OPINION:
If I were a store owner in D.C., New York or any other large city, I’d keep the plywood easily accessible.
The election isn’t over as courts sort things out, so it might yet come in handy.
The mobs that rioted for months were in the streets again on Nov. 7, when the media declared Joe Biden as our next president and Kamala Harris as vice president. This time, they were partying instead of looting.
Here’s how Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker described a jubilant crowd dancing in Manhattan as workers removed boards from storefronts placed there in case Mr. Biden lost:
“It was a neat little tableau of the protection racket ethos that has defined American politics for the last four years: Vote for us so we can dance and celebrate. Vote against us and we’ll burn down your business and steal your property.”
Although Mr. Biden has gone back on his word not to claim victory until the election is certified, and has created an “Office of the President-Elect,” complete with an official looking seal, he has at least issued the standard call to unite the country. Can’t fault him for that.
But, more than 70 million Americans who voted for President Trump might be forgiven for asking, “Really?” In 2016, Democrats not only refused to accept Hillary Clinton’s loss but have engaged in a four-year coup attempt to remove Mr. Trump and smear his supporters as racists.
“The bitter 2016 battle for the White House is turning into a forever war with Hillary Clinton’s tormented team vowing a four-year insurgency against Donald Trump,” reported Politico on Dec. 3, 2016. “People in her orbit … are plotting an anti-Trump resistance and venting with a fury.”
This included FBI treachery, the Russian collusion hoax spun by the Clinton machine, an impeachment over a phone call, months of rioting in Democratic cities by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, a massive media coverup of the Biden family’s China and Ukraine scandals, and severe COVID-19 lockdowns in Democrat-run jurisdictions that crippled Mr. Trump’s roaring economy.
The people behind this now want us all to go along and “suck it up,” as Whoopi Goldberg angrily yelled repeatedly on ABC’s “The View.”
Guess we’ll have to forget Nancy Pelosi’s referring to Republican opponents as “enemies of the state.” Or former first lady Michelle Obama opining that “tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division.”
More than 2,500 years ago, writing about a corrupted Israel, the prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Everyone deals falsely … Saying, ’Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.”
Some Democrats are talking openly of enemies lists. “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”
There was even a Trump Accountability Project that foundered after its Soviet-like aims were publicized.
Meanwhile, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer boasted of big things if Democrats win runoff elections on Jan. 5 for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia.
“Now we take Georgia, then we change the world,” he barked. Asked to do it again, he re-barked, “Now we take Georgia, then we change America.” Can you feel the unity?
After it became clear in 2016 that Hillary Clinton had lost, her press secretary, Brian Fallon, advised the media to dispense with “civility.”
“If calling out bigotry is uncivil, then maybe the media needs to be less hung up on civility these next four years,” he tweeted.
Judging by the way the media magically turned hundreds of decidedly uncivil Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots in Democrat cities like Portland and Minneapolis into “mostly peaceful protests,” the press adopted Mr. Fallon’s suggestion to chuck concerns over civility.
The New York Times did run a belated story on Nov. 9 about the destruction after the media declared Mr. Biden the winner two days earlier.
Focusing on Kenosha, Wisconsin, where riots erupted after the Aug. 23 police shooting of Jacob Blake, The Times noted that, “more than 35 small businesses were completely destroyed, and around 80 have been damaged, according to the city’s business association. Almost all are locally owned and many are underinsured or struggling to manage.”
At a used car company named Car Source, arsonists destroyed 140 vehicles, causing an estimated $2.5 million in damage, said owner Anmol Khindri, who is of Indian descent and who doubts insurance will cover the loss.
“Most of their business records were destroyed in the fire, and many of the car VIN numbers were burned off, making it hard to prove how much was lost,” The Times reported. On the hoods of four cars someone scrawled: Black — Lives — Matter — ♥.
Over at B&L Office furniture, which was looted and destroyed, owner Scott Carpenter told The Times that he planned to rebuild at a safer location four miles away. A photo shows that in place of the smashed sign out front, he had erected a home-made one:
B&L Office Furniture
NO Jesus, No peace
KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE.
It’s not clear whether The Times editors thought juxtaposing the sign next to the destroyed showroom showed how bitter clingers foolishly trust in God, or was just a striking contrast.
Either way, millions of readers got to ponder the phrase.
God certainly does work in strange ways. Perhaps He will even unite us.
• Robert Knight is a contributor to The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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