Out of the many arguments about the Kyle Rittenhouse case, there is one that keeps popping up in conservative circles: The 18-year-old had every right to defend himself in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that night, but he was a fool for being there in the first place.
Legally, the latter claim has no bearing on the first, which is why a jury found Rittenhouse not guilty of all the felony charges brought against him. But morally, there’s a case to be made that the practical decisions Rittenhouse made leading up to the fatal shooting of two men must be taken into consideration, especially if some on the Right are going to try to make a hero out of him. That is, at least, the argument people such as the Dispatch’s David French and former Trump communications aide Alyssa Farah have made.
But whether Rittenhouse should have been in Kenosha that night is irrelevant morally, too, because no one should have been there that night. Rioters shouldn’t have been burning down buildings or looting businesses. Violent antagonists shouldn’t have been attacking police officers. And civilians should not have felt like they needed to take the defense of their city into their own hands.
So, if we’re going to start weighing moral failings, let’s start with the government officials whose failures led Rittenhouse to Kenosha in the first place. How about Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who declined to send in additional federal law enforcement until it was too late? If Rittenhouse was a fool for going to Kenosha, what does that make Evers?
Some might respond that multiple wrongs, including the government’s failings, don’t make Rittenhouse’s decision any better. Sure they do — because Rittenhouse wouldn’t have had to make that decision at all had the government fulfilled its duty to protect the well-being of its citizens.
There’s a passage in Machiavelli’s The Prince that a friend pointed out to me recently, in which Machiavelli argues that failures of leadership can turn vices into virtues and vice versa. It seems like that’s what happened here. Rittenhouse’s decision to put himself in harm’s way — call it foolishness or recklessness or whatever — also made him one of the only people willing to stand up for law and order that night. He knew there were lives and livelihoods at risk, and he recognized that the state wasn’t going to help them. So he went to Kenosha.
Does that make him a hero? No. Does that make him a fool? No. It makes him a citizen concerned about lawlessness, someone with a vested interest in seeing order restored. If only there had been more people like that in charge.
