Fit to print
Meanwhile The New York Times has seen fit to publish an op-ed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton saying send in the soldiers.
This week, rioters have plunged many American cities into anarchy, recalling the widespread violence of the 1960s.
New York City suffered the worst of the riots Monday night, as Mayor Bill de Blasio stood by while Midtown Manhattan descended into lawlessness. Bands of looters roved the streets, smashing and emptying hundreds of businesses. Some even drove exotic cars; the riots were carnivals for the thrill-seeking rich as well as other criminal elements.
…
Some elites have excused this orgy of violence in the spirit of radical chic, calling it an understandable response to the wrongful death of George Floyd. Those excuses are built on a revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants.
I haven’t seen many “elites” doing that. What I’ve seen is mostly people pointing out that there are some people taking advantage of the protests along with some right-wing provocateurs and some lefties who like violence; in short it’s a mix.
The pace of looting and disorder may fluctuate from night to night, but it’s past time to support local law enforcement with federal authority. Some governors have mobilized the National Guard, yet others refuse, and in some cases the rioters still outnumber the police and Guard combined. In these circumstances, the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to employ the military “or any other means” in “cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws.”
This venerable law, nearly as old as our republic itself, doesn’t amount to “martial law” or the end of democracy, as some excitable critics, ignorant of both the law and our history, have comically suggested.
Oh yes, very comical. Meanwhile there is absolutely no reason not to trust Donald Trump to do such a thing with the utmost caution and respect for the rights of all.
Yes but that was completely different because the people threatening the Michigan legislators were white. White, I tell you, white.
To oppose the Right is to automatically place yourself, by definition, in an ‘elite’, which includes lefties, liberals but strangely no magnates. Nix, nada, zilch; none of any kind.. “The last shall be first,” and all that other end times stuff. Further proof that Kingdom Come is at hand; as if any were needed, given that the signs are all there, .;-)
Stupid as it was, it was an op-ed column and was not represented to be anything else. If newspapers can run op-eds where trans cult boosters can rail against reality and push their belief system, why should this not be published?
‘Exotic cars?’
JtD: You never heard of the Lamborghini Looters gang?
It’s probable that Cotton once accidentally saw a few seconds of a rap video and now thinks that all black guys drive blinged-up supercars, so his ‘exotic cars’ line was – in his mind at least – a dogwhistle-ish way of saying that the rioters were black.
Mind you, he is from Arkansas, so it’s equally likely that he thinks any vehicle not pulled by horses is exotic.