Why The Right Is Angry Too
By Alex Saitta
January 11, 2021
Introduction:
Aside from the decline in election integrity, the most alarming thing that jumped out at me in 2020 is the way violence has seeped into the political process. Sad to say, intimidation and violence has become a political tool in our national politics. For these two reasons, 2020 marked a significant acceleration of the political down trend in our country, in an overall down trend where our nation is now sliding at an accelerating rate.
This is serious and our leaders must act in a bi-partisan way by taking two initial steps:
One, stop the political rhetoric and exploiting every situation to gain a political advantage. Calling for the resignation, urging the cabinet to remove Trump or filing yet another round of impeachment papers is nothing but political. You’d have to show me the Trump quotes that incited peaceful people to turn violent and then break into the Capitol Building before I will believe he incited what followed. I think the charge is without merit.
If Trump is impeached by the US House, the trial will be after Trump’s term has ended. It has no practical purpose. Folks it is all political as these politicians see everything through a political prism, asking how can our party use this event or that situation to help our side in the next election?
Pelosi’s political strategy is Republicans in the Senate and elsewhere (like Cruz, Pence, Haley, Graham) who want to run in 2024, might support impeaching Trump and dishing out a punishment of disqualifying him from running in 2024.
Two, our leaders must examine the way violence is being used as a political tool to sway the public, motivate the political base and intimidate officials and judges. Leaders from both parties must condemn the Capitol Building attack as well the summer violence, both in the same breath. Condemn ALL the political violence of the past year. Then recognize this is becoming a long-term problem and use a bi-partisan approach to snuff out the growing use of violence as a political tool.
But Why?
I am not in a position to say the main reason why the left protested, looted and rioted in many cities over a period of months. I would love to have someone on the left explain the main reason below. I do have an opinion on why so many on the right are angry. Many see how biased and inconsistent, and how unfair the political field is these days.
Washington Speak:
Trump has been blamed by the media for causing the violence at the Capitol. To be guilty of incitement you have to urge people to break the law (trespass, vandalize, commit violence) and Trump did none of that in his speech. Read the 1969 Supreme Court ruling of Brandenburg vs. Ohio, which lays out the basis of the incitement law, then listen to Trump’s entire speech. Nothing. In sum, this is just another round of the blame game.
Trump’s language was legal, albeit fiery, but I remember Maxine Waters urging a rabid crowd to confront Trump’s cabinet members, Republicans, and supporters anywhere they saw them and tell them they are not welcome. Later we saw Republicans confronted maliciously in restaurants, at their homes, and walking down the street. Remember how many MAGA hat wearers were beaten? Waters wasn’t blamed for any of that. Dishing out the blame when it comes to rhetoric of political leaders is biased.
Kamala Harris said, “They’re not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day, and they should not”. When challenged, she later said she was talking only about the protests (but violence, looting and riots were all taking place at the time too). She then raised money to bail out protestors arrested for violating the law.
The media didn’t blame Harris for egging on the violence, the looting and rioting that occurred thereafter. Yet, Trump says Democrats stole the election, Biden is not legitimate and America has had enough, and he is blamed for violence later on. Inconsistent.
Below are more run of the mill statements that come from the left.
Senator Cory Booker: In 2018 Booker urged people to answer a “call to action” to protest at the Capitol. “Please, get up in the face of some congress people…”Hillary Clinton said, “You can’t be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for and what you care for.”
Eric Holder said, “Michelle [Obama] always says, ‘When they go low, we go high,’” Holder then said, “No. No. When they go low, we kick them.”
Senator John Tester said, “Even in states where Donald Trump won big, it does not do any good to run away from Donald Trump. I think you need to go back and punch him in the face.”
Political violence is always wrong and should be condemned by all sides.
Condemnation:
Trump was paned for his initial condemnation of what happened at the Capitol Building — it was called weak. Let’s compare that to Biden’s response when he was asked in the first debate to condemn the group Antifa and all the violence they were associated with. Biden responded, “Antifa is just an idea, not an organization and not malicious”, as we watched the guys in the black jackets and hoods throwing bricks, burning down police stations and assaulting Multnomah County Justice Center and Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland for nights on end.
How the actions of Democrats and Republicans are judged on the political stage is not consistent.
Left Wing Media:
We had months of protests, violence from the left in 140 cities, scores of government buildings were attacked and damaged inside and out, $2 billion in public and private property damage, 700 officers injured, 25 people killed and 10,000 law breakers arrested.
The media couched that as mostly peaceful, down played the vandalism, violence and occupation of buildings and parts of cities. The media didn’t demand Democrat leaders condemn it. And very few did. Many of the news anchors and their guests were on TV explaining the behavior and rationalizing it.
Now in the wake of the attack on the Capitol, the media has done a complete 180 calling out such things, and demanding every Republican condemn it. Selective and politically driven outrage -- a double standard that makes people angry.
Violence, no matter whether coming from the left or right, is bad and should be condemned by the media and all their contributing analysts.
Inciting?
I listened to Trump’s January 6 speech at the rally. Trump repeated the election was stolen, he would not concede, and Biden was not a legitimate President. None of this was any worse than the stuff said by Democrats about Trump after his 2016 victory.
A couple of hours later some protestors burst into the Capitol building. Trump was blamed for their actions.
The next day things were quite heated, but looking to ignite and then push a new political narrative, CNN first ran a story saying “anonymous” Republicans were talking about implementing the 25th amendment to remove Trump. Another story said Trump was looking to pardon himself, again “anonymous” sources. Thirty years ago these stories would not have been run because no one was on record. Today, to feed their viewers red meat (inciting them) and to open up a new line of political attack, these stories were published.
In the wake of this story, Chuck Schumer jumped on the band wagon calling for Trump’s removal. Then the Squad called for impeachment, and impeachment articles were drawn up, even though Trump has less than two weeks left in his term.
Trump fed political red meat to the crowd at the crowd. CNN, Schumer and the Squad did the same in the days that followed. Yet Trump is bad for doing it, but the Democrats are not. More inconsistency.
2016 vs 2020 Election:
In 2016, the media, Democrats and everyone on the left alleged Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the election. There was a special prosecutor named, spending $50 million and 3 years investigating it. The news media discussed and investigated it daily for years as well. Even other parts of the DOJ investigated all aspects of the Trump campaign and the election. Courts heard evidence and ruled on cases concerning it. Most main stream media analysts and anonymous sources said Trump did it, because Trump Jr. met with a Russian citizen and a dossier written by a foreign agent (unverified) said Trump did it. In the end, there was no collusion or evidence of.
In 2020 there was allegations of mistakes, irregularities, illegal votes and fraud, and ample evidence presented from scores of sources to warrant a similar “get to the bottom of it all” investigation or evidentiary hearings. The DOJ and state election officials not formally investigate and the courts denied requests to examine the ballots, outside envelopes, time stamps, voting machines and computer logs (where the fraud would have been uncovered if it was there). The inconsistency and political bias in how the 2016 and 2020 allegations of election manipulation where handled is glaring.
Criminal or Self Defense?
A woman was shot at the Capitol. Looking at the video there is a crowd of about 25 people trying to get into the House Chamber, which had two center doors and two half windows, one on the left and one on the right. On the right side was a few SWAT team members standing on a flight of stairs and inside the chamber was a few officers off to the side with guns drawn. Those outside were banging on the doors, some of the glass was broken and this women jumped up and tried to get in through the right window and without a warning and from about 8 feet away she is shot and killed. She was breaking into the chamber. She was not moving on the officers and she was not armed. The officer has not been charged. If this was a liberal shot during a George Floyd protest, they’d be all over the Capitol police for excessive force.
During the Wisconsin protest a young man was being chased down over a long stretch. He fell to the ground, was beat about the head by one man with another about to join in the beating. The man on the ground then shot both with a rifle. Another time looters broke into a store, busting through the doors and glass, the owner shots one of them. In both cases the shooters charged.
I think all three were justified in shooting because the adversaries were doing something aggressive, that either put someone in danger or may have put someone in danger in short order.
Regardless, where is the consistency? Either all should have been charged or none at all. It was the conservatives who got the short end of the legal stick in all three cases.
Electors Objection:
Some of the Republican members of the US House and Senate objected to the votes of electors in order to debate the evidence of mistakes, irregularities, illegal votes and fraud in the election. These elected leaders have been called traitors and even some in the Democrat party have said they should be removed.
In 2001, 2005 and 2017, some Democrats on the House floor did the same thing when George W. Bush and Trump were elected. There was no call for their removal. Objecting to electors to foster a debate before counting the electors’ votes is legal. It is part of the process. The then-versus-now inconsistency that again has conservatives being blamed doesn’t compute.
Censorship:
Look at the way Facebook and Twitter are censoring conservative opinion.
The New York Post story on Hunter Biden was a blatant example. The Post is the third largest newspaper in the country (not some off the beaten path website), the charges were documented and backed by a firsthand source (Biden’s partner). Social media killed the story to protect candidate Joe Biden. It was political censorship USSR style, and much like we are seeing now with the shutting down of social media accounts of many conservatives. And the entire shut down of Parler is disgusting, really.
People have made-up, wildly speculated and even wrote threatening things about Republicans, yet their social media accounts were not shut down by Twitter or Facebook.
Everyone used the Trump-Russian collusion narrative to question Trump’s legitimacy. Now if anyone questions Biden’s election, their account have been shut down or Facebook slaps a liberal “fact check” article on top of it.
The bias on this censorship issue is so thick it can be cut with a knife.
I always say how the Democrats have politicized corporations, the deep state, media and organizations like the ACLU. Here is another example. Fifty years ago the ACLU was a civil rights organization that defended the rights of liberals as well as conservatives. Today, the old-ACLU would have been coming to the defense of conservatives who are having their accounts shut down, as well as Parler. The fifty-years ago news media would be too. Today, the ACLU and media only defend those left of center when their rights are violated. More bias when it comes to the political terrain.
Conclusion:
These are some examples of the bias and inconsistency, and how unfair things have gotten in the political world. Half the country sees the playing field is uneven and it makes them upset and angry. This needs to be addressed by our leaders if we are going to lower the temperature of the political climate.
I’m not optimistic. Our leaders have been up in Washington 30 to 40 years. They are creatures of that political environment. They all see the world through a political prism, so if they gain in the process, they do not care if the media is biased, the hearings unfair and First Amendment rights are run over. Their focus is all about gaining a political advantage. As a result, concrete or much needed solutions to problems fall by the way side.
As I first wrote 10 years ago, we are in a broad decline as a nation — economically, politically, socially, spiritually and morally. We are headed toward the iceberg, but without better leadership there is little hope in changing the course. In sum, there is no change in my assessment -- be prepared; this decade will be worse than the last and rival the 1930’s.