Pirate's Cove

The “activists” are never satisfied, and always want more. They aren’t particularly concerned with black people shooting each other on the streets of Philly and other Democratic Party run cities, though

Return to Normalcy? Not on the Streets of Philadelphia

As the sun sets the night after the election, the streets around City Hall feel like a dystopian street fair.

Illuminated by garish purple lights, leftist speakers lead rants and chants from the tricked-out back of an old delivery truck. A marching band’s drum section materializes, and, inexplicably, so does someone in an Elmo costume. Everyone is masked, no one is socially distanced, and everyone I speak to has a bleak outlook on life. The Philadelphia police bicycle by, looking neutered compared with the National Guard, which stands a block away with rifles strapped across their chests. A capitalist sells Black Lives Matter swag. Most downtown shops have hung plywood to deter looters, painted over with reassurances that they’re still open. They look closed.

In Philadelphia and other cities, radical leftists planned protests for Nov. 4 regardless of the election outcome. Wednesday’s demonstrations were peaceful here, but if you hoped a Biden presidency would bring tranquility to urban America’s streets, forget it.

“No matter what goes down on Election Day, we will gather this Wednesday and every Weds until the fall of the regime,” pronounced a flier circulating in several cities. The self-described “rebel alliance” network Crimethinc.com explained that “if Biden wins, there will still be police, prisons, deportations, ecological destruction, capitalism—a Biden victory is not the end of this struggle, it is just the beginning of a new chapter.”

So, downtowns will continue to be boarded up, because of the threat of violence from Biden/Harris voters. And they’re going to continue going on when Biden takes office (if he does).

Many of the demonstrators I interviewed have little use for the Democratic Party. Microphone in hand, a speaker Wednesday night bemoans how “the Democratic Party enabled Trump” and “enabled his policies the last four years.” She’s particularly outraged that Democrats didn’t fight to block Justice Amy Coney Barrett: “They did not do anything. They could have mobilized the mass movements that we have seen all summer long—the Black Lives Matter movement, the people who have gone on strike, the teachers—and they did none of that. So we have to be very real about the fact that Joe Biden, if he wins this, he won it despite himself. He won this because of these mass movements, not because he’s a good candidate.” The crowd applauds.

From this perspective, Democrats owe a debt for a Biden victory, and those in the streets intend to collect it. Unless the radical left wields the threat of unrest, “I think if push comes to shove, the Democratic Party is going to let Trump and the right wing just roll right over them,” says Lile Harris, 22, who’s out Wednesday night evangelizing for Philadelphia’s Socialist Alternative group.

This is what you created and let fester to harm Trump, Democrats. It’s all yours. Have fun

Among the protesters I interviewed, urgent goals include the abolition of the Electoral College, a $15 minimum wage, the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and expansive curbs on police power and funding. They play hardball, exerting their will through a combination of street action and social-media shaming. This intimidating strategy may not win elections, but it can shape policy—especially if Democrats are as spineless as the radical left believes.

These are your nuts, Dems: whatcha gonna do now? You like patronizing them when you need them for elections: what happens when the elections are over and the nuts come with their bill? You can only put them off so much, especially when you stood by and let them become very violent.

“I approve of destruction where it makes a statement and sort of hurts the right people.” Looting looks like a minor offense compared with “police violence and the entire country being stolen from Native people hundreds of years ago.” Ms. Globig describes herself as a moderate: “You could get much further left voices here. I think I’m actually a little bit conservative compared to a lot of Philadelphians.”

If those who consider themselves moderate Democrats are good with destruction and violence, what about the hardcores? These are your folks, Dems. You own them.