Eric Holder: ‘When They Go Low, We Kick Them. That’s What This New Democratic Party Is About.’

For the second time this week, a leading Democratic voice is proposing that the party pursue a meaner, more combative approach — with this one going so far as to allude to metaphorical violence.

In an undated video that appears to have come from a campaign swing in Georgia on Sunday, former attorney general Eric Holder notes former first lady Michelle Obama’s high-minded 2016 slogan, “When they go low, we go high.” Then he makes clear he disagrees.

“No, no,” Holder says. “When they go low, we kick ’em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.”

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“When I say we, you know, ‘We kick ‘em,’ I don’t mean we do anything inappropriate. We don’t do anything illegal,” Holder said. “But we got to be tough, and we have to fight for the very things that [civil rights leaders] John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Whitney Young – you know, all those folks gave to us.”

{snip} His comments surfaced just after 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton suggested that Democrats can’t afford to be civil with Republicans if they want to retake power.

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Democrats as a party have struggled with just how much to adopt the kind of tactics employed by President Trump and Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Trump has regularly alluded to and even egged on potential violence at his rallies and encouraged crowds to chant that his political opponents should be “locked up.”

Democratic leaders earlier this year balked when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) suggested that Democrats should effectively harass Trump administration officials in public. Clinton’s and Holder’s comments, though, suggest that even establishment Democrats are warming to a more confrontational approach. {snip}