When Did This Start?
You’ll have to forgive me if I get confused these days. I could have sworn I heard the current president yesterday say the following:
“Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is,” he said. I certainly agree with the sentiment, but wonder when that started.
He continued, “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations – none of this is a peaceful protest.” Again, I agree…but was that effective May 2, 2024? Because it sure wasn’t his view of things four years ago.
You recall the summer of 2020…in one respect, the nation was shut down due to COVID…but if you were rushing into the streets, burning public buildings, closing off areas of major cities, it was not only OK to gather, but masks were optional. Why was it OK then, and not now?
It started in the Twin Cities, then moved to the Pacific Northwest, to major cities throughout the country, even in Iowa’s largest cities. Trying to take over private property, damaging public buildings, blocking interstate highways…all that was called peaceful by those on the political left, because they had a righteous cause.
Or because it might help one side in a presidential election.
Good luck for this president to have any credibility on the issue of what is a peaceful protest…especially since he and his administration are the target of much of what’s being protested. Those who are acting in illegal and immoral ways now are only demonstrating what they’ve been taught…not only by the professional agitators who appear to be at the heart of this hardly organic effect, but by those who cheered the illegal behavior four years ago.
