The left’s alliance with the criminal class

In a nation that touts rule-of-law as a foundation principle, it is more than a little disturbing how the left-wingers in the Democratic Party and the east coast elitist media embrace criminality as a means of securing power.  But, it sadly is part of the Democrats’ long tradition.

Democrats’ 100-year reign over Dixie was a prime example of how a corrupt and racist political party could maintain power by ignoring or breaking virtually every law and constitutional right.  They did not maintain power at the ballot box because there were no legal elections held in the south for more than a century.  The source of power was the deployment of allied paramilitary terrorist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White Citizens’ Councils and the Red Shirts.

Democrats used so-called “social clubs” – which were nothing less than gangs to prey on black citizens.  Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago was the head of one such club that sought out and beat the hell out of black folks.  It is believed – although not proven that he was involved in a murder of a young black man.

Leadership in these criminal organizations were often the first step of a political career. South Carolina’s “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman became a governor and a senator by gaining fame for leading his Red Shirts on a rampage that killed a number of black federal militia men.  He openly bragged about what he had done – saying they had it coming to them.

Leaders of the Democrat political machines that imposed one-party rule over many major American cities were often dependent on the support of organized crime – the Mafia.  In my hometown of Chicago, it was widely known that the infamous First Ward was the power base of the crime syndicate.  If you wanted to be the alderman of the First Ward, you had to have the endorsement of the mob.  Similar synergism was seen between New York City’s Tammany Hall and the capodecina who oversaw the Harlem rackets.

The presidential campaign of Senator Jack Kennedy used the services of mob boss Sam Giancana to engage in massive vote fraud and voter intimidation specifically in Illinois and West Virginia. The President and the mob don even shared girlfriends.

There was a less elegant, but more effective, association between the urban political machines and the criminal elements – especially in the crime-ridden inner-cities.  Street gangs were often part of the political infrastructure – used as precinct enforcers and to intimidate other politicians.  The violence might result in the firebombing of an opposition headquarters and even murder.

That was then.  What about now”

Today, the KKK is virtually non-existent, the Mafia is not what it used to be and the street gangs direct more of their energies to the business of big-time crime.  None of these have entirely abandoned the political turf, however.

The contemporary left still considers lawlessness as part of its strategy to achieve and maintain power.  Based on their policies, it is undeniable that the Democratic Party still sees the criminal element as an important part of its power base.

Democrats want to ban the prohibition against convicted felons voting.  In fact, they propose that polling places be established in prisons.  Not only do they want to restore the voting rights of former convicted felons, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is paying off the fines and court-ordered restitutions of thousands of felons so that they can vote in Florida.  Democrats have passed laws enabling illegal aliens to vote in local elections.

The reason for all this is very simple.  A significant majority of criminals and felons lean to the Democratic Party.  There are a number of socio-economic reasons for that, but a major factor is the left’s policies that condone and forgive criminality without accountability.

Democrats have a reluctance to enforce the rule-of-law on certain classes of criminals.  They provide politically motivated exemptions.  Entering the United States illegally is not a prosecutable crime, according to the left.  Democrats promote so-called “sanctuary cities and states” in which illegal aliens can live free from prosecution.  Democrat mayors refuse to cooperate with the federal Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agency – with many Democrats calling for the agency to be abolished.

Billionaire George Soros has been funding the campaigns of state attorneys who will go soft on crime.  The Soros-funded candidate in Los Angeles has made non-prosecution of certain categories of (political correctness) crimes as a campaign pledge.

For years, we have seen left-wing big city prosecutors drop all charges against rioters, looters and arsonists.  Illegally occupying public spaces, illegally blocking highways, shutting down public buildings, toppling statues and smearing graffiti on public and private property are considered by the left to be nothing more than “peaceful protest” – even though none of those activities are constitutionally protected.

One protester advocated for looting – saying it is a form of reparations. In defiance of logic, common sense and the rule-of-law, New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones placed her seal of approval on the worst of the street violence.  She argues that the term “violence” should be reserved for such crimes as the killing of George Floyd.

She said that “Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence. To use the same language to describe those two things (the Floyd murder and destruction of property), I think is really not moral to do that,”

Wrap your head around that.  Burning down a family’s home, looting a business or assaulting the police are not acts of violence – and it is immoral to call them such.  And this woman is a New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.  With reporters like this – and there are more of them – the publication’s motto, “All the news that’s fit to print,” can now be changed to “All the news for misfits.”

It is not an either/or situation.  The killing of Floyd, looting, arson, and destruction of property are ALL acts of violence. All illegal.  But that is not how the left sees the rule-of-law.

If we want to be ruled by laws – and not men (or women) – we need to have our laws enforced by police, upheld by prosecutors and adjudicated by judges.  The left – and much of the current Democratic Party – has sided with the criminals in opposition to police in general, Rising out of the Democrat ranks are the calls for defunding the police.

Rather than have the police enforce the laws, we have seen in Portland, Minneapolis, St Louis and many other cities the police ordered to stand down in the face of rioting.  One can only imagine the pain – the anger – a person must feel as they see the police standing in ranks just yards away from their burning home or their looted businesses.

In the left’s view, police are only to observe, prosecutors are to be politically arbitrary in bringing charges and judges are to be partisan in meting out justice. Like all authoritarian philosophies, the progressive left believes in a double standard in which their political base is exempt from the laws that compel a just and civil society.  If we are to have a nation that thrives under a rule-of-law, we had better start electing people who believe in it.

So, there ‘tis.