Mainly Peaceful? Mostly Peaceful? Largely Peaceful? Are Folks Rioting in the City of Angels?

 Anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles have gone on for almost a week.  As Matt Taibbi pointed out in a recent blog, the legacy media have characterized these demonstrations as "mostly peaceful." Still, commentators avoid using that exact phrase because a CNN reporter was mocked for using it while standing before a burning building during the Minneapolis riot in 2020.

President Trump thinks the ruckus in Los Angeles is a riot, and he called out the National Guard and the Marines. Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass claim they have the protests under control and that Trump is overreacting.

Nevertheless, Mayor Bass imposed a curfew on downtown LA yesterday, acknowledging incidents of vandalism and looting. Protesters have set vehicles on fire and pelted local police with rocks and broken pieces of concrete. The anti-ICI crowd has stopped traffic on the 101 freeway. And then there are those Molotov cocktails.

I'd call that a riot. 

Whether President Trump should intervene to stop the rioting is another matter. Calling out 4,000 National Guard soldiers and a Marine battalion is a serious business, and most folks would rather local authorities deal with the civil unrest if they are capable of doing so.

Federal Judge Charles Breyer will rule on Governor Newsom's request for an injunction against federal intervention within the next few days.

My position from Flyover Country is to support President Trump. Violence, arson, and looting got entirely out of hand during the George Floyd riots of 2020--especially in Minneapolis and Seattle. Who wants a repeat of that season of discontent?

Today, Governor Greg Abbott mobilized the Texas National Guard in anticipation of planned anti-ICE demonstrations in San Antonio. That makes sense as well.  

The last thing this nation needs is for urban rioting to spread to other cities. Governor Newsom contends that the military presence in LA foments more violence. I don't think that's true.

What's a little rioting among friends?

A House Divided: Unless We Become Kinder and More Tolerant, America Will Collapse

 Years ago, I read The Coming Fury, Bruce Catton's classic study of the United States on the brink of civil war. In the months preceding the shelling of Fort Sumter, Catton explained, extremists in both the North and The South wanted a war. 

And war they got. When it was over, 600,00 men were dead, and thousands of veterans spent the rest of their lives without their arms or legs.

America was a house divided in 1860, and America is a house divided today. Last night's Republican primary in Wyoming illustrates my point. Liz Cheney, the Republican congresswoman who voted to impeach Donald Trump, was swept out of office by a landslide.

Curiously, Cheney carried two regions of the state: Teton County, where wealthy Democrats reside around Jackson Hole, and the region around the state capitol of Cheyenne--where most  of Wyoming's liberal-leaning government bureaucrats dwell.

As predicted, Democrats "crossed over" in Wyoming's Republican primary--not to support Liz Cheny but to register their contempt for Republicans and Donald Trump, the Republican's tarnished standard bearer.

We similar signs of division everywhere. Dana Milbank, the Washington Post's chief loon, wrote a column a few weeks ago expressing the desire for Texas and Oklahoma to leave the Union. 

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott is busing illegal migrants to New York City and Washington DC. Both towns are self-proclaimed sanctuary cities, but the mayor of DC wants to call out the National Guard to help control the people the District of Columbia claims to welcome.

In California, the state's government forbids travel by California employees to more than 20 states. Why? The reasons are varied, but they include disapproval of states that don't want youngsters with testicles to compete in girls' athletic contests.

Do you want another example? A poll of likely Texas voters found that a strong majority  want to leave the United States! That will make the Washington Post  and the liberal elites happy, but do they really want the nation's leading exporter, energy producer, and cattle raiser to head out on its own? I would think not.

Today the United States is very much like it was just before the guns began to play in 1861.  We need to step back and reflect a bit. Does it make sense for our political leaders to sow disharmony and denigrate the people who live in states where traditional values still prevail?

I do not think it does.