While we justifiably have bashed the heck out of radical progressive Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, it’s important to remember that it can always get worse.

Wheeler made something of a flip this week when he finally criticized the rioters in his city for the “attempted murder” of the police, as we reported.

Of course, one of his major concerns seemed to be that their rioting might become the “b-roll” for the reelection of President Donald Trump, as he said.

What great concern for his citizens.

But at least he still condemned the effort to try to trap the police in the building and burn them alive.

KGW tried to reach out to every sitting city commissioner to get their reaction to Wheeler’s statements including Joanne Hardesty, Chloe Eudaly and Amanda Fritz. Not one of them would respond and denounce the violence.

Wheeler’s opponent, Sarah Iannarone, who he faces in a run-off in November did respond and refused to denounce it on air, even downplaying it, suggesting it was just “petty vandalism.” The reporter, Laurel Porter, pressed her to respond. How do you have a candidate who refuses to denounce trying to burn people alive inside a building? Here she is, check it out, starting at 1:33.

Obviously, her campaign realized that there was a problem with her response to Porter and she sent in a statement trying to clean it up saying the “criminal activity is illegal, and of course I don’t condone it” and “I condemn arson, obviously.” What’s interesting about the statement is she still didn’t condemn the specific actions taken by the radicals that night, does she believe their actions were “arson” and not “petty vandalism” now?

This is pretty scary stuff when she dances around answering what should be a no-brainer on air and she has a real possibility of becoming mayor of a formerly great city.

It’s more than a little scary when it’s random little old ladies and folks in their homes standing up to Antifa than the politicians who are supposed to be doing their jobs to protect citizens.

But this isn’t just about Portland, as we’ve seen. This is a growing issue in the country, as we see radical progressives or outright socialists winning elections and/or pushing the Democrats further and further to the extreme left. It’s why Democrats will destroy themselves as a party. If they haven’t already. And it’s why if we have to crawl over broken glass to get to the voting booth to reject the Democrats and reject the insanity, we must do so in November.