Two Sets

Although she lives in Israel, Caroline Glick is an astute observer of the American scene. She writes about the debacle of the Capitol this way:

It was hard to watch the scenes of President Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol on Wednesday as the joint session of Congress was convened to debate and ratify President Elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory. Suddenly, the home of America’s representative government was threatened not by Islamic terrorists or China or Russia, but by the people the lawmakers represent – Americans. And the Americans in question had just attended a rally where President Trump told them Biden stole the election and the procedure going on the joint session was illegitimate.

As I noted in my reaction to the debacle, Trump is done. He exercised massively bad judgment and invoked dangerous, tone-deaf language that incited his followers at their Washington rally. I'm certain he was advised not to promote the gathering or speak at the rally and disregarded that advice. He sowed a whirlwind.

But there's more to this than Trump's demise. The reaction of the four constituencies (the democrats, the media, the GOP establishment, and the deep state) who have worked tirelessly for the past four years to destroy Trump's presidency is masked jubilation. In their view, the awful events of last week justify their dishonest and in some cases, criminal attempts to "resist," not with reasoned opposition, but with proven lies (e.g., "Russian collusion"). In addition, the media has decided that the rioters who invaded the Capitol are worthy of investigation and discussion. The trained hamsters are combing through the background of the most extreme elements that invaded the Capitol building while emphasizing the "heroic" attempts by police officers who fought back. That's understandable and appropriate.

But it is truly ironic that the "insurrection" (to borrow a phrase from Joe Biden) that we saw in American cities this summer—the violence, the destruction, the thievery, and the deaths, along with the less than friendly treatment of the law enforcement people who tried to stop it, got far different treatment by the media. There were no in-depth investigations of antifa or BLM, the perpetrators of the summer riots. There were no investigative profiles of the leaders of those groups (as there have been in the case of last week's riots). In fact, the media purposely looked the other way, suggesting that it all was "mostly peaceful."

It's this imbalance in the treatment of violent and criminal acts that is troubling. Glick continues:

Contrary to the wizened intonations of “experts” on TV, the last time the Capitol was besieged wasn’t during the War of 1812, when the British burned the Capitol and the White House. It was two years ago. A mob far larger than the one that stormed the building Wednesday took over the Hart Senate Office Building during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing to intimidate lawmakers into voting down his nomination.

As BLM and Antifa rioters burned a swathe across the country, even as police officers and civilians were killed and wounded, Democrat politicians on the local, state and national levels supported them. While distancing himself from the violence, Biden supported them. In a television interview in late August, Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris egged on the shock troops and embraced them.

Speaking to Stephen Colbert, Harris said of the rioters, “Everyone beware. They’re not gonna stop before election day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after election day…They’re not gonna let up and they should not.”

The media, including social media giants Facebook, Twitter and YouTube backed the rioters. Their hashtags were trending and their violence whitewashed even as people were killed and wounded and their mayhem inflicted $2 billion in damages on the U.S. economy already battered by the coronavirus. The brunt of the financial burden was shouldered by small business owners. 

Sadly, there's no surprise in any of this. We have become a country where different standards and rules apply depending on political affiliation.

What rioters did in Washington last week was wrong and criminal. They are being arrested and will be prosecuted. What rioters did in multiple U.S. cities this past summer was wrong and criminal. Some were arrested, most were released, and relatively few were prosecuted. The media preferred not to look. Two sets of standards, two set of rules. It not a good thing for the country.