The Democratic Party Establishment Falls in Line with Trump’s Racist "Law & Order" Politics.
There are less than 60 days until the Presidential election on November third, each day the United States inches closer to the 200,000 covid-19 death mark, each day more Americans file for unemployment as the pandemic forces a complete overhaul of our economy, each day nationwide protests against a racist criminal justice system, police brutality, militarism and capitalism continue; but both major parties have responded to this uprising of the masses with hostility by doubling down on a message of law and order to preserve the status quo, rather than listening to the demands of the people they’re supposed to be representing who’ve been out protesting in the streets in cities and small towns across America for more than 100 days at this point.
Donald Trump has done nothing but fan the flames of conflict while simultaneously taking credit for saving multiple cities across the United States from what Trump calls violent far-left antifa domestic terrorists by imposing authoritarian curfews and lock-down orders to criminalize protesters for using their constitutional rights, and deploying the National Guard and other unmarked federal agents to illegally detain protesters in Minneapolis, Portland and now Kenosha. Trump is calling these protesters ‘domestic terrorists’ for doing things such as looting, vandalism, and in some cases throwing soup at police officers. During a meeting with the National Association of Police Organizations’ Trump lashed out against soup wielding anarchists stating:
“And then they have cans of soup… big bags of soup. And they lay it on the ground, and the anarchists take it and they start throwing it at our cops, at our police.”
A tweet from President Trump on August 31st also indicated that the President is attempting to capitalize on this situation to make him look like the real law and order candidate:
“If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now…”
One would think that in the middle of nationwide protests against institutional racism and over-policing the party that’s supposed to be in opposition to Donald Trump and the GOP would adopt a message of peace and reconciliation with the protesters, unfortunately that hasn’t been the case in the slightest.
According to reporting from In These Times, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers originally called for the the deployment of the National Guard to Kenosha in response to protests there against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. In fact, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor has deployed the National Guard to control protesters three times this summer alone. In These Times stated:
“In June, the governor also authorized troops to back up riot police in Madison and Milwaukee. In Kenosha last week, Evers argued that the unrest was so dire that he needed to send for reinforcements, requesting battalions of National Guard members from Arizona, Michigan and Alabama.”
They go on to state:
“In an agreement between Evers and the federal government, over 1,500 National Guard troops, and up to 200 federal agents were deployed and patrolling the city by September first.”
Donald Trump and the GOP didn’t make the decision to deploy National Guard troops in multiple cities across the United States alone, regardless of what he or the Democratic Party establishment wants the public to believe. In many cases states run by Democrats have been just as quick to criminalize protesters and respond by cracking down on them with militarized law enforcement.
In Kenosha riot-police and National Guard troops called in by a Democratic Governor have arrested over 200 protesters and fired tear gas, flashbangs and rubber bullets at them. In Portland, Washington and New York, also run by Democrats, we have seen police brutalize peaceful protesters and federal agents kidnapping protesters and driving away with them in unmarked vans.
Even as Donald Trump has given cover to right-wing domestic terrorists like the 17 year-old blue lives matter militia member who murdered two protesters in Kenosha, Democrats at all levels of government have been unable to articulate a plan of action that doesn’t fall back on the bipartisan establishments proclivity for racist law and order politics. For example, in a statement on August 26th Democratic Senator from Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin failed to distinguish between the black lives matter supporters protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake and armed right-wing militants who were responsible for murdering two of those protesters. Baldwin stated:
“The vandalism, armed militia, gun violence and fatal shootings in Kenosha are not advancing the cause of racial justice in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.”
Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden has also been unable to articulate a clear message that opposes the racist law and order politics of President Trump and the GOP, which is unsurprising given his long record of being one of the most tough on crime members of the Democratic Party. In a prerecorded speech on August 31st in response to Trumps visit to Kenosha, Biden denied Trumps claim that he was anti-law enforcement and pushed the notion that property violence akin to physical violence by insisting that, “rioting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting… it’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted.”
Biden has also ignored protesters calls to divest funding from police departments in order re-invest that funding in social programs to directly help communities most in need, instead the Democratic Presidential nominee has advocated for investing more money in police departments under the guise of improving community policing. Police Departments across the United States already receive tens, sometimes hundreds of millions more in funding than other community programs, they don’t need a cent more in order to make the changes that the public is demanding.
The facts show that police departments do not need more funding in order make the changes the public is demanding. For example, the LAPD budget for 2020 is “$3.14 Billion out of the city’s $10.5 Billion” budget while $30 million has been allocated for economic development and just $6 million for emergency management. In New York, funding for the NYPD in 2020 was more than $5 Billion, which is more than funding for the Departments of Health, Homeless Services, Housing Preservation and Development, and Youth and Community Development combined. And in cities like Minneapolis, police departments get $1.6 Billion in funding, but programs that could actually prevent crime such as affordable housing get $31 million, the Office of Crime Prevention receives $400,000, and community organizations working with at-risk youth get just $250,000.
According to numerous studies increasing funding for police departments does not correlate with lower crime rates and more aggressive policing measures seem to only increase the number of violent interactions between police and the communities they’re supposed to be serving.
By not offering a differing message to President Trumps divisive law and order politics Democrats are allowing the myth of violent antifa rioters to go unopposed while giving cover to the real threat of violence, which are the armed right-wing militants who have murdered two protesters in Kenosha.
Accusations thrown at antifa have been consistently overblown. They routinely frame vandalism as terrorism & lack any concrete evidence of serious criminal activity. Over the last 25 years antifa has been responsible for zero deaths, whereas during that same amount of time right-wing extremists have killed at least 329 people.
By refusing to establish a dialog of peace and reconciliation with protesters and instead electing to fall back on the bipartisan tendency for racist law and order politics the Democratic Party establishment is making it clear that they aren’t interested in reaching out to those who are dissatisfied with the status quo. In order to do that they would actually have to advocate for policies like Medicare for All, de-funding the police and re-funding social services, both of which their corporate donors stand opposed to. Instead, they’re continuing the failed 2016 strategy of appealing to mostly white middle class moderate suburban voters in order to beat Trump by convincing them that he makes their communities less safe. This strategy just might work in 2020, given the fact that Trump has utterly failed in his response to the corona-virus pandemic, ensuing economic crisis, and nationwide protest movement against institutional racism and police brutality. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party hasn’t offered much of a vision for addressing the issues in American society other than getting rid of Trump. This has given the bipartisan ruling class cover to continue exploiting poor and working class Americans while simultaneously giving them the ability to claim that the revolution has come as long as Donald Trump is removed from office.
Reporters from In These Times Alice Herman and Emilio Leanza summed up this situation perfectly by stating:
“Establishment Democrats want us to think there is a wide rift between them and a president who condones white vigilantism. But the dispute over the Kenosha uprisings has revealed Democrats’ inability to articulate a clear moral vision that is distinct from, and opposed to, Trump’s ultra-racist, law-and-order politics. When it comes to beefing up law enforcement and cracking down on protesters, both sides are complicit in perpetuating systemic racism and upholding military-style policing.
This does not mean both sides are equal: The Trump administration clearly is taking the racist war on Black Lives Matter to new, terrifying levels. But Trump’s move to the farther right does not give Democrats an excuse to vilify protesters or imply that violence against them is justified.”