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Why Voting For Biden To Stop The Riots Will Ensure They Never Go Away
The Federalist ^ | October 29, 2020 | Kyle Sammin

Posted on 10/29/2020 9:18:50 AM PDT by Kaslin

This republic endures when people vote based on what they think will be right and good for all of us. Americans don’t pay tribute.


There is a palpable fear on the left that each new spasm of rioting and violence in the streets will drive more people away from their side. While Joe Biden himself is not tossing bricks and setting fire to police cars, his Democratic Party is the home of those who would excuse the rioters while Republicans are more likely to condemn street violence. It is natural that people who oppose anarchy in their cities and towns might consider voting for the candidate who does the same.

One line of thinking from the leftists now holds that the real way to stop violence in the streets is to elect Democrats, who will surely be better at calming the far-left mobs by giving them at least part of what they want. To be sure, the mob would be gratified by Donald Trump leaving office, but giving in to violent demands never makes the threat go away. Instead, it proves that violence works and leads to more of it. A mob is never satisfied.

The Only Way to Stop the Left Is to Elect Them?

Shadi Hamid of The Atlantic explained this theory last month when he wrote:

A loss by Joe Biden under these circumstances is the worst case not because Trump will destroy America (he can’t), but because it is the outcome most likely to undermine faith in democracy, resulting in more of the social unrest and street battles that cities including Portland, Oregon, and Seattle have seen in recent months. For this reason, strictly law-and-order Republicans who have responded in dismay to scenes of rioting and looting have an interest in Biden winning — even if they could never bring themselves to vote for him.

This month in the same publication, Yascha Mounk wrote that people who are tired of illiberal leftism should vote for Biden. “[A] Biden victory would make it easier, not harder, to push back against antifa types who think engaging in violent tactics to resist the Trump administration is justifiable,” Mounk said. “So long as citizens can contest political injustice at the ballot box, there can be no excuse for burning down government buildings.”

Neither Hamid nor Mounk is saying explicitly that the only way to stop left-wing violence is to vote for left-wing candidates, but they’re not not saying it, either. Giving in to fear and conceding to the rioters sounds, for some tremulous voters, like a way out of the problem.

Paying the Dane-Geld Never Works

We have known for a long time that such concessions rarely, if ever, succeed. Rudyard Kipling wrote about it in his 1911 poem “Dane-Geld.” In it, he retold the historical events of nine centuries earlier, when Viking raiders came to pillage England.

Rather than get murdered and robbed, King Æthelred proposed to just give the Danes money (called the “Dane-geld”) so they would go away. The Danes agreed — and then came back every year for more. Kipling described the exchange:

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation, ⁠
To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
‘We invaded you last night —
We are quite prepared to fight, ⁠
Unless you pay us cash to go away.’

And that is called asking for Dane-geld, ⁠
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: —
‘Though we know we should defeat you,
We have not the time to meet you, ⁠
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.’

Then, as now, human reactions are pretty predictable. If you make something profitable, more people will do it. The Vikings were presented with an easy win: just show up and get money, no need to risk life and limb. For Æthelred, paying them off was the easy short-term fix.

The problem, however, was not solved, and the Vikings kept coming. Eventually, their king, Canute, conquered England and held it until his death.

Americans Must Vote for What Is Good and Right

Delivering votes and policy victories to a mob out of fear is little different. If some voters actually want to defund the police and to enshrine Ibram X. Kendi’s Orwellian Department of Anti-Racism in the Constitution, or want any other far-left idea to come to pass, then by all means, they should vote for lefty candidates. But if other, more reasonable voters think that giving in to rioters will pacify the streets of Portland once more, they are surely mistaken. The Dane never left for long, and neither will Antifa, not if their violence is rewarded.

Kipling explained why we should act out of conviction, not cowardice:

And that is called paying the Dane-geld; ⁠
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld ⁠
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation
In the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested, ⁠
You will find it better policy to say: —

‘We never pay any one Dane-geld, ⁠
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame, ⁠
And the nation that plays it is lost!’

A nation that votes out of fear is lost. Americans have not done so in the past, and we should not start now. That is true not only because it will not work, but because it is wrong.

This republic endures when people vote based on what they think will be right and good for all of us. Americans don’t pay tribute. Once we do, this grand experiment in republican self-government will be headed for failure.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Delaware
KEYWORDS: 2020election; antifa; california; clowncar; cwii; delaware; demonrats; donaldtrump; election2020; india; jamaica; joebiden; joeclowncarbiden; kamalaharris; landslide; looters; mobs; protests; rioters; rioting; rudyardkipling; theatlantic; trumplandslide
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1 posted on 10/29/2020 9:18:50 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Ordinary citizens should not wait for government to rescue them. Shoot rioters and looters on sight, while they are committing crimes. That will stop rioting and looting.


2 posted on 10/29/2020 9:21:58 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: All

Voting Democrat sure has worked out for Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore . . . Want more riots? Keep voting Democrat.


3 posted on 10/29/2020 9:23:07 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Rome wasn't built in a day. All Hail the night shift!)
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To: Kaslin
They started in Ferguson under Obama. The leftie narrative that the riots started under Trump is so demonstrably false, it's amazing anyone makes that claim.
4 posted on 10/29/2020 9:24:30 AM PDT by Fido969
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The Atlantic rag, enough said


5 posted on 10/29/2020 9:24:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I wonder what those BLM blacks would say if you tell them they’re white in their body; their skeleton is white. Hypocrites.


6 posted on 10/29/2020 9:26:49 AM PDT by SkyDancer (~ Pilots: Looking Down On People Since 1903 ~)
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To: Rurudyne

Store owners who’s stores are being looted should definitely be allowed to shoot these looters.


7 posted on 10/29/2020 9:27:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The premise is correct.

These malcontent miscreants will riot REGARDLESS. Trump, because he’s bad man, Biden because he lets us.


8 posted on 10/29/2020 9:28:17 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs. I)
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To: Kaslin
I predict Trump will win and there WILL BE RIOTS and Trump will impose the Insurrection Act to tamp things down.

High risk of CWII either way.

9 posted on 10/29/2020 9:29:34 AM PDT by G Larry (There is no merit in compromising with the Devil.)
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To: Fido969

They sure did start under that arrogant pos former occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and they know it.


10 posted on 10/29/2020 9:31:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Rurudyne

If Biden wins it will signal the Bolshevik wannabes that the time is right to do an American analogy of storming the Winter Palace. When the ruling class produces a weak leader and gives the revolutionaries some of what they want they know that everything is now ripe for seizure. That is when those U-Hauls bringing signs and molotov cocktail kits to the riots will bring hundreds of AK-47s and cases of 7.63x57 to pass out at the riots.


11 posted on 10/29/2020 9:32:36 AM PDT by arthurus (covfefe cgj)
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To: Kaslin

Winter will make the riots go away.

Remember “High Stepper”?

The guy who lit his feet on fire at a protest?

Wait until one of em tries to chuck a Molotov Cocktail on the ice and slips and drops it and sets his hoodie on fire.


12 posted on 10/29/2020 9:37:41 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: Kaslin

“elect Democrats, who will surely be better at calming the far-left mobs”

Yeah, that assumes that Americans care about “calming” mobs of violent criminals. That’s a mistaken assumption.


13 posted on 10/29/2020 9:38:50 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Kaslin

If Biden “wins”, the riots won’t stop. The thugs will use the violence to keep upping their demands. The joke’s on us—nothing will ever be enough.

If President Trump wins, the riots will flare because President Trump won. However, Trump 2.0 unplugged will stomp that s**t out.


14 posted on 10/29/2020 9:39:43 AM PDT by jazminerose (Hunter Biden 2024)
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To: Kaslin

“Why Voting For Biden To Stop The Riots Will Ensure They Never Go Away”

They won’t go away no matter who gets elected until the people that elect these ahole governors and mayor that are letting the “peaceful pretests” aka riots take place rise up and run them out of office.


15 posted on 10/29/2020 9:39:46 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (Biden's)
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To: G Larry

“High risk of CWII either way.”

I disagree. I think as soon as the National Guard fires off one volley, these lefties will fold like a cheap suit.


16 posted on 10/29/2020 9:41:36 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Kaslin

Yes the rioters will pretend thats a confirmation on their criminal activities...


17 posted on 10/29/2020 9:42:53 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Rurudyne

The same people who support and prop up Biden, support and prop up Antifa and rioters.

The people who scream to ‘de-fund the police’ NEVER make calls to ‘de-fund’ the FBI. If YOU shoot a looter - even if he’s planning on killing YOU or someone you love - the whole corrupt force of left-wing thugs will descend upon you. That will include but not be limited to ‘the press’, the FBI, and commie swamp creatures.

If you want to know what the US will be like if Biden wins, look to China after Mao - or Valenzuela or Cuba... the full hellhole moves in fast. Count on starvation as a tactic.


18 posted on 10/29/2020 9:55:10 AM PDT by GOPJ (* HUNTER'S LAPTOP MATTERS - - HLM 11th_VA)
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To: Kaslin

that’s right, it will reinforce the behavior.


19 posted on 10/29/2020 10:00:22 AM PDT by Jonny7797
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To: Boogieman
I don't think "as soon as the National Guard fires off one volley" is going to happen.

Their presence and non-lethal tactics will have to be enough.

20 posted on 10/29/2020 10:06:45 AM PDT by G Larry (There is no merit in compromising with the Devil.)
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