When a candidate’s primary pitch is that he’s not the other guy, expectations are created that his supporters will buy his stump speech. The problem for Joe Biden is that, while he most assuredly wasn’t Trump, were the people who would vote for him his supporters, or were they merely people who despised Trump more than Biden? It was all speculative until the election, but the answer to those who used the hashtag #SettleForBiden is becoming clear.
As Biden appears, at least for the moment, to have eeked out a win, the anti-Trump kids might be happy about it, or at least calmer about the future than they’ve been for the past few years. After all, if they don’t riot for a night, if they give their guy a break just to make him not look like a total chump for courting their support when they despise him too, just slightly less than Darth Cheeto, they can always take to the streets next week. Nope. They had work to do.
In Denver. In Manhattan. In Minneapolis.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested Wednesday night shortly after they marched onto Interstate 94 in Minneapolis, protesting among other things Donald Trump’s presidency and his threat to challenge Tuesday’s unsettled election results.
It may be unclear to a rational mind how this unlawful protest (remember, while this may be marked as a “mostly peaceful protest,” they closed down an interstate, just as they’ve done before and Trump’s crazies did as well) would accomplish any cognizable goal, but then, that’s not what it’s about really.
Organizers said the event had been planned even before Tuesday’s presidential election, whose outcome remained uncertain late Wednesday as absentee ballots were still being counted in several states.
So even if their dream outcome, Trump crushed by the Blue Wave and Biden swept into office by proclamation, they were still going to protest. But what about Biden?
Other speakers said Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden cannot be trusted to champion causes dear to the protesters’ hearts and that even if he wins the election, protests are likely to continue.
For all the hatred directed at Trump, it isn’t about him. And for all the support for Biden, the fear that it was merely the next leg of their fight was made clear. It was no less clear in other cities.
They're chanting "No USA at all" Denver, CO. pic.twitter.com/m9gY9nBake
— Kitty Shackleford (@KittyLists) November 5, 2020
Not only was the chant less than patriotic, but the banner expressly calls for “death to . . . the liberalism that enables it.” Things weren’t going much better in the Manhattan’s West Village.
A young woman was arrested after she spat in an officer’s face after screaming, “F–k you, fascist,” tonight in the West Village. pic.twitter.com/cfgVLYJ5pc
— elizabeth meryl rosner (@elizameryl) November 5, 2020
While spitting in the face of a police officer, while apparently holding her cellphone to video the engagement in the hope that she will be hailed a hero for her bravery, might not be a smart thing to do, the fury was not directly only at police.
Earlier “Count The Vote” chants were replaced with anti-police sentiments, inexplicable outbursts at outdoor diners and the setting of rubbish fires.
First, two people clad in black ignited a Joe Biden campaign sign, leading to a round of applause, before others later taunted patrons at Jeffrey’s Grocery in West Village.
“F–k your dinner,” some chanted as they passed the Waverly Place eatery. Others also chanted, “Burn the precinct to the ground.”
Assuming, arguendo, that the count continues as expected, that Joe Biden wins the presidency and that Donald Trump will soon be gone, what then? Biden is not their champion. Biden was never their candidate. Without Trump, they will turn their sights on Biden to either capitulate to their demands or burn. Even if Biden bends in an effort to sacrifice the interests of the vast majority of a nation to give in to their demands, they will not stop, they will not love him, they will not be satisfied.
Biden might realize this, but still feel compelled to try to end the rioting by selling out his own and the majority’s positions in the vain hope that he will be able to buy some peace. That’s likely what the rioters hope will happen, which is why they riot in the first place. Exact a price from the normies and then the normies will capitulate, because they want to eat their dinner in peace and quiet.
What will be enough to sate the Flies? If Biden gives them the litany of freebies proffered by Sanders or Warren, will that do it? Will it take more than free tuition, healthcare, student debt and a monthly check so they never have to leave mommy’s basement again and try to get a job with the gender studies Ph.D.? What about a speech code, prohibiting every word they find offensive, with room for daily additions? Will the abolishment of police and prisons fix things, as they can’t figure out why all the stores that sold sneakers and TVs are gone?
The problem for Biden is that he’s unarmed in this fight. He can’t send in the troops without betraying his supporters, who believe that he won’t be Trump but never bothered to think about what the logistics might be that are required to put the rioting to rest.
After all, how many nights straight have they gone on in Portland? Except the hated mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, was just re-elected.
Among Wheeler’s priorities for a second term are to secure more affordable housing and support services for the homeless, to offer more coronavirus recovery support for residents and small businesses — particularly those owned by Black, Indigenous and other people of color — to create a more sustainable parks system and to launch new public safety reforms.
Except there is protesting and/or rioting in his city nightly among the perpetually outraged who hate and blame Wheeler, and yet the citizens of Portland who voted instead of rioted re-elected him, no small feat in Portlandia. Do the riots continue every night until the unduly passionate finally, hopefully, get bored and give up, or do they make life miserable until Wheeler let’s them rule Portland?
Biden will face the choice as well, and what’s happening in Portland might give him pause: they will no more stand down for him than Trump, and he was not nominated, not elected, Biden’s election won’t stop the riots, making this his problem if he’s president. Spouting empty platitudes isn’t going to end them, so what’s he going to do when he’s Lord of the Flies?
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