Political violence is always wrong. This should not be a controversial statement. Politicians who incite, praise, or enable violence like what the nation saw at the Capitol on Wednesday should be voted out or otherwise removed from office.
Although President Trump cannot take all the blame for every action taken by those who stormed the Capitol grounds Wednesday — each person has personal responsibility — his lies about a stolen election and his request that angry protesters march to the Capitol mark a disgraceful and irresponsible incitement that led to an act of mob rule. Trump’s after-the-fact encouragement of the protesters to be “peaceful” was far too little, too late, in addition to being marred by his further wallowing in self-pitying, false conspiracy theories about how the election was stolen from him.
Republicans may feel one way or the other about the election. But any Republican official who equivocates about the violence that occurred, or about Trump’s contribution to it, evinces a lack of character that voters should take seriously in the next election.
What comes next is not a “but,” but an “and.” The same applies to Democrats and the hundreds of riots and thousands of rioters who inflicted mayhem all over America last summer, purportedly motivated by racial justice or some such excuse, resulting in mass arson by antifa activists and almost certainly serving as lethal superspreader events for the coronavirus.
In short, it is well and good for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to denounce yesterday’s disgraceful spectacle. But where were they last summer as rioters laid waste to multiple city centers, looted and destroyed property, and injured and killed police officers and others? Both were quick to condemn Trump for threatening to call in the military to restore order, and Pelosi even called federal officers “storm troopers.” But for months, they were too chicken to call out the rioters. Pelosi couldn’t even bring herself to say that “looting” and “starting fires” was a problem until late September, when it was already evident that the riots were harming her party’s election prospects.
They were not alone. Much of the news media and the Democratic Party spent the entire summer not only encouraging and excusing but actually glorifying that political violence. They praised it and ignored its ill effects even as they stood in front of burning buildings proclaiming the protests “mostly peaceful.” They also used the nonsensical expression “a peaceful demonstration intensified” in order to cover up for acts of domestic terrorism and lawlessness that in some cases went on for months.
Democrats refused to condemn the violence and also ignored its potential health consequences, even as they condemned others for wanting to gather amid the pandemic. They screamed about the use of federal law enforcement to protect buildings from the predators they were enabling. They falsely claimed that federal involvement was causing the violence when the reverse was true. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was just one of dozens to circulate a false and unfounded conspiracy theory about the violence being caused by right-wing infiltrators as part of a false-flag operation. And to add insult to injury, the crop of self-described “progressive prosecutors” elected recently with left-wing money refused to enforce the law against those committing the violent acts.
The self-important first-drafters of history and the Democratic politicians they support characterized these incidents as something understandable and justifiable because they believed in the political cause. Now, faced with similarly despicable political militancy for a cause they hate, perhaps they will learn a lesson about their own contribution to it. Their explicit and implicit message was that violence was acceptable to achieve political objectives. In other words, if they passionately believed in the cause, the ends justified the means.
The burning and destruction of Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, and a host of other cities were acts of terrorism, every bit as much as the storming of the U.S. Capitol, even if the latter was more symbolically shocking. This truth must be repeated because so many morally blind and self-interested, hypocritical pundits and politicians are attempting to drop it down the memory hole. It is infuriating to watch the same politicians who lacked the spine to say a single word about the woke mob’s violence suddenly act like they have moral authority on the subject.
Wednesday’s violence was different because it took place in the sacred space of the U.S. Capitol. This was not merely another use of violence in order to get attention, like so many others. It was an act of physical intimidation of the people who make the nation’s laws.
But political violence is equally destructive of civic bonds whether it comes from the Left or the Right. The founding fathers understood and wrote in explicit terms about the danger that democracy can devolve into mob rule. This is why they established a system of checks and balances in which power is diffused and majoritarian impulses are deliberately frustrated.
America’s great contribution to the world is not democracy, nor capitalism, nor even republicanism. Rather, it is the iron-clad commitment to the rule of law. The certainty that laws will be enforced and equally applied to everyone provides the stability that has historically made the nation’s prosperity possible.
