In honor of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I took some acrylic paint and put "Never forget" on the rear passenger windows of my car. It was a small gesture, to be sure, but a heartfelt one. Someone later asked me if I got any flack for my statement; I honestly hadn't thought about that, nor would I have cared. I would have relished the opportunity to set some truther or goon straight had they dared say anything to me about it.
That being said, I can't imagine what it would be like to be confronted by an angry leftist for something I have on my car. After all, we've all see the Toyota Prius driving around town with two dozen leftist bumper stickers on it, celebrating Planned Parenthood, environmentalism, gay rights, and every other left-wing cause under the sun. They never worry about some MAGA hat wearing guy attacking them, of course, because Republicans are far more tolerant than our supposedly tolerant political opponents.
But that's a topic for another column.
Last week, a Jewish man in Mequon, Wisconsin — a suburb north of Milwaukee — was driving around with an anti-Hamas bumper sticker on his car. For that, he was confronted by Matthew Arndt, a Green Party candidate running for the House in Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District. Arndt was so triggered by this man's opposition to a terrorist organization that he went on an unhinged tirade at a gas station while the man recorded him.
As I wrote at the time, here's how some of that exchange went:
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"F**k you. F**k Israel. Go f**k yourself," Arndt yelled at the man. "You know what, go post it on f***ing social media! I'm running for Congress here in the 6th District and f**k Israel! Go f**k yourself! F**k the Israel lobby! F**k the neocons!"
"Wow. You're running for Congress?" the man filming said.
"Yeah. You're a piece of s**t," Arndt replied.
"Wow. I'm definitely going to post this," the man said.
"Yeah, you post that, motherf***er," Arndt yelled. "The whole country's against you, you piece of s**t. You and all these f***ers that are voting to merge our military with Israel's are f***ing traitors."
What a peach.
Arndt was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct with a hate crime enhancer. As of right now, a search of Wisconsin's Circuit Court Access system does not show that he's been formally charged by the Ozaukee County District Attorney's office. I reached out to the DA's office for a timeline on possible charges, and will update if and when they respond.
In the meantime, I wasn't surprised to see Cenk Uygur come out in favor of political candidates abusing Jewish voters, calling it "free speech."
Matthew Arndt is Congressional candidate in Wisconsin who was just arrested for saying, "F**k Israel." Are you kidding me? They said it was a hate crime. No, that is 100% within our freedom of speech. We're not going to let a foreign country take our rights from us. F**k Israel!
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) October 11, 2026
What a fundamental misrepresentation of what happened. If you go to my original story, you can watch the entire, unedited video (I'll add a NSFW language warning if you do). This wasn't Arndt saying "f**k Israel" and moving on. It was a minutes-long, expletive-filled tirade against a private citizen.
And, no. You do not have a First Amendment right to harass a private citizen. Much in the same way that leftist mobs do not have the right to block roads, burn down businesses, and harass people under the guise of "free speech" and "protest." The First Amendment covers peaceable assembly and redressing the government for grievances. Bullying, rioting, intimidation, and the takeover of public spaces do not fall under that purview.
It wasn't because Arndt said "f**k Israel," distasteful as that may be. It was because he violently confronted a man in public, while that man had a child in his vehicle, that landed Arndt in handcuffs. I understand Democrats do not care about children unless their parents are violent criminal illegal aliens, but some consistency would be nice. After being outraged about the lawful and necessary ICE stop in NYC where a child was in the vehicle, the same should apply to this man's child, too, no?
Of course, there's also a fundamental difference: that criminal illegal alien was breaking the law and did not care about the child's wellbeing. This man was simply driving to get gas, which isn't illegal.
But what the First Amendment does prohibit is the government stifling free speech. Putting an anti-Hamas bumper sticker on one's vehicle certainly falls under that, yet a wannabe elected official was so triggered by a Jewish man's opposition to a terrorist group that he assaulted the man in public. That has a chilling effect on free speech.