The Democrat Party’s alliance with the radical left is unraveling before our eyes as ‘defund the police’ reverberates across the nation amidst tumbling monuments, mass property destruction and violence including two shootings in Seattle’s six-block occupied zone. Baffled liberal mayors are standing by, unsure how to quell the violent mobs growing in their jurisdictions, but a newly released Harvard Caps/Harris poll shows a majority of Americans want law and order to be reestablished. The poll shows Americans want monuments protected, police funding to stay the same or increase, Seattle’s ‘Autonomous Zone’ reclaimed, and think using the National Guard or the U.S. Military to reestablish order would be a good idea.
The unrest on the far-left that is bleeding over into everyday life has accelerated since the last presidential election, when leftists saw their preferred socialist candidate brushed aside and replaced with Hillary Clinton. Since then, dreams of dismantling capitalism, dissolving borders (and nations), and converting the United States into a Marxist utopia have been dashed. Twice now, socialist Bernie has been shuttled aside by the party elite in favor of more ‘electable’ candidates. Democrats and the mainstream media are feebly attempting to channel leftist anger exclusively toward President Trump, but the far-left is growing restless.
The Democrat Party has self-servingly attempted to jostle disenchanted leftists into line to win elections for years. But now, with neighborhoods in ruins, injuries, disappearances, and death tolls mounting, and demands to disband police and release felons from prison being taken seriously, the party is forced to face the reality of what an alliance with the far-left will cost. The far-left is determined to dismantle infrastructure, property rights, law enforcement, and any semblance of order, and erect a bizarre Soviet Style authoritarianism, complete with ‘re-education’ programs, regular random violence, and inadequate food supply chains. This is most likely not what mainstream Democrats had in mind when they decided to ‘listen’ to the demands of these radicals instead of denouncing them as the grave threats to civility that they are.
Radical demands to ‘defund the police’ and destroy historical monuments signal a serious issue for Democrats. They have overall done a poor job of separating themselves from the most radical leftwing proposals and distancing themselves from terrorist groups like antifa. While the mainstream media does their best to portray conservatives as sheet-wearing racists, the reality is conservatives do a much better job of distancing themselves from radical fringe groups bent on the destruction of civil society. Democrats on the other hand, refuse to disavow the far-left, out of vote-greed or fear. A startled Bernie Sanders relinquishing his microphone to a mob in Seattle four years ago comes to mind.
To be fair, a few Democrats have expressed modest hesitation to the systematic disbandment of the country’s police forces. Senator Corey Booker said in an NBC interview he ‘understands the sentiment’ behind the slogan, but stopped short of embracing it entirely. Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries dodged the defund question in a CNN interview and said funding needed to be addressed on a ‘case-by-case’ basis. Speaker Pelosi declared ‘we’re not going to that place’ when probed for her position on defund in an NBC interview. Mainstream Democrats have for the most part refused to disavow the defund demands, but stopped short of committing to them. Biden appeared a lone voice of almost-reason, eventually emerging and penning an op-ed stating he didn’t agree with the defund initiative, but it is too little, too late.
Across the county, liberal mayors and city councils continue to cave to the increasingly absurd demands of a small and violent minority of ultra-leftists. The problem is, these radicals are never satisfied. One victory is never enough, they want defund, re-trials for criminals, increased racial quotas, forced sensitivity training, socialized everything. Seattle is a great example of this dichotomy, where liberal white mayor Jenny Durkan caved to a radical minority of far-leftists and banished the police from six Seattle blocks to appease them. It wasn’t enough for the ‘CHAZ’ though. Days after securing their ‘Autonomous Zone’, they descended on Durkan demanding she resign. Their latest list of 30 demands includes abolition of the entire Seattle police department, retrials for all Black inmates convicted of violent crime, Black-only segregated hospitals, socialized healthcare, anti-bias training, and an end to all forms of prison.
These proposals are simply not going to fly with a bulk of Americans. Last week, polls showed two-thirds of Americans oppose the ‘defund the police’ demand. The opposition to defund includes prized swing voters Democrats have been courting for the past four years. Fifty-eight percent of Hispanics, 54% of 18 to 29-year-olds, and 43% of African Americans oppose defund. Hispanic support for President Trump has risen significantly since the riots began three weeks ago, with recent polling showing Trump at 51% approval.
Younger Americans are often characterized as advocates of radical upheaval, but the bulk of the research on Generation Z shows young people largely oppose radical and disruptive change like that of the far-left. As shown below, only 21% of Generation Z supports ‘radical and disruptive change’.
What’s more, a new Harvard Caps/Harris poll shows a majority of Americans view the police favorably, and believe law enforcement operates fairly most of the time. Sixty-percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the police, with almost a quarter saying they hold a very favorable view. Two-thirds of Americans think the police operate fairly most of the time and we are seeing a few bad actors, 72% do not want the police defunded, and 74% think police funding should remain the same or increase, as shown below.
Source: Harvard Caps/Harris pollThe poll also shows a majority of Americans blame protesters for the looting and riots that have rocked the country over the past month, and almost half of Americans think cities have been too soft on rioters, including 49% of Independents and 31% of Democrats. Over half of Americans think President Trump’s response to call in the National Guard to manage protests in the nation’s capital was appropriate (57%), and another 52% think deploying the U.S. military to reestablish order to cities would be appropriate. When referring to ‘CHAZ’ specifically, 65% of Americans think Mayor Durkin should reclaim the city.
Americans also oppose the symbolic gestures demanded by the left to erase the nation’s history. Sixty-five percent oppose TV Networks removing shows that feature police officers, and 77% think it was wrong for HBO to remove the film ‘Gone with the Wind’. Seventy-one percent think local governments should block protestors from destroying monuments, and 58% think statues of confederate figures should be protected. What’s more, support for Black Lives Matter itself is under 50%.
The Democrat mainstream became far too cozy and welcoming with radical, anarchist groups, and is now in shock when these groups do not happily line up to vote for Joe Biden, and instead attempt to overthrow the United States. By refusing to disavow these terrorists, Democrats are playing a risky numbers game. They risk alienating huge numbers of independents, Hispanics, and moderate young voters, in pursuit of a sliver of hardcore leftists. Well over half of Americans prefer law and order on a multitude of issues from maintaining or increasing funding for police, to retaking Seattle, to blocking protesters from destroying monuments.
This is a hard truth for Democrats to swallow, after spending years working toward what they believed would be a fruitful alliance with the radical-left. The more violence and civil unrest Democrats tolerate – and do not unequivocally disavow – the more they will drive moderates and swing voters in the opposite direction. The Democrat mainstream has refused to stand up to the radical left for too long, and now that it is destroying the country, it will be a hard sell to the American people that they didn’t realize they were ‘listening’ to domestic terrorists.
