Now we know.
The violent outbursts in Minneapolis, the takeover of six city blocks in Seattle and the fiery destruction in Portland are harbingers of a new reality.
While virtual political conventions are dueling for vot
Yet unlike the protests that have taken America’s largest cities hostage, this deadly eruption in Kenosha, the epitome of Main Street, USA, should shake everyone to the core.
It’s now clear every town and city in America can be transformed in the blink of an eye (or the flash of a gun) from an idyllic Norman Rockwell portrait to an explosive Michael Bay hellscape.
What’s also clear is mayors across America who permit even an inch of tolerance for burning and looting are being rewarded with an avalanche of animosity.
Joe Biden is defending the right to protest, and allowing calls to defund the police to grow, while adding he “condemns” violence. The president’s take: “we will not stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets.”
This isn’t a difference of semantics, but a chasm of belief that separates a politician from a peacekeeper, a pretender from a protector, a wannabe from a leader.
While Biden refuses to douse the smoldering embers before they erupt again, the media is refusing to give the president any credit for standing tall with America’s ultimate peacekeepers – the men and women in blue willing to risk everything to save everyone.
Kenosha, the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin located close to an even deadlier Chicago, proves that destruction and incivility are not confined to a zip code, to cities of size or to populations of diversity and differing fates.
When someone hurls a Molotov cocktail into a small business, it’s not a statement of principle but a shout of defiance. When a police officer is assaulted, pelted and attacked, it’s not an act of civil disobedience but a throw down against all authority and order. When a raging resident joins a roving gang to torch a barricaded police station with people inside who can’t get out, it’s a prelude to murder.
We know this about human behavior. If someone crosses the line without punishment, they are encouraged to cross it again. When authorities make excuses for allowing marches to become mayhem, they are abettors to another crime of injustice they choose to ignore.
Yet there’s something more frightening afoot, a clash between two freedoms guaranteed by separate constitutional amendments written long ago by patriots who feared where unfettered freedom could lead.
The First Amendment, which protects the right to free speech, allows anyone to say what they believe without being attacked or cancelled. Despite all the suffering and inhumanity he endured, Martin Luther King, Jr. would not be silenced. Today his voice feels more relevant and resounding than ever before.
Then there’s the Second Amendment, the one that guarantees every American the right to keep and bear arms, to protect themselves and their families if others endanger their lives.
On the streets of Kenosha, these two constitutionally-protected rights squared off in a deadly showdown that cost two people their lives, and all of us any consolation.
If we don’t call this out now, don’t stop this now, the worst news is this: Kenosha may soon be coming to a theater near you.
And no amount of COVID-19 restrictions or quarantine will be able to shutter the doors to that show.
Adam Goodman is a national Republican media strategist and columnist. He is a partner at Ballard Partners in Washington, D.C., and the first Edward R. Murrow Senior Fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. Follow him on Twitter @adamgoodman3.