Swinging fists, rowdy ranting, dashes for the dais and sabotaged speeches have become the new normal in this topsy-turvy political season. To explain it all, two theories seem to have emerged: hot-blooded political harangues that force the normally mellow partisan into sheer rage, or the sinister plots of the Machiavellian and Marxist left to deftly penetrate and short-circuit the peaceful law-abiding free speech rights of a legitimately aroused and angry electorate.

So we’ve heard that it’s all Bernie’s fault for failing to control his people and their nefarious organized and organizing rabble-rousers. We’ve heard that it’s Donald’s fault because his rancorous rhetoric has gone ballistic and cannot help but shake the Richter scale of polite political equilibrium. Even conspiratorial thinkers suggest that it’s all due to a sordid deal with the devil between establishment Republicans and establishment Democrats to get the troublesome campaigns of the political outsiders back under control. So who’s to blame in the blame game of voter violence?

To begin, we must not diminish or depreciate our American First Amendment rights of free speech and the freedom to assemble. Protest is a great American pastime and a great American tradition. But it is also a civil liberty granted by the Bill of Rights. However, when does protest cease to be protest and become disruption, agitation, and thus an alien intrusion and assault on a cherished liberty? And when do words become provocative and transgress the limits of freedom of speech? It is unconstitutional to cry “fire!” in a crowded theater. But isn’t it constitutional to stoke political fires in a crowded theater rented for attendees who share the same political perspectives?

If we are to assign blame for voter violence, it is helpful to remember a truism. If you throw mud, you too will get dirty. And if you throw punches, you’ll get a bloody nose. If you throw insults you will evoke consternation in return. The point is that all sides are guilty of arousing hostility. Yet hostility that eclipses the free speech of another has gone beyond legitimate free speech because it results in the diminution of the liberty of another. But for all that, it is also true that incessant insults and personal assaults create the temptation for hostile verbal counter-attacks.

So who is really to blame in the blame game of voter violence? It ultimately is neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. It is not Donald or Bernie, Hillary or Ted, let alone Governor Kasich or Senator Rubio. The ultimate person responsible and worthy of blame is the one who long ago blamed God and his wife for his deadly dire political decision to follow the advice of the crafty one in the Garden. Indeed, Adam’s blame game was enabled by an interloper and agitator who once in glory was named Lucifer. Interestingly, this is the very one to whom the arch radical Saul Alinsky, the political prophet of the left, once dedicated his classic treatise for disruptors entitled, The Rules for Radicals.

All said, we do well to remember the wisdom of James 3:14-16, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” This is a wise reminder and sage advice for the sons of Adam on all sides of the political spectrum who are becoming all too skilled in the political blame game.

Read More On original sin, public theology

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