How Biden Blasted Back
Rioting… Looting… Setting fires… None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted. Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way.
—Joe Biden, Aug 31
Aug 31, 2020—
Joe Biden shouldn’t need to say that. He’s always been a strong supporter of the Black community—as they proved by handing him the nomination. And everyone knows he’s no left-wing radical. But Trump spent his convention pushing a clever lie:
- He “doesn’t have the strength to stand up to wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders …” He’ll let the “radical left defund police departments.”
- “The Republican Party condemns rioting, looting, arson, … in the strongest possible terms,” but …
- “Biden and his supporters were completely silent about the rioters … never even mentioned it during their entire convention.”
Over the weekend, political observers warned Biden to fire back and prove the obvious. He did a great job of it on Monday. But he’ll have to keep saying that along with his smashing counterattack:
Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?
So what’s the big deal? Coming out against rioting, looting, and arson — nothing should be easier. Right?
Not if you’re a Democrat and the year is 2020.
You think I’m joking?
Willie Brown, California’s best-known Black politician, explained,
“The biggest threat to a Democratic election sweep in November isn’t the Republican in the White House, but the demonstrators who are tearing up cities in the name of racial justice.”
But then he made his real point:
“The Democrats are in a heck of a bind. If they stand up and condemn the so-called demonstrators, the left wing will label them as Trump flunkies and they’ll be in all sorts of trouble.”
Is Willie Brown right? If a Democrat stands up and condemns the rioters, will left-wing radicals call out that Democrat as a Trump flunky? George Packer, writing in The Atlantic the day before Brown’s op-ed, said: “Democratic leaders are reluctant to draw the wrath of their own progressive base.” That’s Willie Brown’s point exactly.
On the day the Trump convention ended a Democrat tried the experiment. Here’s what Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted:
- Vigilantism is bad.
- Police officers shooting black people in the back is bad.
- Looting and property damage is bad.
- You don’t have to choose. You can be against it all.
It gained 8,400 likes in less than an hour but was viciously attacked by the radical left, just as Willie Brown predicted. Murphy took it down in just 55 minutes.
Yep. Condemn looting and the radical lefties will go after you. Trump loves ‘em.
The radicals cannot tolerate any discussion of looting or arson, because they are on the side of the “protestors” — no matter what. You know, … solidarity!
Lefty looters are still lefties, even if they’re helping Trump. Consequences don’t matter when you’re truly righteous.
This idea was road-tested only a week after George Floyd was murdered. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (White), passionately declared, “Yes, America is burning. But that’s how forests grow.” What?! The Black folks whose businesses had been torched might have begged to differ. And 95% of all Americans would have taken their side.
A Chicago BLM organizer, Ariel Atkins, extended Healeys point:
“I don’t care if somebody decides to loot … That’s a reparation.”
If you’re Black loot away, but White allies? Hands off those Gucci sunglasses.
To deflect criticism away from Atkin’s political blunder, BLM cofounder Aislinn Pulley said discussions of looting “works to distract away from the actual cause of the outrage.”
By mentioning looting, Senator Murphy had committed the PC crime of “distracting.” Of course, the looting and arson were no distraction at all. They were just part of the BLM protest. So Pulley had no need to criticize them.
As you can see above, BLM positioned two banners at the front of its August 15 march celebrating the recent Chicago looting. They read:
“Defund the Chicago Police” and “Loot it all back.”
That’s a Democrat trap and a powerful ready-made commercial for Donald J Trump. And on August 31, Biden took a powerful stand against rioting, looting, and arson. As you can see, in today’s moving-left Democratic Party, that now takes a lot of courage.
Although Biden didn’t say it, he was directly supporting Chicago’s Black Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She had called the looting “straight-up felony, criminal conduct,” which of course “drew the wrath of her own progressive base,” exactly as George Packer had predicted.
BLM Chicago promptly issued a statement admonishing Lightfoot that “she would be wise to understand that the people will keep rising up until the Chicago Police Department is abolished.” In other words, they’d keep looting until the police were abolished and they could loot freely.
Atkins later told NPR that “The whole idea of criminality is based on racism anyway.”
Police reform is essential, but the radical left will continue to tie it to rioting, defunding and abolishing the police — even though this hurts their cause more than Trump can. And Trump will be lying every day, trying to tie Biden to the left radicals.
So Biden needs to speak out just as often to distance Democrats from these radical left positions. And I believe Joe will. He’s going high, like Michelle Obama says. Let’s give him all the support we can.
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Ripped Apart
As a fellow Berkeley student who was distressed by many of our fellow student comrades who seemed to think that smashing windows on Shattuck Avenue back in the late sixties was a revolutionary act, I agree fully with your analysis here. We absolutely must not play into Trump’s hand. Seriously, this could very possibly be our last chance to save our democracy. It’s time for the Left to have fully grown up.
It’s sad to see how the Left, which loves to prick the bubble words of the Right, create their own bubbles. We can understand and sympathize with Black rage, but we need to recognize that the violent actions arising from it often harm grievously the communities that are most deprived of equitable financial and social capital. We all have to keep our eye on the election, and constantly remind ourselves that to the extent we remain a constitutional democracy, the advocates for policies we want have to be elected by a majority of the voters. Voters will not reward candidates or parties that cultivate an indifference to life and property, regardless of whose it is.
It is really crazy how people act against their own best interests and empower those who end up doing them great harm.