Graham: The New Hampshire Democrats' Double Standard On Politics And Violence

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Portsmouth Democratic state Rep. Ned Raynolds wants you to know that when he told House Majority Leader Jason Osborne he wanted to “put you on the ground and rub gravel in your face. And make you eat sh*t,” he didn’t mean it in a violent way.

“If you read my (message) carefully, it’s insulting, it’s profane, but it’s not a sense of violence,” Raynolds told Seacoastonline. Instead, he called it an “invitation.”

Raynolds means it, too. It’s a fringe benefit of being part of the political left: You’re never the bad guy. Even when you want to beat the crap out of someone over their politics.

Here is Raynolds’ full “invitation” to Osborne:

“How about this you pssy? Come on over to Portsmouth and meet me in the middle of Market Square. No weapons, no posse – just you & me. We’ll stop traffic, and I’ll put you on the ground and rub gravel in your face. And make you eat sht.”

It’s not as offensively juvenile as last week’s post from the fringe nutters kicked out of the Libertarian Party supporting the assassination of elected New Hampshire Democrats. But it is more egregious than the tasteless Holocaust joke tweeted by GOP Rep. Travis Corcoran.

The difference, as GOP Reps. Ross Berry and Joe Sweeney got Democrats to admit, is the double standard when it comes to violent or hateful rhetoric from the right vs. the left.

Rep. Alexis Simpson, leader of the House Democratic Caucus, led the charge to censure Corcoran for a joke referencing the “Final Solution” while mocking theater majors and karaoke. No violence, or even a hint of it.

And when a group of attention-seeking goons used their control of an X account that once belonged to the state’s Libertarian Party to endorse assassination, Simpson was all over it.

“Regardless of party, every leader has a responsibility to reject this dangerous rhetoric,” Simpson said in a statement.

But when it’s a Democrat, the standards change.

That was the point Berry and Sweeney — the Penn and Teller of the New Hampshire State House — were making when they called for Simpson to demand Raynolds’ resignation. They knew she never would, not even for an outgoing House member who isn’t on the November ballot.

The top Democrat came through.

“Simpson stopped short of requesting Raynolds’ resignation,” Seacoastonline reported. (Simpson would not respond to requests for comment from NHJournal.)

“To reiterate, political disagreements should be settled through democratic processes and debate, not violence,” Simpson’s statement says. “I said this when Rep. Osborne called young men to ‘war,’ I said it when extremists called for the assassination of Democrats last week, and I say it to members of my own caucus who propose fistfights. Violent rhetoric has no place in our politics.”

It’s nonsense, of course. Democratic political rhetoric is full of calls for violence. What does “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” mean, other than to wipe the Jews of Israel off the map? The part of historic Palestine that is within the borders of Israel today is free. Arabs vote and hold public office there. Muslims and Christians openly practice their faith there. Gay couples get married there. (Try that in Gaza or the West Bank.)

What Democrats mean is Palestine will be free … of Jews.

Progressive politics made a hero out of Luigi Mangione for murdering a health care executive. The DSA Liberation Caucus praised the murder of two people outside the Capital Jewish Museum, calling the killings “righteous.” Many liberals insist that the rioters who attacked police and burned buildings from Seattle to Minneapolis were the good guys.

And some Granite State lefties even lost their jobs after publicly praising Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Noah Rothman, author of “Blood and Progress,” recently called for “just acknowledging the evidence all around us of this pronounced wave of left-wing violence that we’re in now.”

A September 2025 analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies independently found that left-wing terrorism had increased over the preceding decade and that left-wing attacks and plots outnumbered right-wing incidents during the first part of 2025.

Perhaps the most mainstream form of Democrat-endorsed violent rhetoric is the kind directed at President Donald Trump.

According to a recent survey, one third of Democrats would have a positive reaction if Trump were assassinated at a rally. A majority said they would feel good hearing that Trump died in his sleep.

You can practically see the banner flying outside progressive homes in Portsmouth or Keene: “In this house, we embrace tolerance, diversity … and pumping a couple of rounds into President Trump!”

Simpson is right: Violent rhetoric has no place in our politics. But that principle means little if it produces outrage for opponents and no consequences for friends.

Raynolds issued his “invitation.” Simpson has an invitation of her own: Show that the standard she demands of Republicans applies to Democrats, too.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.