Democrats vs. the Enraged Left

Given the voracity of the protests at Ivy League schools this year, we can expect much of the same but on steroids at the Dem Convention next week. Are the Chicago Police going to be able to contain this blitzkrieg of rabid progressive dilettantes? No way! The cops will be tethered on tight leashes unable to maintain order. Chase or try to arrest anyone who's on the move...you lose your job.

Will this embarrass our mayor and Pritzker? Probably...not much they can do about it without rethinking police policy.

Meanwhile, Trump who's every bit as supportive of Bibi's policies in Gaza sits on the sidelines and enjoys the show. The ire will not be directed at him.

Democrats vs. the Enraged Left

Minouche Shafik’s resignation is a foretaste of next week’s confrontation.

By Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ

Aug. 15, 2024 5:33 pm ET

Minouche Shafik is this week’s casualty of activist protesters, although her resignation as Columbia University’s president resurrects a pressing question for Democratic leaders: How long do they think they can duck their own confrontation with their angry left? The collision may now end up happening at a time the party least wants it—at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The Shafik resignation is a microcosm of the left’s broad refusal to confront its insurgents—a naive belief that this divide can be ignored, bridged or papered over. The University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill and Harvard’s Claudine Gay were the first to lose their jobs when they failed to condemn or police the anti-semitism rife on their campuses. They hid behind the “right to protest,” rather than provide leadership on rules and moral clarity.

Ms. Shafik tried to have it all ways. When anti-Israel agitators first set up their “Gaza Solidarity Camp,” she quickly called the police. So far, so good; the camp was unauthorized, the protesters mulishly refused to disperse. But when the clearing caused a backlash among students and left-wing faculty, and the camp was reestablished, Ms. Shafik sat by as masked agitators blocked areas of campus, harassed Jewish students, and disrupted academic activities. She dialogued and discussed, negotiated and sent missives carefully designed to offend no one.

Her thanks: The mob occupied and vandalized Hamilton Hall, requiring another call to the police, more arrests, more condemnation from the ivory towers, and more donors questioning a lack of leadership. Ms. Shafik limped along, leading the university to a canceled graduation and summer dispersal. She survived, but nothing was resolved. Eventually she or the university decided she wasn’t the right person to face the fight’s sure resumption this fall.

Democrats are pursuing the same strategy on a national scale. They encouraged and coddled the protest movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death, which complemented their theme of racism and disorder under President Trump. Even as the movement grew more organized and militant and came to encompass a dizzying array of unpopular progressive demands—“climate justice,” divestment from Israel, transgenderism, migrant legalization—Democrats still claimed it in its fold.

Now that public opinion has soured on the left’s street blockades, crime and campus takeovers, the Biden administration wants it both ways. It was inexcusably slow to condemn this spring’s spring campus and city protests—initially hoping it could stay above the fray. And when President Biden finally did condemn “violent” protests—even as he claims he still steadfastly supports Israel—his team kept working to pacify those shouting “Genocide Joe” and taking over campus property. It halted certain weapons to Israel, leveled sanctions on Israeli groups and individuals, and pressured Jerusalem for a cease-fire. The summer drama over Mr. Biden’s age and the party nominee did at least divert attention away from this split in the party.

But enraged leftists haven’t gone anywhere, as evidenced by their meltdown over Kamala Harris’s consideration of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate. She ducked that confrontation by going with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, yet what Democrats continue to fail to appreciate is that this crowd won’t be appeased by anything less than full capitulation. That includes an end to any support for Israel. For a sense of the “unity” in the party, see the chaotic videos from a Wednesday night rally by New York Democrats in advance of next week’s convention. Its afterparty was besieged by an anti-Israel mob intent on mayhem. Many carried placards reading: “Kamala = Genocide.”

The Coalition to March on the DNC boasts 150 groups, including Black Lives Matter and Students for Justice in Palestine. It is already coordinating buses of protesters into Chicago. It’s asking for donations for “medical kits” and other supplies to “ensure that the March on DNC coalition” can “withstand the repression” of the Chicago police. Among other groups coming are outfits like Samidoun and Behind Enemy Lines, which agitate for “direct action” that goes well beyond marching. A recent Behind Enemy Lines post reads: “Now that the butchers of Gaza are coming to Chicago, it’s time to take this political battle into high gear,” which involves “getting in the streets to actually shut down Genocide Joe and Killer Kamala.” One protest is planned for outside the Israeli consulate, and its poster reads: “Make It Great, like ’68!”—a reference to the violence outside that year’s Democratic convention in Chicago.

The political risk for Democrats is that the protests become the overriding theme of the week, swamping their goal of projecting unity and rolling out Ms. Harris. If the disorder is great enough, Republicans may be able to re-energize some potent election themes: that Democrats are the party of disorder, soft on crime, antipolice, tolerant of antisemitism. The GOP is already reminding voters of Mr. Walz’s sluggish reaction to the Floyd chaos that left Minneapolis smoking.

What will be Ms. Harris’s response to any chaos next week? Equivocation won’t look good. Yet in some ways, the opportunity to break with radicals and lay down moral markers has already passed them by. Ask Minouche Shafik.