If you’ve paid any attention to the news over the past two months, you’ve seen the increasingly chaotic protests breaking out involving pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstrators taking to the streets and chanting about ceasefires, intifada, and all the rest. But they are only “protests” while they truly remain peaceful and organized. When property begins being damaged or people are attacked, they are officially riots. How long the current skirmishes continue may depend on how long it takes Israel to eradicate Hamas and for Gaza to return to some form of stability instead of being an active war zone. But even then, the riots may not be behind us for long because the riot season is very likely upon us again.
To explain this concept, Carlos Gonzalez has an excellent editorial at City Journal where he offers a brief history of recent rioting and how none of this activity could be mere happenstance. While there are always some protests breaking out in America over this or that, Gonzalez reminds us of the last time there was true, widespread rioting over a sustained period of time. That was in 2020, during what came to be known as the Summer of Love where people ostensibly protesting the death of George Floyd in police custody, rioted, looted, and burned their way through cities all across the country. He points out that the riots today are not an anomaly. They are a well-organized and orchestrated tactic of the left and we should be preparing for another riot season next year. The Hamas riots are likely only a warmup session.
The resurgence of public protests in support of Hamas has revealed a disturbing truth: the left-wing rioting following George Floyd’s death in 2020 was not an anomaly, but a tactic that activists can repurpose for any cause. Whether by coincidence or design, these recent outbursts could be a dress rehearsal for possible violence during next year’s election campaign.
Conservative leaders must prepare for that prospect. To prevent 2020 from repeating itself in 2024, conservatives need to consider what might spark a riot, how it can be prevented, and how to understand and manage the politics of rioting.
First, what could generate a riot season? Left-wing agitation has some familiar causes: a police-involved death of a black person; an international conflict; an economic crisis. But another threat looms.
This year we are hearing many pundits warning how Democrats and liberals are far too good at early voting and ballot harvesting, so conservatives need to improve in those areas or risk another defeat like the one we saw in the midterms. But there’s something else that the progressive left excels at and that’s rioting. Conservatives don’t understand “the politics of rioting” and are ill-equipped to deal with it.
There is plenty of evidence on display and we’ve seen it repeatedly. When conservatives want to protest they go the route of the Tea Party. They show up, raise their voices, give a few speeches, clean the place up, and go home. It’s organic. Not so for the left. They are organized on a national level. Social media networks quickly hook up activists far and wide, providing scheduling information. Large donors, many associated with George Soros, provide funds to pay for travel expenses. Pre-printed signage is awaiting the rioters when they arrive. Other funds are raised to pay the bail of any who may be arrested. With Antifa, they have a scattered army ready to assemble and hit the road on a moment’s notice. Conservatives have nothing like that.
And there is always a political theme underlying the outrage on display. Some of the protesters in 2020 were probably legitimately upset over George Floyd’s death, but all of them were pushing messages aimed at influencing the elections that fall. Defund the police. Bail reform. Empty the jails. (Note that 2020 was a presidential election year, as will be 2024.) The mainstream media eats it all up with a spoon and regurgitates it to the public. And slowly, the political pendulum begins to swing.
So what’s to be done about it? We’re not going to create conservative mobs that take to the streets to burn everything to the ground. But we can be better at shutting these riots down before they get out of hand. Gonzalez declares that red-state governors need to work with state law enforcement leaders to create interagency task forces to “monitor, infiltrate, and disrupt violent left-wing activist networks.” Instead of ignoring potential trouble and illegal activity, arrests should be made and prosecutions pushed forward before the riots grow in size. Stiffer penalties should be passed for rioting. When the riots do erupt, the National Guard should already be in place and training with local law enforcement to identify the leaders, lock up those engaged in violence, and do so as harshly as is required. Let the lawsuits sort it all out later.
It’s not a coincidence that all of this activity is ramping up again when we are only weeks away from the primary season. The left is using the same playbook they did in 2020. They will do it again. And if we’re not ready this time, don’t expect different results.
