Norms (plural noun). A standard or pattern, especially of social behavior, that is typical or expected of a group.
2020 has been a year of disregarding, and even abandoning, our nation’s norms.
It used to be a norm that, at a professional sporting event, you would rise, perhaps place your hand over your heart, and stand silently (or sing) as the national anthem was played. Now, at least in the NBA, the norm is to players to kneel for the anthem. And, if a player stands instead, ESPN and other woke sports reporters grill the player afterwards.
It used to be a norm that, if an injustice occurred, like the killing of George Floyd, society was expected to respond with peaceful protest. Society would then use peaceful means (the courts, the legislatures) to remedy wrongs and make needed changes. Instead, this summer, we’ve watched as mayors and governors have let mobs rule and decimate their downtowns. City homeowners and small businessmen who protest, who cry out for police protection, risk being criticized by our media for not being sensitive enough to the anger of the protesters.
To give you an idea of how bad things have gotten, look at what happened on the state capitol grounds of Minnesota, on June 10th. Minneapolis TV station KSTP posted a detailed timeline of an event that seems to be the result of a conscious decision by Minnesota state authorities to allow a crime to occur. (https://kstp.com/news/timeline-columbus-statue-torn-down-by-protesters-90-minutes-after-vow-to-protect/5756515/).
In the morning of June 10th, protesters announced their intention to tear down a Christopher Columbus state on the state capitol grounds. They even gave a specific time they’d pull it down—5PM. At 3:30 PM, a KSTP reporter asked state officials if they were aware of the threat. According to KSTP, a Minnesota Department of Public Safety commissioner replied that he knew of the threat and that state police “will be out there to meet with the groups to explain to them the process that is already in existence for if you want to have a statue or you want to have something removed from the Capitol grounds there is a lawful process for doing that and we will be out there to meet with them to have that conversation. If this is something that the community wants and the legislature agrees with and all the parties that have to part to that decision then there’s a lawful process for that to happen but we plan to be out there to meet with them this afternoon.” The KSTP reporter said that it was “implied the State Patrol would protect the statue and enforce laws against destruction of public property.”
That approach is the norm we expect. If you are unhappy, you use the legal and legislative processes to address the problem. Now, that does not guarantee you will get the result you want. (Maybe a majority of your fellow citizens don’t agree with you.) But we have a process that allows for everyone to be heard, and a majority to decide.
I’m sure you’ve guessed what happened in Minnesota, on the STATE CAPITOL GROUNDS. From KSTP’s timeline of events:
4:38 p.m. Just after 4:30 p.m., protesters began to show up and so did one Minnesota State trooper. Mike Forcia, a Native American leader of the protesters, told the trooper exactly what they planned to do. “We’ll be arrested, but we’re going to hook him up and we’re going to pull on him,” Forcia said of the statue. “I’m disappointed that [Gov.] Tim [Walz] and [Lt. Gov.] Peggy [Flanagan] aren’t out here,” he said. Forcia told the trooper he had invited them.
5:03 p.m. Just after 5 p.m….the KSTP newsroom witnessed a live feed of the statue being torn down by protesters. After the protesters refused to accept a piece of paper with the steps necessary to legally have a statue removed, the trooper walked away and left the statue unprotected. Two protesters then climbed the statue with no State Patrol in sight and tore the statue down. Just a few minutes later, more than a dozen State Troopers emerged from the State Capitol and circled the pedestal that had held the statue of Christopher Columbus since 1931.
So much for norms! No protection of public property. No enforcement of the laws. No arrest of lawbreakers—who apparently didn’t seem too worried they’d get arrested in the first place. It’s not as if the Minnesota state government didn’t know what was about to happen. They weren’t taken by surprise. Instead, Minnesota officials stood by and watched as the state laws were broken, and public property damaged.
How did Minnesota governor Tim Walz—a former U.S. Congressman—respond? “As a former social studies teacher, I taught my students that many Minnesotans look at that statue and see a legacy of genocide. Now more than ever, we must take a hard look at the dated symbols and injustices around us. The Minnesota Historical Society and the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board have a formal process to remove statues from the Capitol grounds, and it’s important that process is followed in order to ensure the safety of bystanders and the preservation of surrounding property. While that process was too long for those who were pained by the statue’s presence, that is not an excuse for them to take matters into their own hands and remove it in that fashion.” (Emphasis added).
Well, Governor Walz, if that’s the way you felt, then why didn’t you send troopers out to protect the statue BEFORE it got pulled down? (Something tells me that Governor Walz didn’t expect the Minnesota MSM to press him very hard on this point.)
We appear to have some new norms! Elected officials don’t have to enforce laws they don’t like. And, if people are breaking the law, and elected officials agree with the lawbreakers, then some level of lawbreaking—and destruction of public and private property—is acceptable. Regrettable, of course, but acceptable.
In the past few weeks, we’ve seen that Governor Walz’s attitudes toward dealing with lawbreakers (and obeying his oath of office) are shared by other progressive Democrat mayors and governors. This is from Northwestern University law professor’s John O. McGinnis’ article in City Journal, titled “When Authority Vanishes.” (https://www.city-journal.org/looter-vandals-sack-chicagos-north-side)
Riding in trucks and U-Hauls, vandals came to downtown Chicago on Sunday. They jammed streets around the Magnificent Mile, home of the city’s most important shopping district. They came prepared with tools like crowbars to pry open gates and take all the merchandise that they could pack. It was a strike directed at the heart of the city.
…the police did not deploy in force until looters flooded into places with the most valuable goods.
The sacking of Chicago’s North Side was more than a tactical failure. For months, key officials—the state’s attorney responsible for prosecution, the mayor, and the governor—have failed to condemn criminals sufficiently or act with necessary force against such violence. They have contributed to a culture of impunity that tolerates mobs and hoodlums.
Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor, says O’Ginnis, “failed to sustain the first condition of civilization: order under law.”
We should not accept this. We should not shrug this off. This is a betrayal, by elected officials, of the public trust. The public trusts its elected officials to keep the peace and enforce the laws. ALL of the laws, not just the ones they themselves like.
Where will this lead us? What will happen if we elect more politicians who ignore the public trust? Who not only won’t stand up to these thugs, but enable (and even encourage) them? Ask Joanna. Last week National Review interviewed a Portland, Oregon resident named “Joanna.” The magazine describes Joanna as “a college-educated, stay-at-home mom and now Trump voter — who feels it is no longer safe or healthy to live there.” (Not surprisingly, “Joanna” doesn’t want to give her last name).
If Trump loses this election, Joanna said, the mayhem-makers (and their elected allies) will conclude that their methods worked.A Trump defeat would be “validation to everybody that the manner with which they’ve tried to promote change; meaning the screaming, yelling, whining, putting up horrendous signs in yards, rioting, looting, everything that they have done will have been validated that this is actually okay.” (Emphasis added).
Joe Biden says that, if he’s elected, he wants to “transform” America. Protesters demand the end to “systemic racism,” without bothering to tell us how our American system—which elected and reelected a black president, and routinely elects black mayors and majority-black city councils nationwide—is racist. If the “system” is racist, then it stands to reason that the whole “system” has to go. All of our national societal norms would be suspect. Is that really what we want? Do we really want the social upheaval that would result if all our norms have to be revalidated?
I know there are many good Democrats who respect our society’s norms. But they don’t appear to be in charge now. Instead, nationally, Democrats seem unable or unwilling to stand up to the mob. What might happen if Democrats keep the House of Representatives, and take the Senate and presidency in November? Look at what Governor Walz and Illinois officials allowed to happen–and ask Joanna.