Social Justice vs. Law

By Aaron Kliegman Democrats are in trouble, and they know it. For months, Democrats and their allies in the media have been encouraging the riots in Portland, Minneapolis, and elsewhere. Those who didn’t support the mayhem simply ignored the violence, refusing to condemn it. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) called for “unrest in the streets.” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) refused to condemn Antifa. Media outlets stretched the rules of syntax to their limit to avoid reporting on the arson, looting, and assault that has been so obvious. This incitement and obfuscation continued until last week, when Democrats realized they had a problem: Americans don’t like rioting and looting. People want to feel safe and have order in their own communities. Go figure. As a result, President Trump is gaining on, if not surpassing, Joe Biden in some polls. CNN host Don Lemon is alarmed. “The rioting has to stop,” Lemon said last week. “It’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing right now that is sticking.” Compare that message with what Lemon and his colleagues at CNN said in early July, when they mocked those who were concerned about violence in the streets. The shift has nothing to do with principle. It’s all about politics and power — namely, getting Biden elected president. Perhaps most striking is Kamala Harris’s sudden shift on the riots. Last week, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee claimed that the “life of a black person in America has never been treated as fully human.” Harris has also warned, almost gleefully, that civic unrest is not going to stop, even after Election Day. In June, she solicited people to bail out rioters in Minneapolis. Among those Harris helped were a convicted rapist and multiple people charged with murder. Over the weekend, however, Harris and Biden — who completely ignored the riots for months — suddenly condemned the violence. Their condemnations came after a supporter of President Trump was murdered in cold blood in Portland. Thugs in Antifa and Black Lives Matter — who Democratic mayors have allowed to wreak havoc — celebrated the killing. Perhaps actual murder is what spurred Biden to emerge from his proverbial basement on Monday and deliver a speech on the unrest. The gesture turned out to be meaningless — he didn’t mention Antifa or Black Lives Matter, the ones perpetrating the anarchy, once. He instead blamed President Trump, “white supremacists,” and “right-wing militias.” But the fact that he said anything is what really matters. Democrats and allied journalists seem to recognize that they have positioned themselves against the average American. Now they’re trying to carry the banner of law and order — by holding President Trump responsible for the chaos. That’s going to be a tall mountain climb. Good luck trying to out-law and order the man who has already made himself the candidate of law and order. President Trump and Republicans should have a clear strategy until Election Day: Run ad after ad tying Democrats and the media to the anti-American violence in the streets. It won’t be hard — their opponents have already done the work for them. From chants of “death to America” to heralding a man accused of sexual assault as a hero, the political left has really gone to remarkable lengths in the name of social justice. Indeed, the new Democratic maxim could be that our government should be one of social justice, not of laws — a woke variation of John Adams’s famous line that America should be a nation of laws, not of men. Not all Democrats support the lawlessness and disorder we see in Kenosha, Portland, and other places across America — most probably don’t. But Democratic leaders render this fact meaningless by submitting to the radical forces who do. The rioters in the streets and their backers in Congress and the media don’t seem to know or care that it’s much easier to tear something down than to build up — especially something as historically rare and enduring as the American project. But the American people know and care — and if Republicans are at all smart over the next two months, voters will be thinking about that as they go to vote. Order Newt's Latest Book: https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future

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