The Untoward Alliance

A common question that is asked after observing the riots and anarchy in our nation's cities the last few nights is how is this possible?

As I wrote in my last blog post, it cannot be explained by looking at the actual facts about police violence which is the pretext for the "protests" we have seen.

Police violence has been declining, particularly as it relates to Blacks in urban cities such as Minneapolis which is where this all started.

Unfortunately, the answer to what we are witnessing seems to involve an untoward alliance involving Democrat politicians, minority voters and the media.

There is little doubt that there would not be a viable Democrat party today without minority voters. Black voters overwhelmingly support Democrat candidates. Other minority votes favor Democrats but not to the extent that we see with Black voters.

Consider the minority population percentage in the five largest cities in the United States.

New York City      67%

Los Angeles          71%

Chicago                 68%

Houston                 74%

Philadelphia          63%

Or the percentage of African Americans in major U.S. cities.

Detroit                      83%

Baltimore                 64%

Atlanta                     54%

Washington, DC     51%

St. Louis                  49%

When one party is so dependent on the votes of one group of voters it is very likely not going to be positive for the population at large.

Consider the percentage of votes that Donald Trump was received in several American cities in 2016.

New York City       19%

Chicago                   13%

Washington, DC      4%

Detroit                      3%

In Detroit, 96.4% of the votes that were cast in 2016 for straight party votes went to the Democrat party. That represented about 40% of all votes cast meaning that the voter did not even consider individual candidates in any of their votes. They pulled just one lever.

We are now seeing the results of that untoward alliance.

Democrat politicians are so dependent on the votes of minority voters they seem to think that they dare not stand for the rule of law or hold anyone accountable for fear of losing support in the minority community. Democrat mayors and governors seemed paralyzed with fear on how to respond as major cities burn even though law and order should be a nonpartisan issue. Don't they realize that there are many more abiding minority voters than rioters?

In addition, over the last several decades minority voters have increasingly become more dependent on government benefits that they expect that their Democrat politicians will keep providing to them.

I will leave it to others to determine how much of the "entitlement culture" that has resulted from this might have contributed to the rampant looting of stores that we have seen the last several nights.

Let it not be said that this "entitlement culture" is limited to those in the minority community. We have witnessed the same conduct from white, university-educated extremists who have been taught that capitalism and free enterprise is evil. They jump out of their BMW, throw a brick through a window and help themselves to some Nike shoes or cheesecake in Seattle. Somehow they don't seem to make a connection as to why all of these wonderful things exist around them.

 

Underlying a lot of what we have seen in all of this is the complete abandonment of any respect for property rights. 

Consider this incredible pronouncement by the Police Chief of Raleigh, NC that she will not use her police force to protect property in that city.

As I wrote in the last blog post, I don't think that would have cut it with George Washington who said right after Shay's' Rebellion that he wanted "a government by which our lives, liberties and properties will be secured"  (emphasis added). 

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown's statement is also most interesting in that she had the police providing round-the-clock protection of her home throughout March and April. I guess she was willing to put officers in harm's way to protect her property. I could not determine whether that protection still continues today.

Source: WRAL.com

I also found it humorous that the official Twitter account of the Raleigh police was declaring that protesting was a "non-essential" activity six weeks ago when some people had started to protest the economic lockdown. Did we see any tweets like that in the last several days?

In addition, consider this tweet from the official Twitter account of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene? 

At the same time that the New York City Health Department is giving tips on how to get out there and protest, the city remains locked down for normal activities. 

Macy's on Herald Square may not be open for business yet. However, it was certainly open for the looters to take whatever they wanted. Where was Mayor DeBlasio's police force?

It should not be forgotten that property rights are the bedrock upon which Western civilization was built and which has led to the prosperity we have become accustomed to.  It also should not be lost on anyone that the first move that any totalitarian government takes is to no longer respect private property rights. Look no further than Cuba and Venezuela to see countries that saw mass poverty follow soon after property rights were no longer respected.

Of course, the fuel that powers a lot of this is provided by the media that glorifies and excuses much of the violence. MSNBC referred to the protests as "historic" with "many of the protests as peaceful but others leading to violence". I have seen other media outlets refer to the protestors as "heroic", "courageous" and "brave".  You also don't often hear the news media referring to what you are seeing as riots. They are merely "protests" some of which got a little out of hand.

It should come as no surprise that the last time journalists were surveyed (2014) on their political affiliation four times as many identified as Democrats as Republicans although most claimed to be Independents. 

A more recent survey of what are supposed to be more "right-leaning" financial journalists found that 58% admitted to being "left of center" in their political views. 4% stated they leaned "right of center." These numbers leave little doubt that the media is very much a part of the unholy alliance.

Like it or not, the media provides the oxygen that determines whether any story gets burned into the public eye.  Fires don't burn without oxygen. Events don't become stories, sensations or scandals without the media giving it airtime. The untoward alliance is held together by the active assistance of the media.

For example, there were twice as many police killings of unarmed Whites as there were Blacks last year. When was the last time you saw one of these stories?

Can we all do a better job regarding race relations? Absolutely. A lot of progress has been made in the last 60 years but more can and should be done. However, I don't see how any of this is making things better. It certainly does nothing to honor George Floyd.

It would be easy to shrug all of this off and just let these left-wing Democrats go ahead and completely destroy everything around them. Some might say that we should just let them live in cities of broken windows, looted stores and burned out blocks of houses.

One might also say that these Democrat mayor and governors and the constituent groups are joined together in natural political self interest. It is no different than gun owners gravitating to the Republican party. That would be true but for the disastrous consequences we see playing out right now in American cities as a result of this alliance. 

However, there are many of us that still believe in the United States of America.

We still believe in the union that our Founding Fathers created.

We still believe that the whole of that union offers much more to all of us than the sum of its parts.

We still believe that every person in this country deserves the opportunity to succeed and prosper no matter where they live.

We still believe in one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

George Washington stated he was leaving public life after the Revolutionary War.  He was persuaded to join the Constitutional Convention only after he saw the need for a strong union and recognized that the Articles of Confederation were not strong enough to do that. He agreed to serve as our first President to see to that the vision of that Constitution was fulfilled in practice.

Abraham Lincoln was resolute in defending our union when the Confederate States sought to break the country apart. He was willing to fight a Civil War to defend that union.

Washington and Lincoln were not willing to see parts of the country torn apart from the rest.

We are living in similar times today.

We don't need untoward alliances which seek to divide us, have little regard for the common good and put individual agendas and special interests ahead of the public interest.

I believe that there are still enough people in this country that understand the dangers of this untoward alliance for the future of our nation.

It remains to be seen how many of those are in the cities that we are seeing looted and burned.

May good men and women come forward in the days ahead to reassure us that they are there.