The 2020 Election: Keep America Great or Burn Her Down
(Author’s note: I’ve never written an article this long before, and I probably never will again. But given the importance of the subject matter, and its increasing content as I remembered and researched it, I had a hard time stopping. I could’ve kept going! Anyway, I hope you learn from it, and act on it.)
God only knows how many people have said this over the years: “This is the most important presidential election EVER!!!” I’ve said it myself, probably more than once. But this time around, the stakes couldn’t be higher. As President Trump said recently, in past elections, the major differences between the candidates were focused on policy. And that’s still true this year. But now it’s also ideological. The very existence of America as we know her is on the line.
Defund the Police vs Defend the Police
All you have to do is turn on the nightly news to witness the chaos, destruction, and violence that is plaguing some of our cities. It began when protests sprung up in response to the tragic death of George Floyd on May 25th. America and the whole world were rightly outraged after seeing a video that captured former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin holding his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for just under eight minutes. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, while the three other former officers who arrested Mr. Floyd are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Hopefully justice will put these men in prison for the rest of their lives.
But intermingled with the peaceful protesters, people from the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements, and others looted and burned down small businesses, beat up innocent bystanders, shop owners, and even threw bottles, bricks, and Molotov cocktails at police officers. Some were shot and killed- as of June, at least four officers have died. And more than 700 have been injured.
Out of this uprising, a chant of Defund the Police spread across the nation like wildfire. On July 1st, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $150 million cut to the Los Angeles Police Department’s budget. New York City officials agreed on a budget that shifts roughly $1 billion from the police department. Cutting police funding will only increase the violence and death in cities that mainly impact minorities.
President Trump is a strong proponent of law and order, and proudly stands behind our men and women in blue. The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) endorsed President Trump’s reelection on July 15th, admiring his “steadfast and very public support” for law enforcement. NAPO endorsed former President Obama and then-VP Biden in the 2008 and 2012 elections. “Joe Biden was a very strong supporter of them [the police] years ago, and he’s been kidnapped now by the anti-police rhetoric,” said Paul DiGiacomo, the president of the Detective Endowment Association. “There’s a big question amongst our members if Joe Biden is going to stand up and support the police.”
On one hand, Biden has said that he doesn’t support defunding the police. But in a July 8th “Now This” interview with activist Ady Barkan, he said that some funding should “absolutely” be redirected from police. He also stated that police forces don’t need surplus military equipment, that this is what leads them to “become the enemy” in a community. Biden is clearly trying to thread the PC needle when it comes to his stance on police funding. One of the Trump campaign’s central themes is that he is our “law and order” president. In stark contrast to that message, the following Trump ad describes the consequences of defunding the police: “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
Cancel History
Another consequence of the recent unrest in this “cancel culture” has been the desecration and destruction of statues, monuments, symbols and buildings. Although most of the carnage was directed towards confederate soldiers, some was not. Here are but a few examples: They defaced a statue of slavery abolitionist Matthias Baldwin in Philadelphia. The George Washington statue in Chicago’s Washington Park was vandalized on June 14. The statue was spray painted, and a white hood placed on its head. The Lincoln Memorial and several other historic monuments were defaced with spray paint on or around May 30th.
“[I]n Boston, demonstrators also vandalized a monument to the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the second all-black volunteer regiment of the Union Army,” Tristan Justice stated. “… Add to the growing list of civil rights freedom fighters defaced by social justice protestors a Minnesota memorial to three black men who were lynched in 1920 following false rape accusations from a white woman.” The ignorance of some of these rioters is astounding.
On June 26th, President Trump signed an executive order to protect American monuments, memorials, and statues. The order authorizes a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment for the willful injury of Federal property. President Trump said this during his Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore on July 3rd: “Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America’s destiny. In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and that we feel for each other. Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America.”
Anarchy Disguised as Social Justice
Make no mistake, the recent chaos represents nothing short of anarchy disguised as social justice. Merriam-Webster defines anarchy as absence of government; a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority; a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government; absence or denial of any authority or established order; and an absence of order.
My daughter was recently sucked into the “social justice” deception. She believed the mainstream media’s/ leftist’s anthem that police and our country are systematically racist. So she participated in the social media “Blackout Tuesday” campaign on June 2nd, where people showed their support for BLM by “blacking out” their profile pictures. She became very vocal on social media toward their movement. She also told that me she was going to protest w/ them. I decided to go with her to honor Mr. Floyd, support police reform, and protect her if things got outta hand. Thank God the protests were very peaceful. When she learned that BLM and Antifa demand defunding of the police and overthrowing our government, she told me that she was sorry for being a part of the protests. “It’s OK” I said, “your heart was in the right place. Besides, we stood together and shouted ‘What was his name? George Floyd! And what did he say? I can’t breathe!’”
Along w/ the pic below, here’s what I posted on social media: “On June 7th I was so happy to be with my daughter at #HBPier to support justice for #GeorgeFloyd and change in his honor. We pray for his family and friends.” I explained to my daughter that while I believe that black lives matter, I don’t support the BLM organization. But they were brilliant in blurring the lines between the two, because if you speak out against the movement, at the very least you’re called a racist. Or worse yet, you could be beaten up or killed.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a recently surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are “trained Marxists” – making clear their movement’s ideological underpinning. Hawk Newsome, the president of Greater New York Black Lives Matter said recently that “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
As I noted earlier, Antifa has also played a central role in the recent mayhem. On May 31st, Attorney General Barr issued a press release entitled “Attorney General William P. Barr’s Statement on Riots and Domestic Terrorism.” AG Barr stated “With the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful and legitimate protests have been hijacked by violent radical elements. Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent, and extremist agenda.” He concluded by saying “The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”
As an aside, when I heard about Barr’s statement, I had no doubt that when he mentioned “other similar groups” he was referring, at least in part, to BLM. But calling them out would have created a media/ Democrat firestorm, not to mention it would’ve literally added fuel to the fire in the streets.
Not only have extremist groups hijacked Mr. Floyd’s tragic death, but so have Democrat mayors and governors in some major cities. They actually contributed to the bedlam by not allowing the police to stop the looting, arson, property damage, and assaults on the innocent. It’s painfully obvious that if you don’t nip the violence in the bud, then the perps take advantage of the situation. It’s like Parenting 101-give your kid an inch, and he or she will take a mile.
One notable example occurred in Seattle. On June 8th, the Seattle government essentially ceded a six-block area of its city to protesters declaring a cop-free “Autonomous Zone,” a dramatic loss of control by a government and police force. Protesters insisted that Mayor Jenny Durkan resign if she refused to defund the city’s police department. The occupied territory encompassed the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, which was effectively abandoned and boarded up that day. The area was initially tagged CHAZ – “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ), but was later renamed CHOP – “Capitol Hill Organized Protest.”
Speaking to Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on June 11th, President Trump blasted the “protesters” and Seattle’s mayor: “We’re not going to let Seattle be occupied by anarchists — and I’m not calling them protestors.” Trump also called on Washington State governor Jay Inslee to send in the National Guard to resolve the situation. “The woman, I don’t know, has she ever done this before? It was pathetic. No, no. We’re not going to let this happen in Seattle. If we have to go in, we’re going to go in,” Trump said. “The governor’s either going to do it — let the governor do it, he’s got great National Guard troops, he could do it — but one way or the other, it’s going to get done. These people are not going to occupy a major portion of a great city.”
Mayor Durkan finally announced on June 22nd that city officials were working to end the protest, only after two shootings occurred the previous weekend, one of them deadly. The victim was Lorenzo Anderson. His family is suing the city of Seattle for his wrongful death- they say Seattle created unsafe conditions by allowing the existence of the CHOP zone.
Final Points
Joe Biden echoed Barack Obama’s 2008 commitment to “fundamentally transform” America on May 4th when he promised to use the coronavirus outbreak to change the country. “And I truly think, if we do this right, we have an incredible opportunity to not just dig out of this crisis, but to fundamentally transform the country.” Radio and TV host Mark Levin recently said regarding Obama’s comment that you don’t fundamentally transform something that you love.
I have not heard Biden denounce the rioting, desecration/ destruction of monuments and statues, nor for calling for police brutality to stop, neither has he stood up against the CHOP zone. I also have not heard him criticize BLM, Antifa, or the anarchy that’s happening. In their 1st debate, Trump should press Biden on all of the aforementioned issues. After Joe bumbles and fumbles, Trump should then look at Joe and say, “Joe, you know how I jokingly call you Sleepy Joe? Don’t get me wrong, you’re still sleepy. But based on your radical policies, I have a new name for you: Socialist Joe!”
My daughter and I recently discussed the fact that many of the protesters/rioters have no idea how great they have it in America. Sure, we’re not perfect. No society is because we’re human. So perhaps we should ship these people to Venezuela or Cuba-maybe then they’ll realize that the United States is the best country in the world.
At the beginning of this article I said that the stakes couldn’t be higher for this election. Do we want to live in peace and prosperity, or fear and chaos? Please share this post with your family and friends, and the urgency of voting to Keep America Great. The alternative is horrifying- you think things are crazy now?!?