The war of words between Democrats and the White House ramped up this week as Trump moved to defund cities that prevent police “from doing their jobs.” Will this partisan brinkmanship lead the US straight to the abyss in November?
The Democratic mayors of New York City, Portland and Seattle issued a joint statement earlier this week in which they accused Donald Trump of “playing cheap political games” after the US leader disqualified their cities from receiving billions of dollars in federal support. Some may argue Trump was right to act as he did, considering that the mayors slashed the budgets of their police forces at the very same time radical activists were burning and looting Main Street.
This week, Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, chastised the Democratic leaders for refusing to “undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities” amid the Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests that erupted across the country following the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in May.
“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Barr wrote in a statement on the Department of Justice website. “It is my hope that the cities identified… will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.”
Although there is considerable doubt as to whether Trump has the legal authority to deprive cities of federal cash – New York City, for example, receives $7 billion annually from Washington – the Republicans are not about to miss an opportunity to reprimand the Democrats, especially when the country is heading into the final lap before Election Day. With that said, however, Trump seems to have ample justification for punishing the Democrats for their handling of this hot protest season.
Although politicians would be expected to demand that their police forces display restraint amid the BLM protests, a line must be drawn at full-blown anarchy. In some Democrat-run cities, however, that line never seemed to exist. And if it did exist, it was drawn so far down the road as to be altogether meaningless.
Consider, for example, the decision by Seattle authorities in June to let protesters seize a six-square-block zone – dubbed the ‘Capitol Hill Occupied Protest’ (CHOP) – which Mayor Jenny Durkan downplayed as the “summer of love,” a remark that has not aged well. Seattle’s brave experiment in anarchistic, police-free living came to a screeching halt in just a matter of weeks after sporadic shootings left two people dead and several others injured.
New York City also made Barr’s blacklist, thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to cut $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s annual budget at a time when shootings have soared 165 percent in the Big Apple and murders are up by almost 50 percent.
Meanwhile, across the country in Portland, city residents just marked a grim milestone: 100 consecutive nights of protests, marred by the destruction of public and private property, violence, and even death. Incredibly, however, Mayor Ted Wheeler – who was forced to find a new home after repeated protests and even an arson outside the condominium complex where he was residing – has forbade law enforcement from using tear gas, perhaps the most effective deterrent against mob violence short of deadly firearms.
At this point, it must be asked: “What in the hell are the Democrats thinking?” Few people would doubt the need for overhauling trigger-happy police departments. But reducing their budget to the point of redundancy, as the Democrats are doing, does not seem to be the best remedy; courting the mob at the very same time you are disparaging and decreasing funding for law enforcement is fraught with risk. So why haven’t the Democrats taken a no-nonsense stance against the troublemakers?
One possible explanation is that the Democrats, who have been trying to oust Donald Trump since before he even set foot in the White House, had set a trap for the Republican leader. It seems they were anticipating that the brash, tough-talking Trump would eventually lose his patience as the rioters continued with their wave of destruction, which the mainstream media has gone to great lengths to sanitize. In an effort to restore some semblance of law and order, Trump would send in the cavalry with both guns blazing and a blood bath would predictably ensue – exactly the sort of calamity that would destroy any hope of reelection.
If that is the game the Democrats were playing, they seriously underestimated the US leader... again. Against the advice of many Republicans, Trump has taken limited and measured actions against the rioters, letting the Democrats simmer in a stew of their own making. At the same time, he is constantly reminding Americans that the Democrats are to blame for the mayhem, which shows little sign of abating. That leaves the Democrats with just one option: blame Trump for the violence in return.
Also on rt.com Antifa in Portland vow to kill cops, along with their families, children & friends. But it’s a ‘carnival in the dark,’ says NYT“He doesn't want to shed light, he wants to generate heat, and he's stoking violence in our cities,” Biden told an audience during a recent stop in Pittsburgh. “He can't stop the violence because for years he's fomented it.''
Finally, there is one more possible reason why the Democrats have taken such a kid-glove approach to the mob, and I’ll just cut right to the chase: the Democrats may be inclined to use these street protesters in the event that Trump emerges victorious against Biden on November 3. It should not be forgotten that a number of high-ranking Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris, have strongly hinted at a bitter fight down the road with the Republicans.
So if the Democrats’ aim really is to contest the results of the election, the most effective way of doing that is to employ a ‘color revolution’ scenario, where thousands of people – egged on by BLM and Antifa – come out onto the streets in mass protest. The Washington establishment has some experience in such things. Whether or not they would be so bold as to resort to such actions inside of their own country remains to be seen. However, since the year 2020 has been full of wild surprises, few of them enjoyable, I can only anticipate the worst on November 3.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.