Three people were killed last night in the Kenosha riots after the shooting of Jakob Blake. A suspect is a 17-year old kid that is presumably part of the boogaloo. Portland is also seeing clashes.
For a decade, Glenn Beck has talked about exit ramps. Essentially, he would say, “If we don’t wake up and recognize where we are in terms of historical cycles, we can’t go backward.
If we don’t exit now, we will end up in very bad places.” The far-left and the far-right are dragging us there. Those of us in the middle, I would bet 70-80% of this country, have to stop making arguments that give license to deadly places, or every citizen will be forced to participate in their fight.
I don’t know what the total plan looks like yet. I just know that it begins with standing “athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
The next step is placing unity above division. Unity is a foundational principle of America, and it’s worth fighting for. Over the last 30 to 40 years, we’ve let private institutions and communities erode, and we’ve lost the language to talk to each other as a result. Diving into uncomfortable conversations with people on supposedly opposite teams is coming. Is it before or after significant violence?
The center has to start fighting back with the same passion as extremists do to create a lane for noon-crazy people. Republicans and Democrats are pushing a vision of America that most of us will never and do not experience. People vote for it because they see no alternative. Speaking up creates one.
