There is much about America in 2020 that is head-spinning, and the latest is Joe Biden’s convention call for an “American moment. It’s a moment that calls for hope and light and love, hope for our future, light to see our way forward and love for one another.”
Was that just a dig at Donald Trump, whom the Democrats seem to feel embodies all kinds of darkness? Perhaps.
The reference to an “American moment” and need to love one another could have harkened back to principles espoused by our founders in 1776: America’s exceptional experiment in individual liberty and self-governance arises from the idea that we are created equal, and that goodness naturally predominates in a culture premised on the “Golden Rule” (love your neighbor as yourself).
But no. Sadly, the preponderance of speeches at their convention make it clear that Democratic Party leaders do not see our nation as a beacon of light, and freedom. The ethos driving Biden and his party today stems from a belief that America, and Americans, are inescapably flawed, and that the introduction of slavery in 1619, not the principles espoused in 1776, or any progress since then, defines our national culture and character.
Driven by this bleak vision of us and our nation, the Biden Democrats are consumed by passion for remaking America. The Biden ethic is this: despise your neighbor unless they are woke; change them — or make them pay for their (putative) sins. Our cities and our culture are in the grip of those who believe that love is measured by the intensity of one’s hatred for our nation as it is. They believe that destruction and violence are the path of peace and justice.
But of course, hate is never a measure of love.
So, we watch as the Democrats’ activist base, comprised of disappointed Bernie Bros, Justice Democrats, The Squad, antifa, Black Lives Matter, and random hard-left politicians — give free rein to self-righteous hatred. They destroy our communities while claiming moral superiority and think no one can see what is actually going on. Unfortunately, Biden’s Democratic Party is now a wholly owned subsidiary of that left – despite the fact that he was nominated because he was supposedly a moderate.
The BLM organization has had enormous success this summer, precisely because Americans are, almost universally, NOT racist. Most of us believe that we are all equal, and skin color is no basis for differential law enforcement. This tenet is reflected in our laws and it’s universally espoused from boardrooms to classrooms, from pulpits to sporting events. There is no institutional or cultural support for racism left in America. Decades of struggle have actually changed hearts and minds, which should be applauded.
Yet Democrats today assert that America is systemically racist. They argue that racism permeates every aspect of American life — our economy, institutions, people, stores, arts organizations. They assert that no white person is not a racist.
And so we have seen every major cultural and economic institution confess their sinfulness and publicly pledge to be better in order to demonstrate their desire for goodness, like a scene from a Russian or Chinese or Cambodian re-education camp. But that is not enough for BLM.
Consider, for example, the recent looting and wanton destruction of stores in Chicago (or New York, or Minneapolis). It was followed by a BLM rally in support of looting as a right, and a first step toward “reparations.” You would think that a political party that wants to win the presidency would denounce this lawlessness and looting at its national convention. But the Democrats had nothing to say last week about the collapse of civil society in our cities, and the destruction of property and businesses often owned by Black proprietors.
Joe Biden spent three paragraphs of his acceptance speech explicitly discussing white supremacists and Nazis as if they are something more than a tiny fringe in our society. He falsely suggested that President Trump supports white supremacists and Nazis and tied the ugliness in Charlottesville three years ago to events this summer.
Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris spent much of her speech ranting about “systemic” racism, even to the point of saying it explains the death toll of COVID-19. So, it would have been too much to expect Biden to contradict her. Actually, her own lived experience contradicts her current stated view: She is a woman of color who rose to the U.S. Senate, and now a national ticket – unlikely in a nation that was actually racist. Naturally, the media missed the contradiction.
Just as the Democratic mayors and governors have allowed the looting to continue, and leashed law enforcement that could have stopped it, so the national Democratic ticket failed to condemn violence in the streets, riots, and looting. We are left to wonder if they share the BLM view that the riots, and attacks on people and property, are justified.
The traditional, universal, non-political view is that riots and looting are unacceptable violence, regardless of who the rioters are and what they espouse. It is tragic when a major American political party embraces mob violence for its own political ends. Sadly, that is exactly what Biden-Harris has done with their silence.
This fall Americans will decide whether we wish to be governed by those who believe America is systemically evil, or by those who believe America is fundamentally good. Should we elect those who believe their mission is to destroy our culture and change us radically? Or those who believe that the job of a president is to keep us safe, and enforce the law?
Why would we trust politicians with such a dark a vision of us, who see us as fundamentally evil, to safeguard our people and our nation?
