Grassroots

The Progressive-Democratic Party has them.

Violent clashes erupted in Washington, DC, between protesters and police after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Thursday night.

And

Protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St John’s Church….

And

US Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) said he was attacked by a “crazed mob” of more than 100 people after leaving the White House following President Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

And

An elderly couple was confronted as they crossed the street by at least one protester who screamed at them while making an obscene gesture, according to a video.

And the ongoing rioting and looting in Progressive-Democrat-run cities, like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, ….

These are the Progressive-Democratic Party’s grass roots.

This is why no one in Party talked about those rioters and looters Party’s poll numbers started to fall, why Progressive-Democrats were deafeningly silent all through their convention and in the weeks before that.

It’s why, even now, they’re commenting only in empty platitudes, with no concrete intention, much less an actual plan, to act against the violence.

Governance

Holman Jenkins, using the current state of energy deliverance in California as his backdrop, is concerned about the governance of the State.

Which introduces our larger theme. The only hope for the many, many things ailing the Golden State is better governance.

Which introduces the encompassing theme. The citizens of the Golden State keep electing the politicians that deliver the present quality of governance.

It’s not the politicians who are failing the citizens; they’re only doing what they’ve been hired to do.

It’s the California citizens who are failing California’s citizens.

The Roaring of the Silence

First Lady Melania Trump speaks with an accent. Which isn’t surprising to most of us, she’s an immigrant from Slovenia, only come to the US as an adult. Never mind, either, that her English is much better than any of our Slovenian.

Bette Midler, though, objected to her accent and her citizenship (gained in 2006) while FLOTUS Trump was making her Republican convention speech on Tuesday evening.

Oh, God. She still can’t speak English.

And

Get that illegal alien off the stage!

Midler has since pretended to apologize for the first—pretended because in the heat of the moment, she tweeted from her heart, but her…apology…came only later after much hoo-raw—although she seems to have done nothing about the second.

More importantly, though, it’s three days later, and the Republican convention is over. It’s three days later, and while lots of folks have decried Midler’s slurs, not a single Progressive-Democrat has objected to, much less repudiated, either of them.

This is a silent bigotry we do not need in the White House or anywhere in Congress.

Portland’s Wheeler Rioters

Here’s another example of the Wheeler Rioters’ execution of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s (D) Summer of Love.

On night 82 of the riots, police reported a marauding mob of “several hundred” rioters set fire to the Multnomah County Building just across the river from their previous favorite targets in downtown Portland. That’s where the county commission holds its meetings, social services are doled out, and executives with the sheriff’s office and other top executives have their offices.

But wait—there’s more:

It also turns out that it’s where the region’s store of COVID-fighting personal protection equipment (PPE) is stored.

The region’s stockpile, not just Portland’s. And the stockpile was on the ground floor.

It strains credulity to think that these rioters—especially since they’re operating not just with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s (D) tacit condoning, but with Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s active support (he’s announced that he won’t prosecute “petty” crimes)—didn’t know the contents of their arson target.

This also is another example of the rioting and destruction that Progressive-Democrats refused to decry throughout their Party’s nominating convention.

Agitators Agitate

And nominally peaceful protesters condone.

Peaceful demonstrations in downtown Chicago ended in a violent clash between police and protesters Saturday, leaving 17 officers injured and two dozen people arrested.

“Multiple agitators hijacked this peaceful protest,” Mr [Chicago Police Superintendent David] Brown said late Saturday. “This group deployed large black umbrellas, changed their appearance and began pushing and eventually assaulting officers.”

It’s not strictly true that agitators hijacked the protest.

If those “peaceful” protesters had truly wanted to stay peaceful, they would have dealt with the agitators in their midst before the latter could convert the protest to violence.

Certainly, that would be hard to do, but hard means possible.

At best, the “peaceful” protestors are shirking their personal responsibility and putting their obligations off on others.