In this modern Bonfire of Inanities, ignorance reigns supreme. Which is one of the big problems with mob “justice,” a painful lesson we history students here in America learned a long time ago.
Not that this current crop of uneducated, stupid, self-enthralled miscreants rioting in public streets and parks has the slightest grasp on five minutes of history. Or, wisdom for that matter.
This is what post-Obama America looks like. Or, as President Trump calls it, “Joe Biden’s America.”
History is dead. Intelligence is weakness. Wisdom is scorned. Justice is the punchline to a sick joke.
Love him or hate him, Mr. Trump ran for president on a set of concrete promises.
Strangle illegal immigration. Curtail endless wars overseas. Stop screwing America with unfair trade deals. Trim the voracious tentacles of the federal government.
These are promises aimed at all Americans — regardless of race or gender or religion or whatever evil division politicians might stoke for their own benefit. Making good on these promises is for the benefit of everyone. Make. America. Great. Again. For everybody.
President Barack Obama won on amorphous, intangible promises. “Hope.” And “change.” And calming the rising seas.
But he was a rock star. He made people feel good. He bestowed virtue upon them, simply by giving them the opportunity to support him. Or, in the case of the media, brush his garment and slobber all over his sandals.
Even as he secretly plotted during his final days in the White House to undermine the peaceful transfer of power — that most important American ideal.
“These are unusual times,” Mr. Obama said in a secret Oval Office meeting after the free and fair election designed to peacefully transfer power to the next man.
“Make sure you look at things — have the right people on it,” he told his top henchmen, including his vice president.
“Is there anything I shouldn’t be telling the transition team?” Mr. Obama asked, conspiratorially, according to notes from that illicit meeting.
Welcome to post-Obama America.
Emotion is now fact. Even worse, emotion has become a guaranteed right. Whatever one feels is correct and justified, no matter how ignorant or detached from reality or history it may be. Furthermore, any misguided grievance one may have based on that troubled emotion empowers that person with the right to do anything he wants.
Tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson? Sure.
Deface a statue to Robert E. Lee or Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue in Richmond? Have at it!
Even Abraham Lincoln and George Washington are not safe when the mob is judge, jury and executioner. And if you are a sworn officer of the peace, you better watch your back. Or better yet, just stay home.
In this new world, the rights of others be damned. The laws of society vanish in an instant. Justice is a quaint little concept for losers.
Not only are these spoiled little brats entirely bereft of any remotely mature knowledge of history, they haven’t the faintest understanding of politics. Who should rule? Where do rights come from? What is freedom?
That’s because these are people who are fundamentally incapable of contributing to society. They are helpless takers. For helpless takers, if you don’t take, you don’t get.
“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” says Black Lives Matter “president” Hawk Newsome.
“All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
See, Mr. Newsome may not be very smart and he may be totally ignorant of history and may not belong in civilized society, but he sure is down with the whole concept of weaponizing personal grievances into lawless rioting.
After all, what could possibly go wrong with raging mobs — with hooded faces — armed with torches and ropes fueled by racial anger and hate-filled fear in lusty search of their pound of flesh based on some twisted misunderstanding of history?
Mr. Newsome? Mr. Newsome? Or, what about you, Mr. Obama? Any problem here?
Well, Democrat politicians desperate to stay ahead of the mob — and cash in on it, of course — have plenty to say about it.
“It’s a healthy expression of people saying let’s get some priorities here and let’s remember the sin and mistake that this nation made and let’s not celebrate it,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said of the masked mob armed with torches and ropes pulling down statues on public property.
Mob rule has a long, ugly history. Contrary to what ignoramuses pulling down statues might say, America’s founding was not the result of mob rule. Exactly the opposite. It was a complete and total rejection of mob rule. It enshrined into law unprecedented protections for the political minority.
The darkest moments in our history have been when people ignored those protections, brushed aside petty laws and gave in to the impulses of the mob.
Thankfully, brave men have always been there, willing to dedicate their lives and sometimes sacrificing all to put down the lawless mob. Those men are remembered and revered.
Statues are rightly built to honor them — statues that are only as safe as the next generation’s commitment to stand up and put down the mob.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor of The Washington Times. He can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.comor @charleshurt on Twitter.
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