08/11/2020
See Also: Charlottesville After Two Years: An Alt-History Of What Should Have Happened
I was there: Three years ago tonight, Friday, August 11, 2017, was the apex of the Alt Right: a typically imaginative resurrection of America’s torchlight procession tradition, taking the Left completely by surprise and provoking hysteria among liberals. But the next day, August 12, the Alt Right’s court-approved Unite The Right rally was brutally mugged by a gang of paramilitary, elected, uniformed, media and (later) robed Democrats. And this turned out a dress rehearsal for the anarcho-tyrannical nation-wide insurrection now taking place: Antifa violence; official complicity; police paralysis (unless arresting anyone trying to resist); all protected by tightly controlled Narrative of Legacy Media lies. Maybe President Trump’s peculiar passivity will pay off at the polls. But to me right now, it looks like Charlottesville 2017 was the beginning of a successful Communist coup against America.
In Chicago, Portland, and other cities around the country, chaos grips the streets. At the same time, governments and their chosen instruments are cracking down on law-abiding Americans’ rights to own guns, speak online, and defend themselves. Naïve normies wonder why Americans aren’t rising up to defend themselves and their heritage. They forget that nationalists already did that at Charlottesville and the state destroyed them.
The Unite The Right rally was such a disaster because both organizers and attendees failed to anticipate that state and local officials wouldn’t protect the demonstration — much less that city officials, including the police chief, would deliberately inciteviolence, according to the city’s own independent report.
Furthermore, once police got the “state of emergency” that they wanted to shut down the demonstration, they didn’t restore peace at all but instead let a sprawling melee break out all over the city, directly causing the James Fields tragedy. In the aftermath, nationalist demonstrators had the book thrown at them; Leftists were let go and lionized by journalists.
It’s hard to blame anyone for this. It’s certainly never happened in my lifetime before.
Antifa and other troublemakers correctly drew three conclusions.
This is precisely what is happening every night all around the country. In Chicago, a massive riot just erupted after rumors of a police shooting [Chicago Looting Sparked By False Social Media Reports Of Police Shooting Of 15-Year-Old Boy, by Warner Todd Huston, Breitbart, August 10, 2020]. Rioters have little reason to fear: Kim Foxx, the Cook County State’s Attorney elected with George Soros’s help, has dramatically increased the number of dropped cases compared to her predecessor [Paper: Chicago Prosecutor Kim Foxx Has Dropped 25,183 Felony Cases, by Joshua Caplan, Breitbart, August 10, 2020]. In April, even after the Jussie Smollett fiasco, she easily won the Democrat primary and will presumably beat a token Republican in November [Cook County state attorney Kim Foxx wins primary, seeks re-election in November, by Julia Richardson, Daily Northwestern April 21, 2020]. Foxx is now playing the victim and saying she’s “heartbroken” about the riots [Foxx: ‘We Are Hurting, We Are Frustrated, We Are Anxious,’ CBS 2, August 10, 2020]. She’ll get away with it. After all, what is Chicago going to do — vote Republican?
Portland OR too is still in flames. Once again, Portland police declared a riot [Riot declared for Portland protest at union building, Associated Press, August 10, 2020]. President Trump suggested Oregon call in the National Guard, but this is just a few days after Democrat governor Kate Brown made a deal with federal authorities so they would stop guarding a courthouse [Trump: Time for Portland to bring in National Guard, by James Bikales, The Hill, August 10, 2020]. Mayor Ted Wheeler faces a threat not from “Law and Order” conservatives, but from his Leftist challenger Sarah Iannarone, who openly speculates that “peaceful protests… might not necessarily be moving the conversation forward” [Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone declines to denounce violence, says protesters’ outrage with police is valid, by Laural Porter, KGW8, August 8, 2020].
So where is Iannarone’s “conversation” going? In the direction of shutting conservatives up, because in Clown World, speech is violence and violence is speech. Thus VDARE.com just lost its YouTube channel for alleged “hate speech,” the latest blow from Big Tech oligarchs who apparently know they have nothing to fear from the Trump Administration or the GOP. Crime is surging in New York City, but the New York Attorney General is focused on mugging the National Rifle Association [New York AG sues to dissolve the NRA, alleging widespread fraud, by Betsy Woodruff Swan, Max Cohen, and Michelle Bocanegra, Politico, August 6, 2020].
Recently, there was some self-congratulation by conservatives about the outcome of a brawl between pro-police demonstrators and Black Lives Matter protesters invading GOP suburbs, with the former seemingly getting the better of it. But there was far less of that after people started getting arrested — because, as usual, these included “pro-police” demonstrators [3 arrested after fight spins off of pro-police rally in Fort Collins, by Eric Larsen, Coloradan, August 10, 2020].
The appalling truth: You are far more likely to be arrested by police if you go to a pro-police rally than if you dress in all black and smash windows in Chicago and Portland.
Those of us who were in Charlottesville in 2017 already knew this. For me, the perfect encapsulation of the entire day: UTR demonstrators applauding the police — just minutes before the “Blue” tear-gassed them and drove them into the ranks of Antifa.
Nationalists are staying inside right now because they know anarcho-tyranny reigns and the police won’t protect you. (The heroic Michelle Malkin recently learned this too.)
The people who are being arrested and nailed to the wall are those who still think the police, the president, and “law and order” conservative pundits have their back.
Consider just a few things that have happened recently:
If only. A self-respecting country or self-confident leader would have quashed these riots long ago. Abraham Lincoln would have already had these local mayors arrested.
However, law in America is now not about what, but about who is doing what to whom.
Let’s be blunt. If a patriot group did anything close to what’s happening in Portland for a single night, everyone involved would be arrested, if not shot. People who weren’t involved would be arrested too, much as groups and individuals who weren’t even at Unite The Right were punished and deplatformed (e.g. VDARE.com). If there was anything close to the violence we’ve seen from the far Left coming from the Right, the federal government (whether it was run by Republicans or Democrats) would call it insurrection and journalists would be praising a federal crackdown on domestic terrorism.
Why this distinction? The Left is the Left, but the America Conservative Movement™ has been so morally disarmed by the Civil Rights movement that it can’t even conceive of taking action against “racial justice” protesters — even when elemental protections like freedom of speech or against property destruction are being flouted. It can’t argue why the flag, the Founders, or the law should be respected. If America is not a real people with a real history but a “universal nation” dedicated to “all men are created equal” or “limited government” there really is no reason why these symbols of the American past shouldn’t be torn down and replaced. After all, if the American future is just some multiracial, multicultural, multilingual continent-wide shopping mall, why shouldn’t we remove something that might make potential consumers uncomfortable?
Conservatives might not like rioting, property destruction, or flag burning, but they are ultimately quibbling about means, while the Left is making a moral case about ends. And in any political conflict, the side that has a vision will beat the side that worries about procedure.
Is there any good news? Actually, there is. One powerful example of effective activism occurred in St. Louis. Local Catholics conducted prayer vigils around the statue of St. Louis, saying the rosary and forming a human barricade against those who would harm it. One man allegedly attacked them, claiming that they were members of “hate groups” [Man charged with assault after allegedly attacking man in rosary prayer group at St. Louis statue, by Marlo Safi, Daily Caller, July 14, 2020]. He was arrested. The victim is suing not just the alleged attacker, but those whom he says libeled him [St. Louis treasurer, restauranteur sued for libel after assault at Louis IX statue, KMOV4, July 16, 2020].
What does this example show us? Numbers, local organization, and moral courage can achieve results. It requires the willingness to go out there night after night. Rather than militant posturing, the Catholics conducted themselves with quiet dignity, disarming their opponents and not letting hostile journalists get their hooks in.
While journalists and activists grumble, the statue seems safe for now. It’s a defensive triumph, but a triumph.
Unfortunately, such triumphs will be rare in the days ahead. I suspect that Americans who still think this is their country will get a rude awakening — as I did at Charlottesville.
We can still use the courts to protect what liberties we have left and impose costs on those who abuse their power. We can create new strongholds online and in the real world that we can defend. We can build something authentic from the catacombs up.
As for Conservatism Inc., the monster they cheered three years ago is now coming for them. If they couldn’t see what was right in front of their faces then, I have no faith they’ll see it now.
My fellow members of the Historic American Nation — we’re on our own.
Charlottesville Survivor is a white man who voted for Trump. The Left hates all white men who voted for Trump, whether they were in Charlottesville or not.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.