Giving the Election Back to Trump: Kenney

Giving the Election Back to Trump: Kenney

Be careful what you wish for. I’ve heard this saying being thrown about for many years but it seems that it is particularly relevant in the present-day USA. The way I see it, right now the far left is acting in such a manner that many middle of the road Americans feel is out of control. Many of our political leaders, especially democratic leaders, are simply allowing them to trample on other people’s rights and property. Black Lives Matter protests are being hijacked by militant forces within and members of ANTIFA turning otherwise peaceful protests for a good cause into destructive and violent confrontations with police and ordinary citizens caught in the middle.

The brutal killing of George Floyd last month in Minneapolis was witnessed by the whole world. We all watched the video in utter horror. Many of us, including myself, who had previously been reluctant to use the Black Lives Matter mantra (preferring All Lives Matter), began to understand and sympathize with the movement in a way that we hadn’t previously. Unfortunately, peaceful protests in Minneapolis and many other cities across the country quickly turned violent. Not only that, but the violence lasted for many weeks in some parts of the country causing numerous injuries and millions of dollars in property damage. A portion of Seattle was taken over by demonstrators and turned into a battleground for over a week! Some cities continue still and it’s almost August.

Such situations around the US have caused many of the people who will be deciding this coming presidential election, the so-called swing voters in the swing states, to become afraid of what’s happening in their cities. It’s my fear that these voters will turn away from the Democratic Party in favor of the law and order stance of Donald Trump.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

With his outright failure to react and lead us through this pandemic, most people considered him a lame-duck president. They believed that there was no chance of him winning a second term. When he had federal officers clear out the peaceful demonstrators from in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church outside the White House in order to get a cheap photo-op most pundits agreed that this was the final straw in his run. Unfortunately, as Yogi Berra famously stated, “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over”. A candidate can not usually make up the kind of ground in the polls that’s needed to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat unless the opposition stumbles also.

I’m afraid that this is what’s happening right now.

Let’s be frank. At the present time, everyone is on edge. The uncertainty of life with COVID-19 still surging through our country no one feels completely safe. Add to that the civil unrest being displayed and we’re not a very happy or satisfied citizenship right now. While this type of dissatisfaction in the country usually bodes well for the candidate challenging the incumbent president the impression, correct or incorrect, that the challenger’s party is allowing mobs to take over city streets and cause so much damage is the stumble that President Trump needs to get back into the race.

There’s been no single individual in our lifetime here in America who has stoked the flames of hatred and division for his own personal gain more than Donald Trump. As such you would think that those black and brown Americans who are protesting under the Black Lives Matter mantra would want him out of office even more than those white voters who are also opposed to his presidency. Minorities in the country already feel marginalized in our society and his leadership only reinforces that feeling. His reelection can only further divide the races. Most people marching for BLM will undoubtedly vote against Trump in the upcoming election. What I fear is that they fail to realize that many of the white swing voters in the country, who had become sympathetic to their plight after George Floyd was murdered, are slowly turning back to Trump as they desperately need to feel like the country is safe again.

Although the President has failed miserably during this pandemic he has recently begun to change his rhetoric regarding the pandemic oh so slightly. If he succeeds in convincing some of the swing voters that he’s handling COVID-19 adequately at this point Biden could be in trouble.

I realize that much of the violence associated with the BLM group is the result of external forces – radical members of their own group, members of ANTIFA and even members of the ultra-right attempting to fuel the fires of destruction and violence in order to make Trump a more desirable choice for people sick and tired of the violence and hatred on our streets.

BLM, the organization, needs to express their disgust and horror at the violence and riots being perpetrated under their banner in a much more forceful way than they have up to this point. Citizens of this country who support the movement need to be vigilant about people who may seek to infiltrate their ranks to cause trouble. These protests are not about George Floyd any longer. They’re not even about social equality anymore. Many Americans see these protests (actually the violence and hatred on display in the protests) as the beginning of a violent revolution and are afraid. These voters will turn away from the party most directly associated with them…and give Trump a victory in November.

If this happens I truly would not count out a bloody and violent revolution in this country.

 

{image_2]Tom Kenney is a retired Providence Fire Department Captain.