Our nation has a fine tradition of peaceful protesting when people feel that they need to have their voices heard. This leaves room for many different forms of expression that fall under the umbrella of protesting. However, the definition of protesting has now gotten distorted in the wake of the violent unrest that is running amok in American cities. Suddenly, those who riot and destroy property are being lauded as the "best of America." This is why these destructive protests have been allowed to spin out of control and harm businesses and residents of many of these cities.

One of the most recent outrages has been the lionization of these anarchist troublemakers who have brought major American cities to a standstill. Many are even going so far as to equate these protestors with the late civil rights hero John Lewis. However, there is no "good trouble" that is coming from this most recent round of looting and property destruction.

The Los Angeles Mayor Praises Those Breaking the Law

The most recent Democratic luminary to praise these violent protestors is Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. He recently called these rioters “the best of our democratic ideals.” He criticized law enforcement's effort to put a stop to the organized chaos gripping American cities. He referred to the protestors currently destroying Portland as our "friends" while he blasted federal law enforcement officers who are doing the job that the city will not. Mayor Garcetti has actually made exceptions to the stay-at-home orders that he has put into place in Los Angeles for protests in an example of picking winners and losers during COVID-19.

In fact, the Left has tried to change the definition of what a "peaceful protestor" is. According to the Left, federal police are "brutalizing" peaceful protestors in Portland. These same peaceful protestors had to be stopped from burning down a federal courthouse. The truth is that no major Democratic politician has called out the gross excesses that these protestors have resorted to and nobody has asked for any type of restraint. Instead, they hold the lawless rioters up as part of our democratic ideals when no section of the United States Code of the Constitution allows protestors to resort to breaking the law.

The seeds of the current Democratic embrace of lawlessness were sown by none other than Barack Obama himself. The first protests of these types were the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011 that resorted to lawbreaking as their central tenet. Then, there were Black Lives Matter riots in 2014. Obama failed to condemn both of these and even gave tacit encouragement to the protests. This set the stage for the full-fledged encouragement that the Left has been given to the recent riots.

Tne National Democratic Party Does Not Have a Word to Say

Joe Biden has not even addressed the violence among these anarchist protestors and has issued no calls for calm. Not one major Democratic politician has condemned the property destruction and economic damage that the protestors have caused. Instead, they condemn President Trump from trying to restore law and order to these cities in an indication of the misplaced priorities of the Left.

One by one, mayors of the largest cities in America have not only given in to these protestors, but they have explicitly endorsed them. First, Mayor Jacob Frey utterly failed to get a handle on the destructive situation in Minneapolis as the city spiraled out of control. Then, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered police out of part of the city and allowed protestors to occupy the area unchecked for weeks without taking control of the situation. Now, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler not only lets the situation fester and escalate, but he also encourages the protestors by joining them.

They have always said that the cities were laboratories in which ideas for the country were grown. This has actually become an unfortunate truth in the U.S. as the Leftist cities have become blueprints for the national Democratic Party to adopt. The most radical ideas in the cities have become the genesis for the national party platform as the national "leaders" acquiesce to the dangerous spread of lawless virtues and ideas. Since the Democrats have ceded leadership to the incompetent and radical mayors, they will also be responsible for the breakdown in law and order in society. Come November, they will end up paying a price for this.