I’ve spent the last hour or so reading over the last several pages of this thread and it reminded me of a scene in the 1966 movie the professionals staring Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster.
“ maybe there is only one revolution sense the beginning , the good guys against the bad guys the question is are we the good guys”
Most of you gentleman advocate for the use of force to put down the riots going on currently in L.A. ( And rightly so in my opinion ) the problem as I see it is that the actions taken to suppress the riots will only be used by the left to justify more riots.
There needs to be a fundamental change in society where we can get away from this tit for tat justification of actions and find some common ground to turn the temperature down or we may well end up fighting a civil war across the entire North American continent.
I bolded what I wanted to respond to.
I’m actually not certain if this is the case. At least not exactly. One of the things that has seriously hurt Democrats nationally and in California has been that they are soft of crime. Videos of people boldly robbing stores because DAs are not interested or unable to prosecute were a big element of the Republican victory in November.
The porous border was also a major factor.
I believe that the images in the news of burning Democrat controlled cities definitely hurt the party on the national level among independents and even more moderate Democrats. The needle that Trump has to thread is not being too heavy handed.
The optics I see are like this: thugs are attacking federal agents trying to deport illegals (which Americans nominally support based on the election), riots that include property damage and the waving of foreign flags don’t look good to middle America, Newsome and the mayor of LA have failed to act, as they failed to act in the Palisade fires, and failed to act on the homeless crisis, president Trump has acted to restore law and order when others have not (law and order was a campaign point).
With all that in mind, the people who hate ICE were never going to support Trump. The rioters and looters were never going to support Trump. Those who like Newsome and the mayor were never going to support Trump.
Thus, if Trump can handle this without the appearance of
extreme suppression, I think he wins. The people wanting law and order, including moderates, want this sorted out. Short of rolling tanks over the rioters, I think he has a pretty free hand. The far left will cry “brutality” if they get a skinned knee but I think the middle is open to tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets if it means the streets are no longer on fire.
While I personally believe that lethal force could be justified in some situations here, Trump should avoid it at nearly all costs. If he can get through this with no deaths, it will really take the wind out of the Dems sails.
I think Newsome is cooked. He will probably never be president. Nobody wants the California they’ve been seeing on tv the last several years.