Like most Americans, I watched in horror at what happened in our Capital yesterday. Unlike half of Americans, I watched in horror at the riots that were destroying our country the last 7 months. I have written about and spoken out against those riots many times, so I believe I have a legitimate standing to speak out against the riots yesterday. Those people who stormed the Capital, who threatened people were absolutely wrong, should be arrested, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Sadly, there were too many people who were willfully silent or tacitly supporting the riots that destroyed many of our cities this summer and fall, but now those same people want to take a stand and lecture the rest of us about violence. You cannot support violence in 2020, and then try to stand up against it in 2021. It doesn’t work that way.
Michelle Obama defended and even encouraged the BLM riots which destroyed our cities. She said, “But what has perhaps stayed with me most is the passionate message of justice and empathy that has defined the Black Lives Matter protests around the world.” She spoke reverently about “unity and righteousness of these protests.”
Kamala Harris praised the BLM protests, saying they were “essential” to changing America. She said, "Nothing that we have achieved that has been about progress, in particular around civil rights, has come without a fight, and so I always am going to interpret these protests as an essential component of evolution in our country -- as an essential component or mark of a real democracy,"
Kamala Harris even headed up the Minnesota Freedom Fund which paid the bail of many rioters. And many members of Joe Biden’s staff donated to pay to have the rioters in Minneapolis released from jail. It is very difficult to take Kamala Harris’ outrage at the riots yesterday seriously when just a few months ago she was bailing out rioters.
The media continually referred to the riots this summer and fall as “mostly peaceful protests”. Let’s be clear, “mostly peaceful” means violent. It’s like pregnancy. You’re either pregnant or you’re not. You can’t be “mostly” pregnant. If you’re not 100% pregnant, you’re not. If you’re not 100% peaceful, then you’re violent. I’m sure there were many people yesterday who were peaceful. But the protest wasn’t peaceful, because there was violence.
The facts are important here. During these so-called “mostly peaceful protests” this summer and fall, over 30 people were killed by the “mostly peaceful” protesters, thousands were sent to the hospital with injuries inflicted by the “mostly peaceful” protesters, billions of dollars of damage was done by the “mostly peaceful” protesters, thousands of business owners lost their livelihoods as a result of the “mostly peaceful” protesters. Do these statistics scream “peaceful” or “violent”? But many on the left, supported them for months with zero outrage.
There was no outrage by anyone in the mainstream media at this death and destruction that these “mostly peaceful” protesters caused this summer and fall. There were no “infamy speeches” by Democratic lawmakers. As long as the riots were working to further their cause, no one on the left spoke out against them.
There was not much outrage at the taking over of the city of Seattle this summer, forming the independent nation of CHAZ where people were murdered and raped. No outrage from those outraged yesterday.
It was only when the country had grown so riot-weary, and the riots were hurting his poll numbers, that Joe Biden said anything against the riots. But that was months too late, 30 deaths too many.
And here is the crux of our problem. The intellectual dishonesty of our leaders on both sides of the aisle, and of the media is at a dangerous level. The riots that occurred throughout our country in 2020 should have been covered with the same outrage as the violence that occurred yesterday. But sadly, it wasn’t. Instead of condemning that violence, they lied about it, they covered it up, they spun it.
If the riots this summer and fall were covered honestly by the media, and the politicians cared more about protecting their cities than pushing a politically advantageous narrative, and those riots would have been shut down like all riots should be, then we probably would not have seen the violence we saw yesterday.
Selective outrage, selective enforcement of the law, and selective dissemination of the truth are tearing our country apart.
We as a country should be outraged by all riots, not just the ones by those who don’t share our ideology. Law enforcement should arrest all rioters, not just the ones who have a different party affiliation than their mayor or governor. The whole truth should have been reported on all the riots not shaded to support the reporter’s narrative.
Riots are a legitimate threat to our country and our democracy, and they should be shut down immediately, but the lies, the duplicity and the blindly advancing of political agendas over the truth, are existential threats to our country, and are much harder to deal with than the riots we have seen recently.