“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” … but only if antifa thugs say it can smell sweet. At least that’s the lesson learned from the cancellation of the 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade in East Portland, Ore.

The parade is an annual tradition in East Portland, with various local groups marching together in a show of community spirit as part of the city’s Rose Festival. That’s until the fascistic antifa movement became a thing.

The antifa losers didn’t like the fact that a local Republican group would be participating in the parade, as they have been for several years. Falsely claiming that the Republicans had invited neo-nazis to march with them, the antifa radicals wrote an email to the parade organizers threatening to use violence during the parade.

The threatening email, sent by [email protected], referred to previous protests and warned, “You have seen how much power we have downtown and that the police cannot stop us from shutting down roads so please consider your decision wisely.”

The subject line was, “Don’t make us shutdown the parade.”

A group called The Direct Action Alliance had organized a “Defend Portland from Fascists at the Avenue of Roses Parade” Facebook page and is likely behind the threats. In a hilarious statement lacking in a shred of self-awareness, the alliance said:

“[W]e intended to stand between them and those who they wanted to intimidate. We intended to block out their hate and shut down their violence.”

Sadly for the antifas, they needn’t go through the trouble of covering their cowardly faces behind masks because the parade – and the associated carnival – has been canceled by the equally cowardly parade organizers. How refreshing it would have been had they stood up to the thug faction in their community and let the festivities go on. But this is Portland, where double-decker bicycles and fascist liberal thugs reign supreme.

The local GOP group that was threatened with violence, however, holds out hope that things in the city will improve.

“The road to fascism begins with armed gangs of thugs using violence to shut down opposing points of view,” Mr. [James L.] Buchal said in a Tuesday statement. “The question now is whether the City of Portland will be complicit in such conduct. We hope the City’s new leadership has the courage to respond to these threats appropriately.”

Indeed.