(July 24) The political Left apparently can’t restrain its own radicalism. Having watched President Trump dig himself a massive hole with his own indecency and incompetence, the Left is filling the hole back up for him with its appalling, cowardly indifference to public order.
The refusal of almost every important left-of-center public figure forcefully to renounce vandalism, rioting, and violence is playing into Trump’s hands. The Left’s political job right now is simple. Joe Biden, for a while, was doing it well. That job was to stay out of Trump’s way while he self-immolates.
But the Left has such a soft spot for (nonconservative) protesters that it always seems willing to justify even abhorrent behavior if leftists think the “cause” is right. Not only that, but unlike most traditional (rather than hard-right) conservatives, almost everyone left of center seems to see protests in an almost romantic light, so that there’s a greater thrill for each level of greater expression of indignation and anger — even if, or perhaps even because, the expression or protest becomes destructive.
This is the old “radical chic” attitude that still sees Che Guevara as a hero, that excuses Bill Ayers for his bombings, and that pardons the head of the FALN Puerto Rican terrorists. Now it sides with the Portland rioters even as they destroy federal property and assault the police. The liberals were siding with the rioters even before Trump gave them reason to complain by taking dubious means to quell the riots. They were siding with the rioters because they think this American society is benighted, malicious, and malignant, and so, bygosh (but usually with words far more vulgar than “bygosh”), the authorities deserve what they are getting…. If they want to beat Trump this fall, this is exactly the wrong attitude….
[The full column is here.]
