Democracy's Last Stand

Six months ago, President Trump’s supporters went to Washington to protest his defeat. Many of them still are convinced the election was stolen. Some of those who went to Washington stormed into the United States Capitol. Others, having seen people headed into the Capitol, wandered in assuming they could be there. Someone planted pipe bombs at the Republican and Democratic headquarters. Some erected a noose to hang members of congress. Some went in looking for Mike Pence to cause him harm.

Over seventy-five million people voted for Donald Trump and the media and Democrats have sought to define them all and every other Republican by those who stormed into the United States Capitol. Some have claimed it was worse than 9/11. Others have compared it to a Nazi uprising. Noted political strategist James Carville has insisted Democrats tie all Republicans to that day and that group — numbering less than 500 — that shattered windows, stole objects, and tried to break through doors towards fleeing members of Congress.

Last summer, the same media aghast and in therapy over January 6, informed a viewing public that protests around the country were fiery but mostly peaceful. As storefronts burned, CBS brought on Nikole Hannah-Jones to inform America that destroying a person’s livelihood and business was not actually violence. CNN dismissed Antifa as not really a thing. MSNBC defended the rioters. The New York Times pretended none of it was happening. Innocent passer-byers trying to drive away from violent protestors were condemned by the press and progressives for not sitting there and letting their cars be smashed.

In Portland, OR, rioters have continually, nightly, attempted to burn down a federal courthouse. The media and Democrats blamed Donald Trump and federal law enforcement. Law enforcement left and the rioting continued, but the media stopped covering it.

In Chicago, the mayor who now wants federal law enforcement to protect her city, just last summer denounced federal law enforcement and refused President Trump’s offer to have them come help calm the city. The media defended her decision.

At Donald Trump’s inaugural, rioters marched through the streets of Washington smashing windows, burning cars, and beating up Republicans. They did the same just last year, including attacking Senator Rand Paul and his wife. Speaking of Senator Paul, various Democrats and comedians on television have used him as the butt of their jokes after his neighbor violently attacked him.

A few years ago, progressive agitators stormed Texas’s State Capitol attempting to shut down the legislature as it met to pass pro-life legislation. The media took the side of the protestors. It was, after all, understandable that the protestors were trying to protect a woman’s right to choose against fundamentalists. The very media that condemned the January 6 protests were on the side of the disruptive protestors shutting down democracy in Texas.

Before that, in Wisconsin, progressive activists stormed the Wisconsin State Capitol attempting to block Republican reforms and redistricting plans. Having lost the election, they attempted to barricade themselves in the Wisconsin State Capitol. The media passively, dispassionately covered it. It was, after all, understandable because those Republicans were trying to gerrymander.

A media that even now insists every Republican and Trump voter be held accountable for January 6 has always deflected, defended, and massaged the facts about the protests of last summer, the violence, the crime wave, the repeated attempts by progressives to block democratic actions, etc. Progressives, Antifa, and Black Lives Matter agitators are always the protagonists. Law enforcement, Republicans, and conservatives are always the antagonists.

Each of the incidents was appalling. Each should be denounced. The American mainstream media, however, seems fixated on one while having ignored all the others. Some will say January 6 is uniquely bad. It was really bad and condemnable. But also January 6 probably never would have happened had the media and Democrats together not spent so many years defending violent protestors disrupting democratic institutions and burning down businesses when the protestors were progressive.

Democracy’s last stand is not actually about accountability for January 6, a commission and a need to fight Trump’s voters. Democracy’s last stand is whether the American press can free itself again from left-wing group think and actually be a fair and impartial press. Democracy depends on that very thing and the media itself, through its own biases and partisanship, is abandoning the democratic ship in favor of a Democratic Party just as, if not more, authoritarian than the GOP.