Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2025
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by Shane Harris
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3 Comments
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Democrats wondering why their party’s approval rating is in the tank – and why their coalition of voters is disintegrating around them – need look no further than the response to the riots that have rocked Los Angeles in recent days.
Since the violence began on Friday, the country has witnessed a redux of the gaslighting campaign that accompanied the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. Even as images of masked individuals waving Mexican flags in front of burning cars flooded social media, the legacy press and Democrat politicians described chaos as “demonstrations” and the arsonists as “anti-ICE protesters.” In a follow-up act to its infamous “fiery but mostly peaceful” chyron from five years ago, CNN downplayed the situation as “lawful protest with some unrest.”
Democrat leaders have failed to offer even a façade of support for law enforcement facing what is best described as an insurrection on the streets of America’s second-largest city. As mobs of people, many of them illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country, throw rocks at police officers, set off commercial-grade fireworks in the street, spit on and burn the American flag, and spray paint “death to America” on buildings, Democrats have unified behind the narrative that President Donald Trump is the real “threat” here for using his constitutional authority to restore law and order.
California Governor Gavin Newsom incredibly claimed that Trump “manufactured” the crisis. Every other Democrat Governor then joined Newsom on a statement condemning Trump for calling up the National Guard – even after LA’s own police chief admitted his force was “overwhelmed.” LA Mayor Karen Bass blamed ICE raids for starting the riots in the first place, but also maintained that “things in LA are calm” as cop cars were burning in the street.
In Congress, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries echoed Newsom and Bass in claiming Trump was “intentionally” inciting violence. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, called deployment of the National Guard “unnecessary, inflammatory, and provocative.”
This reaction from liberal leaders is perhaps the most jaw-dropping display yet of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” – and it’s not likely to win back any voters the party lost last November. A CBS poll out last week shows that 54 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s deportation efforts. Another Harvard-Harris poll from March found that 75 percent of Americans support deporting illegal aliens with criminal records.
Polls aside, Democrats’ response to the violence has shown they learned nothing from Trump’s historic victory in 2024. What Democrats are signaling – loudly and without apology – is that our immigration laws should not be enforced if doing so might upset the mob.
This message is as chilling as it is absurd: if ICE attempts to carry out the law, and left-wing agitators riot in response, it’s the fault of the law – not the lawbreakers. This is the political equivalent of telling the fire department not to put out a blaze because it might inflame the arsonist who set it.
By blaming President Trump and ICE for “provoking” riots through standard law enforcement activity, Democrats are effectively saying that the United States government must govern in constant fear of how the radical fringe might react. That logic leads to anarchy, not order. And Americans know it.
The basic function of government is to ensure public safety and uphold the rule of law. That duty is not conditional. It is not suspended because someone waves a foreign flag and threatens violence if deportation orders are carried out.
But to today’s Democrats, that’s exactly what should happen. They are arguing that the laws passed by Congress should be subordinated to the feelings and fury of illegal aliens and the leftist activists who support them. They’re handing the mob a veto over national policy.
This is precisely why the Democrat Party is shedding voters. Americans of all backgrounds – black, white, Hispanic, Asian – now understand what’s at stake. They want safety in their neighborhoods. They want schools to be free of violence. They want borders that mean something. And they want the laws on the books enforced fairly and consistently. What they’re seeing in Los Angeles is the opposite of that.
The LA riots have further crystallized the choice facing the American people. Do we want a country with laws, or not? Trump is enforcing the law. The rioters are breaking it. Democrats are siding with the lawbreakers because they’d rather burn everything down than admit he’s doing the right thing. It’s political spite taken to the point of civilizational sabotage.
Republicans should make absolutely sure that voters from coast to coast understand what this means. Every Democrat on the ballot this year and next year should have to answer for what’s happening in LA. Where are their statements condemning the violence? Where is the defense of law enforcement? Where is the outrage over American flags being torched in our own cities?
There has been none. Because deep down, most Democrats aren’t troubled by what’s happening – they’re just troubled that Americans are watching, knowing that if they vote Democrat, next time the flames might be in their city.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
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