political Violence)

At this moment, Balmer’s motives beyond an expressed dislike for Shapiro are not known. There is, without doubt, a belief by many — the governor included (and I’m one as well) — that this attack was indeed motivated by antisemitism.

The governor was awakened by state police guards pounding on his door who quickly evacuated the governor and his family, which included four children, two dogs, and a visiting family member.

On Monday, Shapiro faced the TV cameras and read a statement that said, in part:

This type of violence is not okay. I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other, directed at one particular party or another, one particular person or another, it is not okay, and it has to stop. We have to be better than this.

Well, amen to that. The governor has it exactly right.

Now. Let’s contrast this statement to a new Broadway play from another Democrat altogether — left-wing movie star George Clooney.

The play, Good Night and Good Luck, is based on the film Clooney made a while back on the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and Murrow’s battles with the anti-Communist Senator Joe McCarthy. As it happens, Clay Travis, co-host of radio’s Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show, took some New York City time to take in the show. Then he took to X to write:

Just back from George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck,” Broadway play, which is a story about the importance of trust & honesty in news. The play ends with Elon Musk on screen allegedly giving a Nazi salute. The crowd gasps. Except Musk wasn’t giving a Nazi salute, he was tapping his heart to express love for the crowd around him.

Bingo.

Take these two episodes together, and a sharp picture is drawn between the Party of Shapiro and the Party of Clooney.

Governor Shapiro, having experienced violence up close, looks Pennsylvanians and the nation in the television eye and says that “We have to be better than this.”

But Clooney? None of that from ole George. To the contrary, he goes out of his way to foist a photo of Elon Musk on his play audience — intimating falsely that Musk was in fact giving the Nazi salute. When in fact, as noted over here in Outkick, Musk “was tapping his heart to express love for the crowd around him.”

So, the reality here? On the one hand, there is Pennsylvania’s Governor Shapiro, newly off a decidedly violent threat to himself and his family, saying that “We have to be better than this.”

And in contrast, there is George Clooney spreading a decided untruth about Elon Musk. In a Broadway play, no less.

The obvious: What if some crazy out there is incited to violence against Elon Musk because they believe Clooney’s untruth? Then what?

Another obvious.

There is a divide — a serious divide — on the American Left and today’s Democrat Party when it comes to violence.

One side, as evidenced by Governor Shapiro, has experienced that violence first hand, and quite openly and publicly says that “it has to stop. We have to be better than this.”

On the other side, all too happy to spread an inciting false photo of Elon Musk, are George Clooney and some of his fellow Leftists. That is the side of the Party that calls the president of the United States a Hitler or, as with Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett, calls Trump a “thug.” Or, as with New York’s Rep. Dan Goldman, says the President is “dangerous” and “has to be eliminated.” (In fairness, Goldman later apologized. Good for him.) Democrats have repeatedly used violent rhetoric against the former president: “Time to put Trump in a bullseye.” (RELATED: Rep. Jasmine Crockett: The New GOP Asset)

In short, as the arson attack on Governor Shapiro illustrates, there is no room in this country for inciting violence.

Governor Shapiro gets it.

The question is: When will the rest of his party — the Clooney wing — catch up with his leadership?

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