Why riots will hand re-election to Donald Trump

2020 has been a packed-enough year already, and that’s before we even reached November’s US presidential election. For months now, Joe Biden’s lead was unassailable, but that picture has changed. The news coverage of riots in many major US cities has become this election’s big issue, and the Democrats have totally mishandled it. In taking the side of rioters, the Democrats have essentially guaranteed a Trump re-election.

On 25 May, George Floyd was killed by a police officer, leading to mass protests driven by the concern that Black lives in America are not treated equally. This is a valiant movement, and one that deserves support. But these protests were swiftly hijacked by those seeking to destroy the USA. For three months, Democrat-run cities have been on fire, their citizens terrified and ignored. The stories from many of these areas are truly shocking, from stories of occupied buildings being set on fire to rioters marching through the streets with a guillotine. There are too many horrifying examples of how rioters have been allowed to destroy and, in many cases, kill, with impunity.

The Democratic response to the violence has been twofold – they either downplayed it, or they simply pretended it wasn’t happening

The Democratic response to the violence has been twofold – they either downplayed it, or they simply pretended it wasn’t happening. The dominant narrative was that all of the people involved were just peaceful protestors, and to say otherwise was disgusting. CNN’s coverage was typical of the trend, sending reporters to start in front of burning buildings and acts of violence and claim that nothing was happening. The mayors in these cities openly said they supported the rioters, and in many cases asked the police not to engage, and even to release many of those they arrested. Prominent Democratic figures encouraged mass rioting, and then complained about violent rhetoric on the right.

During the four days of the Democratic National Convention, rioting and violence was not addressed once. There are several reasons for this – the destruction is generally aligned with a Democrat view of America, one of a country that is systemically evil and needs to be torn down. To condemn the violence would be to acknowledge it and that it was bad, so they just… didn’t. Names like David Dorn, a retired police captain and grandfather brutally murdered by “callous” rioters looting a pawn shop simply because he was there, they didn’t get a look in.

Trump is running against a party that’s backing burning down the country, and people are swallowing their distaste to support him as a result

But the news was too big to suppress, and eventually presidential nominee Biden was forced to condemn violence (only on the right, though – he doesn’t want to upset his voter base, you see). But it’s hard to take that too seriously when his staff and his VP pick Kamala Harris encouraged people to help pay the bail fees for rioters. With a smile on her face, Harris said that the riots are “not gonna stop. And they should not”. The Democrats are desperate to paint the rioters as the good guys, but let me tell you something – if you’re marching through the streets, destroying property and murdering innocent people while shouting “death to America”, you’re not the good guys.

Then came one of the most incredible displays of political gaslighting ever seen. Now they could no longer ignore the violence, and when it started to show up negatively in their polling, the Democrats and the media decided to blame it all on Donald Trump. The president, who demanded that Democrat mayors tackle the rise in lawlessness every day, and who offered every single rioting city use of the National Guard, was now being criticised for not doing enough. The press called him a “fascist” when he used force, and “weak” when he didn’t. Because a right-wing group turned up at a riot for all of five minutes, Trump is now being blamed for three months’ worth of violence committed by leftist thugs like Antifa – it’s a total whitewash of history.

We’ve passed the point where ‘Orange man bad’ is a winning electoral argument

All of this brings me to the point of this rant. The panicked reaction by Democrats and the media is down to one thing – they know that the riots will hand re-election to Trump on a silver platter. Trump’s ‘law and order’ stance is winning voters over, and Biden’s lead in the polls has essentially collapsed in the battleground states. People don’t like violence, and they don’t like the people committing and excusing violence. By piggy-backing on the back of the protests, and excusing them as they drifted away from racial protest to become increasingly violent, the Democrats cannot now turn against them – they’ll be revealing themselves as frauds, frustrating their support base and, essentially, committing electoral suicide.

The Democrats are keen to make this election about Trump and his lack of character, and that looked like a good pitch six months ago. But Trump has made it about America – he’s running against a party that’s backing burning down the country, and people are swallowing their distaste to support him as a result. People want to be able to live in safety, and they don’t like being told to ignore the evidence of their own eyes. We’ve passed the point where ‘Orange man bad’ is a winning electoral argument – in wilfully turning a blind eye to the destruction of America, the Democrats are gifting Trump four more years in the Oval Office.