Joe Biden made a major pivot last week: he acknowledged riots exist and they are bad.
“I want to make it absolutely clear, rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting,” Biden said in an ad aired last week. “It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those that [sic] do it should be prosecuted.”
This statement should be a basic opinion for all politicians, regardless of party. Reporters dutifully concluded that this condemnation nipped this issue in the bud and the riots are now a less effective weapon for Donald Trump. Biden stands up for law and order, according to this interpretation. Only liberal journalists are credulous enough to believe this malarkey.
Biden offers no means to stop the violence and he refuses to assign proper blame for the violence. He blames Donald Trump and his supporters for the violence—not the left-wing militants on the streets. “Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames. He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s fomented it,” he says in the ad.
Biden even made a not-so-subtle threat in one of his messages about the riots. “Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?” he tweeted.
The message: vote for me or there will be more riots and anarchy.
The Democratic nominee will not actually stop the violence or safeguard Americans from crime. He supports radical criminal justice reform efforts that would put more violent people on the streets, opposes necessary tactics to quell the riots, refuses to pinpoint the actual perpetrators of the violence, and is the figurehead of a party that feels “law and order” is racist.
Biden’s criminal justice reform plan would coddle criminals at the expense of public safety. His plan demands the release of thousands of convicts to end “mass incarceration,” the elimination of the cash bail system, an end to private prisons, abolishing mandatory minimum sentencing, and will direct the Department of Justice to prioritize the investigation of “police racism.”
While not quite calling for the defunding of police, Biden says the federal government should withhold funding from police departments that fail to meet progressive standards. Biden claims his plan will make our country safe from crime, but the only two areas he promises to crack down on are “hate crimes” and gun ownership. The Democratic candidate pledges to strip law-abiding Americans of their right to defend themselves. The McCloskeys and Kyle Rittenhouse would be helpless against rioters in Biden’s America.
The Democratic Party cares more about coddling criminals than punishing crime—unless that crime is a Trump supporter owning a firearm.
Bail reform would be especially beneficial for the rioters. Many of those arrested in Portland were quickly released and promptly went back to causing chaos in the streets. Biden’s policies would ensure more of these criminals can ravage cities without fear of punishment.
While Biden promises to end the violence, he excoriates Trump’s methods for doing so. In July, he lambasted federal law enforcement using standard riot control methods against rioters.
“We all remember the appalling scenes in front of the White House, when peaceful protesters were gassed to make way for a Trump photo op,” he said. “Now Homeland Security agents—without a clearly defined mandate or authority—are ranging far from federal property, stripped of badges and insignia and identifying markings, to detain people. They are brutally attacking peaceful protesters, including a U.S. Navy veteran.”
Does Biden propose ending riots and looting with social workers? Or maybe he hopes his strongly-worded statement will make them go away? Whatever his thinking, he proposes no means for ending the violence besides kicking Trump out of office.
The implication is that red-state America just needs to comply with the rioters’ demands and no one gets hurt. If Trump supporters resist, then the violence only gets worse. It’s a bargain with hostage-takers, and no person with any degree of intestinal fortitude would accept it.
There are people who Biden may ruthlessly pursue if the riots persist under his administration—but it’s not Antifa or Black Lives Matter. It will be any American who dares challenge the violent anarchists.
Biden only made his condemnation of the riots after the Rittenhouse shooting and the Proud Boy brawls in Portland. A right-wing backlash outrages them more than the innocent lives lost, the hundreds of destroyed businesses, and the defilement of the rule of law.
The corporate leftist media and Democrats have already set on blaming the violence on right-wingers if they can’t ignore it. It’s almost guaranteed that Biden will direct federal resources to crush conservative opposition to the violence. There’s a dismal chance he will do the same against Antifa. Liberals either refuse to believe Antifa exists or imagine they’re just like our soldiers who defeated Hitler. There is no space on the Left to aggressively counter left-wing violence.
Just look at how Democratic officials treat the rioters in Portland. The Democratic district attorney, Mike Schmidt, says he won’t prosecute most rioters. Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, continues to appease Antifa and refuse federal help as far-left militants lay siege to his apartment building. This is the kind of response we will see on a national level under a Democratic administration.
Biden’s support base backs Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Seventy-five percent of Democrats support the “protests” that devastated Kenosha, Wisconsin last month. Ninety-five percent of Democrats support Black Lives Matter. An astounding 35 percent of Democrats support violent demonstrations. Biden is not going to go against the majority of his party and bring the hammer down on left-wing militants. The Democratic base doesn’t seem to mind the violence unless the Right can be blamed for it.
As evinced by Biden’s criminal justice plan, the Democratic Party cares more about coddling criminals than punishing crime—unless that crime is a Trump supporter owning a firearm.
Biden’s pivot is an act of desperation. His campaign knows the riots are playing in Trump’s favor and he can’t appear to be on the arsonists’ side. He had to condemn and show he stands for the law against anarchy. But anarcho-tyranny is the natural result of Democratic policies—only his loyal supporters in the media refuse to see this.