Government’s most basic responsibility is the preservation of civil order. The fundamental compact between government and citizens is that in return for paying taxes, government protects us from marauders. There is no point having a government if it takes the position that it cannot protect its constituents.
We can be certain that fundamental compact between government and citizens is gone, and the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse demonstrates this.
Rittenhouse was 17 years old when he traveled a few minutes from his home to the town where some of his family and friends lived to help clean graffiti, tend to injured people, help put out fires, and help keep the peace by guarding stores from looters. There is ample video coverage that proves he was doing these things.
Kyle Rittenhouse was doing what the government would not. He stepped up while local government ordered police to hang back. We saw burning, looting and violence against innocent people and businesses and our government, that has a responsibility to preserve civil order, did nothing. These weren’t protesters peacefully marching and giving speeches. These were thugs. Antifa and BLM have demonstrated in many cities over a long period of time that they are nothing more than violent thugs. Our government rolled over.
Actually, it’s worse than that. We have local and Federal elected officials calling these thugs “heroes” and “victims” and refer to them as “protesters”. They’re not just turning a blind eye to the marauders, they are lionizing them.
This is not acceptable.
You want to protest? Fine, that’s your constitutionally-acknowledged right. March, make speeches, write to officials, etc. You want to burn, loot and hurt people? You should be shot on sight.
And maybe if our local governments won’t step up and do what they should, we need to be like young Mr. Rittenhouse and step up. And if you live in an area where your local government protects thugs rather than law-abiding citizens, then maybe, just maybe, we need to remove those officials for destroying the social compact that allows the government to exist at all.
Perhaps we need to revise our history books so they begin “Once upon a time” just like all the other fairy tales.