The United States is a Constitutional Republic in large part because the framers of the Constitution feared mob rule as much as they detested the tyranny of a monarch. Sadly, for the past half century, America has been beset by petty bureaucrats who don’t understand how dangerous mob rule actually is, and who don’t respect the individual citizens who are harmed by the mob and harmed by the bureaucrats who refuse to confront the dangerous reality of the mob.
For the last nine months or more the United States has seen an ugly replay of the violent mob activities that reshaped too many American cities in the 1960s and ‘70s. We’ve seen block after block of urban businesses and homes torched by arsonists. We’ve seen cars wrecked, innocent bystanders harmed, and people murdered. We’ve also seen too many two-bit unelected bureaucrats and disturbingly out of touch local politicians pander to the mob. In the short run pandering to the mob probably seems brilliant to the mediocre minds that infest local government. Reaching out to “groups” rather than crafting a message and having core values that actually appeal to individuals is probably very appealing.
Pitting groups against each other is a fabulous way to distract the citizenry from asking serious questions. Simple questions like… Why are we paying more for schools that are teaching less? Why can’t kids read at grade level? Why are parks filled with trash? Why are homicide rates increasing? Why are the same hypocritical politicians who want to defund neighborhood policing initiatives in poor areas where regular citizens live eager to demand around the clock armed guards for themselves? These are the questions too many bureaucrats don’t want individual citizens asking. Because when individuals ask questions like that, they start to demand better from local politicians.
In the long run pandering to the mob leads to the breakdown of law, the decline of business, and increased social upheaval.
Mob rule leads to chaos and fear and a decline in individual rights. People who have the ability to do so have every reason in the world to flee the chaos. There will always be people who ignore the declining quality of life and there will always be people who just can’t afford to flee. But any real estate agent who is honest will tell you people are moving. This is predictable. It happened in the 1960s and ‘70s, it is happening today. Sadly too many of the bureaucrats of 2021 are repeating the mistakes and mouthing the false narratives and platitudes of the politicized social workers of the 1960s. Their mistakes will fill books in years to come. And people will attempt to argue away facts that don’t fit the narrative. A decade from now a truth teller who simply lays out the facts the bureaucrats and academic true believers don’t want to hear will be demonized in much the same way Daniel Patrick Moynihan was demonized in the 1970s.
There is no space here to make a list of all the mistakes that are being perpetrated on the citizens by a bureaucracy that is pandering to groups rather than seeing the people as individuals. Socialist leaning political hacks fail to see that a business that is burned is not just a casualty of the war on capitalism, but jobs and dreams lost.
In the long run pandering to mindless marauding mobs is a losing strategy and it will turn the United States into a country where no one is a winner. While political gain may depend on reaching out to groups, the integrity of the United States depends on respecting and protecting the rights of individuals. Inherently the United States of America is a country made up of individuals and only when we respect the rights of individuals equally, only when we are willing to ignore the thrill of the mob, are we capable of greatness.
(If you need a reminder of just how dangerous and brutal the mob violence that plagued American cities was in 2020 we put together a video montage on New Year's Day so we will NEVER forget. You can see it here: Antifa Revealed. Please watch and share with all of your friends. We can not afford to close our eyes.)
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