Responding to chaos is not easy, whether by word or deed, and Trump could quickly fall into the trap of overplaying his hand furthering the notion that he is a racist. No modern president, however, has faced such constant attacks and ridiculous roadblocks at every turn. Conservative people have been censored, and the American people have been censored. The elites among the Democrats have undermined the public confidence about elections. Rather than a peaceful transform of power, the way to resolve a contested election is to elect the candidate first with Russian involvement and then collusion with other international leaders. Some of the Democratic states have started the practice of mail-in ballots, thereby opening the floodgate for the potential fraud. This undermines confidence in the outcome of the upcoming election, so that it will take the country in a dark place where people lose faith in the results.
The political polarization of recent years is now turning increasingly violent and far reaching. Political leaders in the USA consider their interests over national interests. The Democratic far left party thinks that minorities in America are not being treated equally, are attacked, bullied, persecuted, and discriminated against. The Democrat Party thinks that the best way to win this election is to play identity politics, but this tactic is very dangerous. Free speech in a country releases some of the pressure and its absence changes dynamics. If people are prevented from expressing their views, it will not bode well for the country. With its two standards of justice, the Democratic left party is acting on one for itself and demanding a second for other parties.
The current system has been in place for hundreds of years based on a very simple idea: All people are created by God and, thus morally, have equal value. Every one of them is a life and for that reason, and for that reason alone, all Americans are treated equally under the law of the United States. In the United States individuals will be judged based on what they do, not how they were born. That idea has been the defining principle since America’s eighteenth century. For that reason American is the fairest society in the world. For that reason, many people would love to live in America or they have moved there. For that reason many call America the land of dreams and opportunities.
What America is facing now, but has never faced before, is that these iconoclasts are attacking the basic principles of America and telling us that not all Americans have been treated equally. Some of them were born morally stained with the guilt of their ancestors; others were not, but were burdened with the victimhood of theirs. Some Americans are guilty; some are not. America has one set of laws; that set of laws should apply to all equally and cannot apply one law to some and another to others because that kind of law characterized the feudal society like that in earlier centuries in Europe or in a kingship or a totalitarian society in recent times. In this view, we can punish children for the sins of their ancestors because the accusers are saying not everyone has been created equal, and some have less moral value because of their predecessors. Even during slavery, abolitionists did not agree that slavery was right and considered it evil, and even if the numbers were not many, that made their courageous stand to defend the basic principles of America more important.
How did the Democrats manage to hijack America so suddenly? No leader is stepping up and stopping them. The Republican party surrendered to them on day one without a fight. On live television major American cities have been scenes of destruction and looting, even with Americans being beaten and murdered by the fringe protestors, possibly fueled by infiltrators.
Our shared history that connects us together is being destroyed and rewritten by illiterate mobs and looters. Where are the American protectors? Where are the Republicans who want a peaceful participatory democracy, one with rule of law?
Most factions are blaming the police, but none seem to be condemning the looters. Suddenly ordinary Americans are attacked for the color of their skin because they were once a majority, and no Republican has stood up and defended them. Republicans are even refusing to grant the principles of equality under the law, the bedrock of America. We voted for Republicans to protect the people and defend their rights and interests, but when the people’s interests are being destroyed by the mobs and looters, then Republican leaders are silenced. So voting does not work on some levels when a group can riot, burn, destroy, steal, kill, and instead of the expected punishment, a very different response emerges: The officials give the perpetrators what they want because rioting and looting works in America. Furthermore, the message they are sending takes hold more because of the quarantine.
I fear that more statues will be destroyed, if not in this round of rioting, then in the next. More buildings will burn, and looters will attack more shops and other places besides, even if in the short term it will not change a thing about the train of events which must follow from the situation in which the Democrats have put themselves. What if many whites had gone to the streets protesting and looting when Obama, a Black American, became president of the United States? If they had destroyed the Civil Rights movement icons, such as Martin Luther King statues in public parks, most Americans would not have supported that; if people who were wearing a hat that supported Obama had been killed, if anyone had spoken against the mobs then, what would the media censor? How would Obama have responded? How will the media respond?
We have enough victims already. But when we compare America with the rest of the world, America is still one of the best in terms of fairness, and the public should continue to defend the principle of fairness. All parties should reject identity politics that assumes a shared experience of injustice of members of their group, that claims the persistence of oppression. All political parties should embrace the uniqueness of every individual and not consider him or her a member of a group first, but rather an individual, and should not use the excuse of past prejudices to create a racial patronage system. We should never accept this framing of the US. The promise of absolute equality under the law is all we have. Laws are designed to protect the weak and not the strong, privileged, powerful and popular. Those who are leading the Black Lives Matter or other deconstructive movements against the American current system are strong and do not champion the ordinary person. According to the Pew Research Center, most Democrats say the movement arises out of long
term oppression of the black race, but most Republicans see it as taking advantage of a crisis for criminal behavior. Agencies aid in rebuilding family structure, programs help fathers become part of children’s lives, and initiatives to return dignity and pride in their work ethic.
(Dr. Aland Mizell is with the MCI, SETBI and a columnist at Mindanao Times.You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com)
