When angry mobs of protesters stormed the Wisconsin state capitol in 2011, their rallying cry was: “This is what democracy looks like.” That’s ridiculous, I thought. Democracy is delivered at the ballot box, not in the streets.
I was wrong. Angry protests have increased in the last few years, from broken windows following President Trump’s election to the permanent siege of Portland, Oregon. At this point we have to consider violent protest part of the political process. When the Middle East was in turmoil the Arab Street was considered a potent political force. Will the American Street follow the same trajectory?
Mobs are not going away because they are working.
Traditional democratic processes are slow, and seeking the consent of the
governed may not produce the desired outcome. If you want to remove a statue,
for instance, you can circulate petitions or get the city council to pass an
ordinance. That would take months and citizens might vote to keep the statue.
Mobs are more efficient. Just bring in a bunch of people to vandalize the statue and the mayor will cave every time. If the vandals claim they’re fighting racism, local officials are likely to take their side and restrain the police. Protesters who are arrested will be quickly released by a compliant prosecutor and a well-funded nonprofit will spring for their bail. This has been a winning formula in city after city. Some cities even are removing statues preemptively to avoid vandalism.
It works at the national level, too. It took years of peaceful civil rights marches to pass civil rights laws in the 1960s, but Black Lives Matter was able to bring members of Congress to their knees in a matter of weeks once cities began burning. (Okay, they didn’t pass a law, but Congress no longer does that sort of thing.) And corporations are giving them money.
It’s not that the government is powerless. American governments have been preserving order ever since George Washington led federal troops to put down the Whisky Rebellion in 1794. Local police and the National Guard have stepped in on innumerable occasions when peaceful demonstrations became riots. Most recently, Seattle police easily cleared out the “autonomous protest zone” once the mayor allowed them to do so.
Local officials have choices. Most have chosen to favor the mobs because politicians find them useful and are afraid of being accused of racism. They have political cover because the angry mobs that opposed President Trump in 2016 were legitimized when the Democrats declared themselves a resistance movement. Organizations like Black Lives Matter and Antifa can count on Democrat politicians and news media to dismiss arson and looting and characterize all protests as mostly peaceful.
Republicans are behind the curve here. They can’t use “racism” as a magic word and Tea Party-style peaceful protests don’t cut it. It’s a dilemma because most Republicans balk at destroying property or attacking police officers. Not to mention wearing masks. And lose the guns, guys. Everybody knows you’re not going to use them and they give people an excuse to freak out.
As mobs have become emboldened political support for them is becoming a challenge. We’ve seen TV reporters describe protests as “mostly peaceful” as buildings burn in the background. Video shots of violence the TV networks refuse to air are widely available on the Internet. Politicians claim Antifa does not exist. In a Congressional hearing not one Democrat criticized attempts to burn down a federal courthouse but instead blamed the violence on federal law enforcement. It’s getting harder for the national news media to ignore events like a mob attack on a Ronald McDonald House. We’ve accepted politics as an irony-free zone, but this is dark comedy.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the presidential campaign. Democrats continue to deny that the mobs they have tacitly supported are a problem. There was no mention of rising violence during a national convention in which speakers urged their supporters to keep fighting. Yet they are making an implied promise that once Donald Trump is defeated everything will be calm once more.
How, exactly, will this work? Will a Presidential commitment
to end systemic racism (whatever that is) convince Black Lives Matter to shut
down its protests, or will BLM continue to press its demands to abolish the
police, prisons, immigration enforcement and capitalism? Can anyone believe the
activists calling for the overthrow of the entire American system will put down
their Molotov cocktails if Joe Biden is elected?
Republicans are going to promise that re-electing President
Trump will end the violence, but that will only stiffen the resolve of
Democratic politicians to oppose any federal action to restore order. This may
be an untenable position because mobs are difficult to control once they’re
unleashed. Remember that the French Revolution ended in dictatorship after the
Jacobins began sending their own leaders to the guillotine.
Some public officials are discovering that mobs lack political loyalty. Angry protesters are showing up at the homes of mayors who had backed the protests. That wasn’t part of the deal. The mayor of Chicago recently declared that looting is criminal and not part of political protest — in direct opposition to a BLM leader who argued that looting is reparations. Even the mayor of Portland dared to criticize the rioters (if only because they help President Trump score political points).
The good news is that many Americans do not support unimpeded protests as much as their politicians do. Rallies in support of the police are taking place across the country. In Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, local residents drove off a group of outside protesters. Growing public opposition to mob excesses may be why some mayors are discovering their spines, especially when discontented residents and businesses are filing lawsuits and leaving town.
If mob rule is going to be checked, it’s up to ordinary
Americans. The riots will stop once mayors and governors decide to take back
their streets, enforce the law and put lawbreakers in jail. They will not do
this until their constituents convince them that voters, not protesters, will
keep them in office. It’s that pesky consent of the governed thing, inefficient
as it may be. Let’s hope we still have that.
The American Street
When angry mobs of protesters stormed the Wisconsin state capitol in 2011, their rallying cry was: “This is what democracy looks like.” That’s ridiculous, I thought. Democracy is delivered at the ballot box, not in the streets.
I was wrong. Angry protests have increased in the last few years, from broken windows following President Trump’s election to the permanent siege of Portland, Oregon. At this point we have to consider violent protest part of the political process. When the Middle East was in turmoil the Arab Street was considered a potent political force. Will the American Street follow the same trajectory?
Mobs are not going away because they are working. Traditional democratic processes are slow, and seeking the consent of the governed may not produce the desired outcome. If you want to remove a statue, for instance, you can circulate petitions or get the city council to pass an ordinance. That would take months and citizens might vote to keep the statue.
Mobs are more efficient. Just bring in a bunch of people to vandalize the statue and the mayor will cave every time. If the vandals claim they’re fighting racism, local officials are likely to take their side and restrain the police. Protesters who are arrested will be quickly released by a compliant prosecutor and a well-funded nonprofit will spring for their bail. This has been a winning formula in city after city. Some cities even are removing statues preemptively to avoid vandalism.
It works at the national level, too. It took years of peaceful civil rights marches to pass civil rights laws in the 1960s, but Black Lives Matter was able to bring members of Congress to their knees in a matter of weeks once cities began burning. (Okay, they didn’t pass a law, but Congress no longer does that sort of thing.) And corporations are giving them money.
It’s not that the government is powerless. American governments have been preserving order ever since George Washington led federal troops to put down the Whisky Rebellion in 1794. Local police and the National Guard have stepped in on innumerable occasions when peaceful demonstrations became riots. Most recently, Seattle police easily cleared out the “autonomous protest zone” once the mayor allowed them to do so.
Local officials have choices. Most have chosen to favor the mobs because politicians find them useful and are afraid of being accused of racism. They have political cover because the angry mobs that opposed President Trump in 2016 were legitimized when the Democrats declared themselves a resistance movement. Organizations like Black Lives Matter and Antifa can count on Democrat politicians and news media to dismiss arson and looting and characterize all protests as mostly peaceful.
Republicans are behind the curve here. They can’t use “racism” as a magic word and Tea Party-style peaceful protests don’t cut it. It’s a dilemma because most Republicans balk at destroying property or attacking police officers. Not to mention wearing masks. And lose the guns, guys. Everybody knows you’re not going to use them and they give people an excuse to freak out.
As mobs have become emboldened political support for them is becoming a challenge. We’ve seen TV reporters describe protests as “mostly peaceful” as buildings burn in the background. Video shots of violence the TV networks refuse to air are widely available on the Internet. Politicians claim Antifa does not exist. In a Congressional hearing not one Democrat criticized attempts to burn down a federal courthouse but instead blamed the violence on federal law enforcement. It’s getting harder for the national news media to ignore events like a mob attack on a Ronald McDonald House. We’ve accepted politics as an irony-free zone, but this is dark comedy.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the presidential campaign. Democrats continue to deny that the mobs they have tacitly supported are a problem. There was no mention of rising violence during a national convention in which speakers urged their supporters to keep fighting. Yet they are making an implied promise that once Donald Trump is defeated everything will be calm once more.
How, exactly, will this work? Will a Presidential commitment to end systemic racism (whatever that is) convince Black Lives Matter to shut down its protests, or will BLM continue to press its demands to abolish the police, prisons, immigration enforcement and capitalism? Can anyone believe the activists calling for the overthrow of the entire American system will put down their Molotov cocktails if Joe Biden is elected?
Republicans are going to promise that re-electing President Trump will end the violence, but that will only stiffen the resolve of Democratic politicians to oppose any federal action to restore order. This may be an untenable position because mobs are difficult to control once they’re unleashed. Remember that the French Revolution ended in dictatorship after the Jacobins began sending their own leaders to the guillotine.
Some public officials are discovering that mobs lack political loyalty. Angry protesters are showing up at the homes of mayors who had backed the protests. That wasn’t part of the deal. The mayor of Chicago recently declared that looting is criminal and not part of political protest — in direct opposition to a BLM leader who argued that looting is reparations. Even the mayor of Portland dared to criticize the rioters (if only because they help President Trump score political points).
The good news is that many Americans do not support unimpeded protests as much as their politicians do. Rallies in support of the police are taking place across the country. In Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, local residents drove off a group of outside protesters. Growing public opposition to mob excesses may be why some mayors are discovering their spines, especially when discontented residents and businesses are filing lawsuits and leaving town.
If mob rule is going to be checked, it’s up to ordinary Americans. The riots will stop once mayors and governors decide to take back their streets, enforce the law and put lawbreakers in jail. They will not do this until their constituents convince them that voters, not protesters, will keep them in office. It’s that pesky consent of the governed thing, inefficient as it may be. Let’s hope we still have that.
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