If there's anything that ought to give everyone the creeps, it's the idea of Antifa running whole cities. It's the idea of Antifa no longer being crushed like bugs for their rioting and looting, but instead simply taking over. Imagine a city run by Antifa. Image a gargantuan CHOP zone with no place to run. Imagine Antifa as the stodgy establishment, there to conserve the ways of Antifa. Incredible as that sounds, we see signs of that happening in Portland and Denver, not just turning those cities to rubble, but destined to eventually take over a hollowed out Democratic Party and go national.

Sure, it sounds crazy. But examples of Antifa's presence, not in the streets, but now in the halls of government, abound.

Via Instapundit, here's the first one, from the Blaze:

When she is asked if she is "Antifa," [Portland mayoral frontrunner Sarah] Iannarone replied, "Antifa is not anything more than an idea, that's what vice president Biden explained to us. It's people who oppose anti-fascism. And I strongly oppose anti-fascism and I adopt and implement peaceful responses to that. And that is how I describe my position on this issue."

"Donald Trump has decided to make the enemy of groups of people who oppose his bullies and his militia forces," she continued. "But I'm not going to be caught up in that rhetoric because it's false. It creates division in our society. It creates division in our city. What we need is every single Portlander faced in the right direction, saying 'Hate is not welcome here.'"

Notice the evasion. Notice the airy -- and false -- bid to claim that the organization does not exist. In the 1950s, the mafia used to do that, claim it didn't exist, in a bid to keep the lawmen away. Conspiratorial groups do that. Heck, the devil does that, his most clever lie reportedly being the lie that he doesn't exist. Iannarone is undoubtedly an Antifa sympathizer and quite likely more. By some reports, she's reputed around Portland to be an actual member of Antifa. It's impossible to say so at this point but at a minimum, she's an unusually strange sympatizer, mouthing their party line, and leading in the polls.

Here's another one, this time from Denver, exposed by Project Veritas's James O'Keefe:

BREAKING: Denver area @coloradodems exec committee and @OurRevolution chair @Kyoti00 “2020 is a political revolution”; “Want to change this country,with violence...there’s only one way to do it.”; "Guillotines mother f**ker"; “Killing random Nazis in the street”#ArmedRevolution pic.twitter.com/QnmqHdrJ8o

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) October 13, 2020

This radical is a leader in the Democratic Party? Seems the Bernie candidacy opened a lot of gates, and the Bernieites, remember, told the O'Keefe crew back in Iowa that they intended to make cities "burn" if they didn't get their political way. Now they're running Denver.

The first question to be asked is whether Antifa presence is so strong in these places the the law no longer exists. Is this why Antifa members can and have rioted for more than 100 days in Portland without any repercussions? The cops can round them up in the act all they like but the city officials will always be there to ensure the charges are dropped and Antifa walks free. We know this has happened in Portland, where dozens of the most egregious violent rioters, some 66 at last count. have been let out of jail scot-free. It's almost as if Antifa runs these places. And if these officials really are Antifa as appears to be the case in both cities, you can bet there's a whole nest of them burrowing away and becoming the establishment. It certainly explains why liberal fools such as current Mayor Ted Wheeler act afraid of them, and do nothing but kowtow to their will.

In Los Angeles, there appear to be signs of radical leftist groups infiltrating government by getting onto city commissions on youth, prisoners and other favored special interest groups. Some of them talk of the importance of destroying California's missions. What a coincidence, the Mission San Gabriel, was severely damaged in a fire in July. 

It seems that Antifa is everywhere. And wherever it does rule, cities go to hell. They're like a cancer or parasite on the body politic, eating away at and destroying the host that feeds them, and then claiming no such cancers exist.

If that's not a message to crack down hardest on them, what is?

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of public domain images.