Biden’s condemnation of violence and political fiction (op-ed)

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Recently, Willie Brown, the first black mayor of San Francisco (1996-2004), told the San Francisco Chronicle, the biggest threat to Democratic victory in November was demonstrators tearing up cities in the name of racial justice. 

Brown's statement came after internal Democratic polls revealed President Trump could win re-election due to a dramatic shift in public opinion. 

The Director of the think tank Democracy Institute stated: The polls confirm that the Democrats completely misread the effect of the Black Lives Matter protest and the desire of Americans to restore law and order.  Internal polls have shown for the last three months the overwhelming majority of Americans, including black voters, are opposed to the organized anarchy – looting, vandalism, mayhem, and murdering of innocent people – while Democratic public officials turned a blind eye.

After the police killing of George Floyd, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden supported “peaceful protest” and condemned violent hijackers of the Black Lives Matter movement.  But all of Biden statements against violence were weak. 

Right-wing pundits have suggested Biden is in no position to forcefully condemn the violence because he made a deal with the hard-left of his party.  The hard-left will create chaos and blame it on President Trump in exchange for Biden adopting their progressive agenda after he wins the presidency. 

But the poll numbers have forced Biden to condemn the chaos.

Therefore, the Biden/Harris campaign launched an ad called: Don’t Be Afraid.  Biden’s voice was over images of destroyed property and Biden said, “I want to make it absolutely clear.  Rioting is not protesting.  Looting is not protesting.  Its lawlessness, plain and simple, and those that do it should be prosecuted.” Then, like the right-wing pundits theorized, Biden blamed President Trump for the chaos, and said the presidents “failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.”

But pundits on the left thought the ad contributed to “political fiction” by overemphasizing property destruction.

They pointed to a recent report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and insisted that violence occurred at only 7 percent of the thousands of peaceful protests that popped up around the United States, and 12 percent of the Trump led counter-protests have ended in violence. 

Of course, this is misleading. 

It appears like the Trump counter-protests were involved in more violence.  But the ACLED reported since May 26, the day after George Floyd was killed by the police, there were 7,750 Black Lives Matter demonstrations and 360 Trump led counter-protest.  12 percent of 360 is 40 violent events, but 7 percent of 7,750 is 542 violent events. 

The long, hot summer of 1967 only had 159.

If Biden’s campaign Ad engaged in political fiction, I would hate to see non-fiction.

First published by the New Pittsburgh Courier 9/9/2020