Time to Take Civil War Seriously

Who would ever have guessed that frigid Minneapolis, situated in America’s great north, would become the battleground for the kind of rising national temperature that in 1861 precipitated a civil war? Minneapolis may become the new Antietam.

The city, after all, is where rioting ensued after the death of George Floyd in 2020. And this past week Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot and killed there by an ICE agent while obstructing the roundup of local illegal immigrants. Her death set off violent clashes in New York, Oakland, Kansas City and Portland, where two illegal immigrants with Venezuelan gang affiliations were shot and killed, as well.

Overall, American solidarity seems a bit shaky these days. Patriotism is at an all-time low. It’s entirely fashionable to downgrade American exceptionalism and achievement. If the Trump administration is behind it, nearly half the country can’t stomach it.

Peaceful protest in America has gone the way of the respectful debate. It simply is no longer done. Earlier generations of political crusaders would be ill-equipped for today’s sanctioned bloodbaths. Martin Luther King, Jr. would find himself helpless in Minneapolis; Malcolm X would fit in quite nicely.

Notice how Malcolm X’s “By any means necessary” became the rallying cry of pro-Hamas agitators who defaced posters of Israeli hostages, turned college campuses into pogrom programs, and shut down Christmas tree lighting ceremonies and public thoroughfares.

Immigration roundups required calling out the National Guard, and even military troops, in several major cities.

The CEO of a health insurance company was murdered in Manhattan while his assailant is treated like a folk hero to be feted, not imprisoned. Last week protests erupted in support of a communist Latin American dictator who was abducted to stand trial for narcoterrorism and drug trafficking against the United States. Obviously, some believe he was deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Nihilism has become the new national ethic. There were two assassination attempts on the life of then presidential candidate Donald Trump. And an actual assassination of Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk.

Nihilism has become the new national ethic.

The Unite the Right Rally and the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6 revealed the other side of what might become a looming civil war. Both political extremes are comfortable causing chaos—whether it involves torching police precincts, desecrating monuments or crashing federal buildings.

Mask-wearing in such heated environments is positively de rigueur. Islamist and socialist mayors and city councils are redefining the contours of American freedom. Illiberal, Sharia-friendly, anti-white, anti-capitalist, anti-American policy planks surely would have surprised the Founding Fathers who staked everything on free markets, liberal ideals and representative democracy.

New York City’s newly appointed housing czar doesn’t believe in the ownership of private property. That won’t go well in arguably the priciest real estate market in the world. Crime is spiking in sanctuary cities governed by officials who are dubious of law enforcement. A critical mass will flee such municipalities seeking safer streets and tax havens.

All told, these social upheavals and cultural tensions have resulted in a rewiring of American minds and a rewriting of the rule book for radicals.

The pro-Hamas college encampments and the more recent anti-ICE mobs are not mere protests. The participants are openly provoking fights with federal officials. They arrive at the scene planning aggressive resistance, encouraged to bring items that can be used to barricade streets—especially automobiles. Renee Good was at the wheel; and that’s how she ended up dead.

The Department of Homeland Security reports a 3,200 percent increase in cars being used to impede ICE agents from doing their job. Vehicular attacks against ICE agents have surged, too. Was that on the mind of the ICE agent in Minneapolis last week?

Was Renee Good “murdered,” or was she the tragic victim of a species of activism that refuses to follow the directions of arresting law enforcement officials?

Was Renee Good “murdered,” or was she the tragic victim of a species of activism that refuses to follow the directions of arresting law enforcement officials?

She was allegedly a member of ICE Watch, a group dedicated to disrupting ICE raids. Another, more radical group in Minneapolis is called Twin Cities Ungovernables.

So much for law and order.

What is it that is so precious about people who are in the United States illegally? Aren’t there more noble causes out there? Social activism these days resembles a death wish. Many of those being sheltered possess rap sheets that disqualify them as productive members of society and even less worthy as good neighbors. Throughout the Biden administration, between 10 and 15 million people entered the United States illegally. Of course, not all were lawbreakers, but surely some have made up for lost time while in the United States.

Why would a mother of three risk her life by flooring the gas pedal and swerving her car with a federal law enforcement officer pointing a gun right at her? Failing to follow the instructions of law enforcement has caused far too many meaningless deaths.

What we clearly see on the streets during the Black Lives Matter, pro-Hamas, anti-ICE demonstrations are agitators engaged in full provocation: antagonizing, egging on, throwing rocks and garbage cans, blocking traffic, resisting arrest. This past October, Border Patrol agents shot an armed woman in Chicago who tried to run them over with her car. They were hemmed in by ten other vehicles all revved up.

How many have ever been in that predicament—just doing their job?

Ironically, these anti-ICE actions are reminiscent of the Boston Massacre of 1770, when 300 Colonialist civilians surrounded, shouted at and threw clubs and oyster shells at eight British soldiers—literally daring them to shoot. In the heat of that moment, the soldiers fired and killed five. Represented by future president John Adams, six of the soldiers were acquitted of all crimes, and two received light sentences. The jury found that the crowd instigated the shooting.

You don’t need to be a social justice savant to know we are in desperate need of a refresher course on what constitutes lawful protest in America. Somewhere along the line, we lost our way with the First Amendment.

Antagonizing federal officers to scuffle with and sometimes fire upon citizens who are there to pick a fight, never ends well. And local politicians prejudging dicey law enforcement scenarios and inflaming crowds might score votes but will not contribute to the marketplace of ideas.

If things don’t change sometime soon, we’ll end up having to pray for the second coming of Appomattox.