How Donald Trump Can Get Back His Law-And-Order Mojo
I have argued in a previous Celeb piece that President Trump has been curiously absent during the unrest and riots
Brad Schaeffer
I have argued in a previous Celeb piece that President Trump has been curiously absent during the unrest and riots that have devastated the streets of some of America’s great cities.
Portland, for example, has been the scene of almost non-stop violence, looting, and destruction of property for two months, since the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of a rogue Minneapolis policeman. We have heard ludicrous commentary from the left that the mayhem and destruction visited upon federal buildings and police stations to private businesses, homes, and public monuments has been “mostly peaceful protest.”
There was even an image of an MSNBC reporter in Minneapolis standing in front of a burning police station and offering that the inferno behind him was “mostly a protest…it is not, generally speaking, unruly.”
Boston Tea Party Riots
CNN news anchor Don Lemon, always one to make excuses for the left, on May 31 likened those torching their neighborhoods and even killing innocents as being the spiritual descendants of the Sons of Liberty;
Our country was started because, the Boston Tea Party. Rioting. So do not get it twisted and think this is something that has never happened before and this is so terrible and these savages and all of that. This is how this country was started.
Alrighty.
Of course, to my knowledge, the men in 1773 who targeted the ships of Great Britain’s East India Tea Company to protest what they believed to be a repressive tax on a particular commodity did not then go rampaging through Boston Harbor and the surrounding blocks setting fire to the wharfs and destroying their own businesses, looting shops and homes while murdering Bostonians in the process. Apparently, Lemon and I took different history classes. Or maybe one of us just skipped the subject altogether?
Media Spin
This may be the media’s spin, as what choice do they have but to obfuscate and gaslight given that every city that is aflame has been run by their benefactors in the Democrat Party for decades, some a half-century?
The American people intuitively know better. And they are learning what the truth is, despite a media so hell-bent on the demise of Donald Trump that they prefer to lay the violence at the feet of police, federal agents, “white supremacists”, and everyone and anyone other than those who are most to blame for infecting these vandals with leftist, anti-American mores that invariably lead to this nihilism: the media, higher academia, the public school systems, those who shape our culture in general, not to mention power-mad politicians for whom instilling resentment among classes and races and fostering division is a cynical, albeit effective, political strategy.
Riots And Protests
Americans have watched with dismay as mayors like Seattle’s Jenny Durkan allowed rioters to take over several square blocks of her city for weeks. Even now, with federal agents on the scene (more on that in a moment), just one day after multiple businesses were vandalized during more protests on Capitol Hill, and ahead of demonstrations expected for this weekend, Durkan said Thursday that she was assured by the Department of Homeland Security that federal agents would not crack down on Seattle protesters as they had in Portland. (I do not know if anyone asked the mayor how vandalizing privately owned businesses was a form of “protest”.) King County Executive Dow Constantine, was less anodyne, tweeting out: “Let me be clear: this community rejects Trump’s unconstitutional use of federal force. It is a transparent attempt to intimidate. But we will not be intimidated.”
Resistance To Assistance
The same resistance to federal assistance can be seen coming from the mayor of my hometown of Chicago. The Windy City has become a killing field, mostly in poor minority neighborhoods where, as a result of George Floyd protests, police presence has been diminished, or disappeared altogether. Homicides are up 40% from this time last year. And, as with Portland and Seattle, vandals destroy public property with impunity.
At one point Chicago Police officers assigned to protect a statue of Christopher Columbus were pelted with projectiles including rocks, glass, even pyrotechnics hurled at them by the surrounding mob. 49 officers, many without helmets, were injured. And yet, as if to show the vandals and rioters that crime does indeed pay in Democrat-controlled Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot approved the statue’s removal in the dead of night. Score one more “W” for anarchy. I know people in my old home. They say the violence has never been so widespread. More than 60 people were shot over the previous weekend. Lori Lightfoot has lost control of her city. But because during the Columbus statue confrontation four protesters were also injured, local elected officials and activists, with Lightfoot’s endorsement, condemned the CPD’s tactics.
Trump Considering Federal Agents
When the president considered sending federal agents to Chicago to help quell the violence that clearly Lightfoot either refuses to acknowledge or is blinded to by her visceral partisanship and Trump-hatred, the mayor said;
Secret, federal agents who do not know Chicago, are unfamiliar with the unique circumstances of our neighborhoods and who would operate outside the established infrastructure of local law enforcement would not be effective, regardless of the number, and worse will foment a massive wave of opposition.
First of all, the obvious question is what “law enforcement” is she talking about? Certainly, the city’s morgues and ERs must be wondering. And what could be those “unique circumstances” of Chicago’s neighborhoods? Hey, here’s one. People are being gunned down on the streets en masse as if it’s Stalingrad 2.0. Could that be what she means?
Portland Is The Epicenter
Portland, as referred to earlier, has been the epicenter of the debate over just how much federal agents should, or are even allowed by law, to intervene when a municipality clearly is unable or unwilling to quell acts of violence on its streets. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has referred to them as “stormtroopers” while Juan Chavez, the director of the far-left Oregon Justice Resource Center declared: “It’s like stop-and-frisk meets Guantanamo Bay.” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) said “they are snatching people off the street with no underlying justification.” Portland’s eunuch Mayor Ted Wheeler has, naturally, sided with the protestors even as his city crumbles.
Again, most Americans watching the nightly scenes of violence and chaos in our streets understand that something very wrong is going on here…not just with the rioters, but among those in the Democratic city halls and halls of Congress who allow it to continue, while their ideological soulmates in the media run interference for them (so long as they stay away from their own posh neighborhoods of course).
Tucker Carlson, Fox News Channel’s conservative prime-time commentator, has even proposed that the complicity with what is clearly an untenable and vile situation on our city streets is all part of a larger plan to sow the seeds of doubt in Americans as to the one polling data that many political operatives know matters most in an election: the direction of the country. Simply put, when Americans believe the country is “headed in the wrong direction” this usually spells doom for the incumbent as people will try any change over the status quo. That incumbent in this case being Donald Trump. Perhaps. Given the lengths Democrats have shown they are willing to go to just to gain power—from trying to destroy a decent and respected jurist’s life, to knowingly proffering the false Russia collusion narrative for three years, to even subjecting the nation to a kangaroo impeachment—nothing would surprise me. But I think it’s more about this: the mayhem and violence we are witnessing is the shared ideology of those running our urban centers coming to its logical fruition, to wit, a desire to destroy any vestige of the American system they have been taught to despise…and those same leftist city officials are intellectually and emotionally ill-equipped to grasp just what is happening to their cities. It’s easier just to blame the police, and now federal agents. And if it helps drag the mentally enfeebled Joe Biden across the finish line of Democrat power in November, so much the better.
Ever since President Trump sent federal agents into Portland to guard federal property, as is well within the rights of the Executive Branch, protests only grew larger and more violent. CNN even reported “a group of rioters gathered near the fencing outside the federal building and began lobbing projectiles at the building and setting fires.”
The Don Lemons of the world may see in those flaming missiles the ghosts of the Continentals, but that is not how the majority of Americans view this. A June poll conducted by Morning Consult found that 58% of voters supported sending in the U.S. military to intervene where there are violent protests. That may seem like a slight majority, but this is also an extreme measure in a nation where civil liberties are supposed to be one of the pillars of our society. Clearly a breaking point among what Nixon referred to during similar chaos in 1971 as “the silent majority” is nearing.
Donald Trump Can Take Back Control
This is where President Trump can make a move that would restore his bona fides as a pro-USA, pro-police, pro-civil order president, and put an end to these uprisings which shed any pretext of being outrage over the Floyd murder a long time ago.
He should step up, over the heads of the feckless mayors more concerned with bankrupt ideologies and partisan politics, and move federal agents in force to quell once and for all activities which could very much be declared acts of domestic terrorism. Before doing so, he could demand just five minutes of prime-time national air time, making it clear that any networks or any of their affiliates that refuse to televise his address will lose their White House Pressroom privileges for a set period. Just five minutes. It need not be a long-winded elocution. Just a brisk, Lincolnesque statement. One that will explain to his dismayed supporters why he has seemed so passive about his country’s burning cities, reassure the American people that he is in charge, and throw down the gauntlet by telegraphing what will happen should the local authorities still refuse to stop it cold.
My Fellow Americans,
I come to you tonight to briefly discuss with you the violence and destruction we have been watching engulf some of America’s great cities over the past two months. When the unrest started, it was due to a legitimate outrage over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a clearly disturbed police officer. That officer is currently under arrest and has been charged with second degree murder. If found guilty, he will be subject to the full force and penalty of the law; he will not get away with it. That is my pledge to you. But what we are seeing now, in Portland, in Seattle, in Minneapolis, Chicago, parts of New York City, Atlanta, and many other urban centers, have little to do with Mr. Floyd’s death. I think most Americans can see that now. What we are seeing is an uprising of a class of ideologues who do not seek justice for Mr. Floyd, or for other victims of apparent if isolated episodes of police brutality, or demand an end to what some see as racial animus in our nation. These are pretexts. Shields behind which they hide their real motives which is the upending and eradication of the entire American experience. They seek to destroy this nation simply because they find joy in its destruction. We can ruminate and argue and try to understand what created such a mindset. We can ask how many years of steady far-left indoctrination must each of these vandals been subjected to that they now seek to wipe out the greatest, most just, most prosperous, most freedom-loving and accepting and inclusive nation the world has ever known…a nation that has given them freedoms and a standard of living inconceivable to even the greatest kings of old.
I have my own theories, but that is neither here nor there tonight. What matters is that I was elected your president because many Americans felt the law was arbitrarily enforced, that certain rules applied to some but not others. Through countless conversations on the campaign trail I heard the same drumbeat refrain: why are those of us who obey the law, follow the rules, pay our taxes, live peaceful and honorable lives subject to such ridicule while those who flagrantly violate our laws are not just ignored but often rewarded and even celebrated? Are we, in fact, as John Adams said, a government of laws or are we not? Well, I am here to tell you tonight that we are. We have always been, and as long as I am your president we always will be.
Some have questioned my perceived lack of vigor in this matter. What has taken you so long to act, Mister President? I have heard these questions and they are legitimate and deserving of an answer. I was hesitant at first to intervene on the federal level simply because I believe in our political institutions. I strongly believe that local matters are best handled locally, just as the Framers of our Constitution did. We are a federal republic which means that power is disbursed throughout the nation, from the White House, to governors’ mansions, to the offices of city mayors and town councils, even local town halls. I had hoped the those in charge could see plainly what those of us on the outside looking in with dismay saw so clearly…that this chaos had to end. That no American cities should ever suffer through such destruction, vandalism, arson, and even assaults and murder. I had hoped that the leadership of these cities would take it upon themselves to do what they were elected to do by the people of their municipalities and provide for them a safe, secure, prosperous environment wherein they could do business and raise their families. Sadly, these local leaders have failed.
Therefore, I am exercising the duly instilled Constitutional powers of my office and those of the federal government and am ordering at midnight tomorrow that teams of federal law enforcers will enter these cities and work with local law enforcement to end this madness once and for all. And if they prove to be insufficient then I will also place the National Guard, and even the United States Armed Forces on stand-by, and make no mistake, to protect the innocent Americans who have become hostages to mob rule, I will send them in.
No doubt the usual suspects in the media and the opposition party will express their canned outrage and proffer up fears of dictatorial tendencies on my part. Nothing could be further from the truth…and they know this. As with all they say, politics, not common sense and history, will be their guiding lights. From George Washington who ended the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, to Abraham Lincoln sending Union troops, already exhausted from having just defeated the Confederate invaders at Gettysburg, to put down New York City’s 1863 draft riots, to Eisenhower sending the federalized National Guard and even 101st Airborne troops to escort the nine brave African-American children into their newly integrated Little Rock school, presidents have used the power of the federal government to achieve what local leaders fail to or refuse to do. This will be no different.
The power is still in the hands of these burning cities’ mayors, city councils, local representatives, state governors and even Congresspersons to finally enforce the law with vigor and restore peace to their suffering cities. This, to me, is a last resort. But one that will move forward should local leaders fail in their solemn duties as public servants and stewards of their communities. The American people must be assured that we are, indeed, a nation of laws. Otherwise we will cease to be a nation at all. That will not happen on my watch.
Thank you. And May God Bless The United States Of America.