November 24, 2021

"Last year’s protests often devolved into naked criminality, to which many progressives, including those in the news media, closed their eyes..."

"... notoriously including those 'fiery but mostly peaceful protests' in Kenosha, Wis. Opportunities for thoughtful police and justice-system reform were squandered in the rush to defame, defund, diminish or abolish. It may be that serious urban leaders like incoming mayor Eric Adams of New York can reverse the trend.... But progressive misgovernance has now tattooed the words 'soft on crime' on Democratic necks, and the country has noticed. It will take years to erase. And who has been helped the most by all this, politically speaking? Donald Trump and his mini-mes. The country won’t be safe from them until a more serious Democratic Party can set itself free from ideas that embarrass it and endanger us all."

From "Can Liberals Survive Progressivism?" by Bret Stephens (NYT).


"Even with the numbing cream, it's painful, it's extremely painful."

66 comments:

Michael K said...

Stephens is still troubled with TDS. A bad case of it. The Democrats have gone off the cliff and he worries about Trump.

walter said...

"The country won’t be safe from them""
Crime bad...but Truuuuuummmmmmp!

M Jordan said...

Bret Stephens is, like so many NeverTrumpers, an idiot. I say that with all due respect. His IQ, I'm sure, is quite high. But his NeverTrump filter through which he views all the world now, subtracts 50 points from it.

I'm so thankful I never have to read people like Stephens anymore thinking they have some kind of perspective I need. They have nothing to offer, just "I hate Trump." That's their entire Raison d'être. (I had to google that to make sure I was using it right. Don't ask me to pronounce it. I'm not Bret Stephens.)

Trump ripped the priestly robes off so, so many clerics. He effectively ended the Modern Dark Ages. Those priests are now all exposed, naked and shivering, forever. Thank you, Trump.

Leland said...

"Soft on crime"? Did Bret Stephens miss Kamala Harris offering to put up bail money for the protestors last year? They helped fund the criminality last year, Bret.

Lewis said...

When will democrats finally figure out that disrespecting people who support Trump policies is a giant turn-off. We are not mini mes. We are mostly just ordinary people who don't spend all of our time trying to virtue signal. We also don't have blinders on that prevent us from seeing the disgusting double standards and the failures wrought by democrat policies.

narciso said...

this was the whole point of the last year of violence, this is what you endorsed bret don't pretend otherwise,

Loren W Laurent said...

From Wiki on "The Stars My Destination":

Gulliver ("Gully") Foyle: Last remaining survivor of the merchant spaceship Nomad. Captured by the "Scientific People" on an asteroid, only his face is tattooed according to their customs. The tattoos are later painfully removed, but the scars left under his skin become visible when his emotions flare out of control.

I imagine emotions flaring out of control will be with us for quite a while...

-Loren

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Turn on CNN. Are they talking about the terrorist attack in Waukesha?

Nope. They are talking about JANUARY 6TH!!!!!!

Wince said...

But progressive misgovernance has now tattooed the words 'soft on crime' on Democratic necks...

"That's an odd thing to get tattooed on your neck."

JRoberts said...

This article reminds me of an editorial cartoon I saw more than 40 years ago when Ronald Reagan was elected.

It shows Reagan opening up a closet door in Washington to find a group of Democrat leopards, surrounded by FDR and LBJ icons, frantically using (and in some cases drinking) spot remover.

Democrats have been undermining the foundations of this nation for more than a century and are then stunned when the structures built upon those weakened foundations crumble to dust.

Readering said...

Last year commenters here overwhelmingly predicted that unrest in cities would mean POTUS reelection.

The Crack Emcee said...

"A more serious Democratic Party"?

You mean to say they weren't serious when Obama campaigned with Oprah, a woman who can't campaign herself after spreading misinformation and pseudoscience for so long? Wow, that's news. Like Republicans carrying the banner of "Jesus" I took it as a stroke of political genius.

wendybar said...

Donald Trump and his "mini me's" did NOT burn down all those cities last summer. THAT was all BLM and ANTIFA whom the Progressives brag about, praise, and let do whatever they want. The only reason a Trump "mini-me" was in Kenosha is because he was doing what the Police were told to stand down from doing. Be more afraid of ignorant Progressive politicians who spew hate and violence, and then wonder why vigilantes are standing up to their utter chaos.

wendybar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wendybar said...

And the "so called" moderate Democrats say Antifa is "just an idea". Close your eyes and pretend they were the violent ones burning down cities in America all last summer, whilst the media claimed the protests were peaceful. They live in an alternate universe than I do.

tcrosse said...

Never mind the victims. The rise in crime is good for Trump, so it has to stop.

Richard Aubrey said...

Not going to mess up our hostess' blog with links. Michelle Malkin has a powerful piece on this. Boudin and Chisom are going to be dem poster boys.
And Jackson Sparks--SAY HIS NAME--may have some persistent notice despite not being a felon with half a pound of crystal meth in him in between anally raping nine-year olds or running over the mother of one of his kids, and even if he didn't want to fight the cops.
Even with all that going against him, somebody will remember him.

Breezy said...

With defund the police, inflation, open borders, energy costs, supply chain stalling, CRT, etc., I think what is tattooed is the more general “Progressive Misgovernance” phrase. Their myriad malfeasance cuts against a huge swath of the country. And yet, they persist.

rehajm said...

They are not so much neck tattoos but more Mike Tyson/Florida Man face tattoos.

Sebastian said...

"until a more serious Democratic Party can set itself free from ideas that embarrass it"

Why? The Dems are dead serious. They are not embarrassed. They mean to destroy the system, the law, the country, racist Amerikkka. They have a stranglehold on single-party cities and states.

The only thing that will cause change is for the Althouses of America and a few sensible blacks to put a stop to it, consistently. So far, they don't have the heart. So in many blue places, Dem destruction will continue.

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah Geez! Bret Stephens looks at the mess and his progressive friends and running dog liberals (sorry,I got all ChiComm there) have made. And he gets all wee wee'd up.

Sorry Bret buddy. You and your friends made the mess and the stink will stick.

rcocean said...

Typical Burt Stephens. "Don't you understand what you're doing, Lefty? Its the worst thing ever. You're helping Donald Trump (or people like him)."

I always find this "Don't you see how you're hurting yourself?" the lamest of all arguements. I suppose its used because the person making it wants to make the case in the mildest, meekest, way possible - either out of fear or disinterest.

lane ranger said...

After looking through the comments in the Times to this opinion piece, I'm encouraged to find that liberals will continue to refuse to learn the basic lesson that the U.S. is a center-right country, and thus Democrats will continue to lose elections.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Democrats and criminals are BFFs. The 2021 Washington State legislature kneecapped the police by restricting what they can do. They can't pursue criminals as they drive away. They can't remain at a scene if there's no active crime going on. The police now need probable cause instead of reasonable suspicion to track down criminals.

Then we have are woke prosecutors. Seattle's non-defeated city attorney, Pete Holmes, would not prosecute criminals. Seattle elected a Republican, Ann Davidson, instead of a marxist who wanted to eradicate the city attorney's office. The King County Prosecutor, Dan Satterberg, also doesn't like to actually prosecute criminals.

The homeless do anything they want. Shoplift and be out of jail in an hour. There's a vagrant known as Lawn Mower Man who's filled a vacant lot with lawn mowers, uses a LOUD portable generator and plays boomboxes at full volume. The city came after an adjacent home owner and demanded that the home owner clean up the mess. When informed that it was a vagrant who made the mess, the city did nothing to make Lawn Mower Man clean up the garbage on his lot. The city has never met a vagrant it couldn't call a Best Friend Forever.

Narayanan said...

tattoo removal : what ??? there is no APP for this!!!!

Big Mike said...

What part of "Duh!" do Dumbocrats not understand?

Ambrose said...

My favorite part of Bret Stephens' work is the way the smug NYT commenters talk down to him. They are absolutely convinced that because they have the right politics they are smarter and better than him.

Original Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

"Can Liberals Survive Progressivism?"

More gaslighting and we're not buying it, Bret. Liberals are fully complicit.

"The “right-thinking” people of the Left would never sully their hands in dealing with their enemies directly. Even if they do not explicitly encourage burning car dealerships, looting stores, attacking police stations or beating up unsuspecting people on the street, they know that their rhetoric inspires and encourages it. They know that they have an army of angry, under-educated or willfully uneducated group of people, highly vulnerable to the power of suggestion — people who will burn down a city while Leftist leaders and media mavens gather at the Kennedy Center or the Met Gala to sip champagne as their colleagues and errand-runners try to convince us that a building engulfed in flames is a sign of a peaceful protest."

Jim at said...

The country won’t be safe from them...

Yeah. We're the threats.

Go fuck yourself.

R C Belaire said...

What "Jim at" said at 1:52 PM. Nailed it.

YoungHegelian said...

Can Liberals Survive Progressivism?

Seemingly, every generation of Liberal needs to learn the lesson anew: the first victim of the Far Left is the Moderate Left. The conservatives don't trust either & thus are on their guard from the get-go. The Moderate Left, however, organizes itself using fear of the Right and they thus often have a major blind spot on enemies to their Left.

0_0 said...

The Three Strikes rule has worked where implemented, except for the part where violent career criminals fill the jails.

rcocean said...

Stephens doesn't have TDS. He lied about being a Conservative for years. He's said as much. Just like Jen Rubin and Bill Kristol.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

From "Can Liberals Survive Progressivism?" by Bret Stephens

The Mensheviks lost to the Bolsheviks, and the "liberals" will lose to the "Progressives".

Happily, because in America "gun control" means "hitting your target", the Bolsheviks are not going to win here, after they beat teh "liberals"

Mattman26 said...

Comrade Stephens erred by claiming it was "progressive governance" that tattooed "soft on crime" on Democratic necks.

In fact it was pouncing Republicans that did the tattooing.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Readering said...
Last year commenters here overwhelmingly predicted that unrest in cities would mean POTUS reelection.

And it did. Which is why the Democrats had to be so blatant in the election stealing.

Your point?

Even after the Democrat vote fraud, there was a 12% shift to the GOP for 2020 to 2021. Go run down your list of "Democrat election victories" from 2020, and take a look at which places will survive a 12% shift, or even a 5% shift, in 2022.

Michael K said...


Blogger Readering said...

Last year commenters here overwhelmingly predicted that unrest in cities would mean POTUS reelection.


We underestimated the level of fraud that billionaires could buy.

mikee said...

Democrats were "soft on crime" when Nixon was running against McGovern fifty years ago in the presidential election of 1972.

Democrats were recognized as "insanely concerned with criminal welfare over the rights of crime victims" when GW Bush ran against Dukakis, who furloughed convicted murderers from jail for the holidays and could not readily answer what he'd do to a rapist who violated his own wife.

Now Democrats are running criminal organizations called Antifa and BLM that act as paramilitary forces for their political allies in local, state and federal governments. And the son of the US President can take bribes for artwork, do blow off hooker's backsides, smoke crack on camera, drop guns in garbage cans, and never face an investigation let alone a criminal charge.

Keep up, Althouse, things are moving along at quite a pace in Democrat Party circles regarding criminality.

walter said...

Blogger Jim at said...
The country won’t be safe from them...
Yeah. We're the threats.
Go fuck yourself.
--
LCK: Uhh..will someone watch?

wildswan said...

"Can Liberals Survive Progressivism?"

Don't worry, Bret. Nancy Pelosi is moving to Florida, taking at least $22 million she saved out of her salary with her into a low tax area with a nice beach area not overrun by the homeless. Learn from a wise Italiana lady. The rule, Bret baby, is move to the left for your career moves and move to the right for a place to stash the cash. To put it another way, leave the gun, take the cannoli.

Howard said...

Libtards having a come to Jeebus moment.

Achilles said...

Blogger Readering said...

Last year commenters here overwhelmingly predicted that unrest in cities would mean POTUS reelection.

It takes someone this stupid to think Joe Biden got 81 million votes anywhere except at a printer.

Iman said...

“They are not so much neck tattoos but more Mike Tyson/Florida Man face tattoos.”

“Thath a ludicrouth sthatement!”

—- Mike Tyson

Lurker21 said...

Sure, at some point Democrats will become less insane, but they have to be beaten first and beaten badly (at the polls, of course, not literally in the streets).

I don't know if they'll ever lose badly enough to learn any serious lessons -- Nancy Pelosi could drive her car into a crowd -- and San Francisco would still vote for her.

Bret Stephens could do his part by admitting that Trump wasn't really that bad, but of course, he won't.

Joe Smith said...

My favorite tattoos are:

(across the knuckles) L V O E H A T E

and NO REGERTS

tim in vermont said...

The many deaths that happened during the BLM and Antifa riots last summer got the Hunter Laptop treatment; the mass murder that just happened in Wekausha is also getting the Hunter Biden laptop treatment.

When the FBI is on a case, it's end. of. story. Well, if publicity might hurt Democrats.

Blake was not fleeing a stabbing, he was driving slowly, then sped up and zig zagged through the crowd. That's intentional mass murder, if proven to be true. The man had a social media history of hateful and violent anti-white rhetoric.

But the FBI is on it, and like I said, end of story.

tim in vermont said...

"The country won’t be safe from them ..."

Get out the vote red meat for the Republican base from the New York Times, Trump couldn't buy this stuff, not that he would want to, since the Democrats are doing the Republican GOTV for free.

n.n said...

Evolved, a chaotic process, with a source, sink, and indiscernible order outside of a limited frame of reference.

CWJ said...

"...Donald Trump and his mini-mes. The country won’t be safe from them..."

Wow! No matter how bad things get, Trump with a good economy, Trump with peace accords, Trump attempting to control our Southern border, Trump reconfiguring trade agreements in America's favor, Trump who respected federalism, Trump who reconfigured our industries to manufacture ventilators set up mobile hospitals and send navy hospital ships which were slapped away with the back of the hand, Trump who set rapid vaccine development in motion, Trump and his supporters, ARE WORSE.

Bill Peschel said...

What does it say about the Democratic Party when three of them from North Dakota contributed to Thomas Starks, an Antifa member who vandalized with an axe Sen. John Hoeven’s office in Fargo in December 2020. Not only was he not jailed, he was given probation and the FBI gave him his axe back.

Before his conviction, he set up a GoFundMe to raise money for his defense. Democrat Party Executive Committee Representative Ellie Shockley donated $100, Democratic-Non Partisan League (NPL) Chairwoman Kylie Oversen also gave $100, and Ellen Chaffee, the Democrat candidate for Lt. Governor in 2012, gave $500.

Gave money to a man who violently attacked the opposition party.

Josephbleau said...

Regarding tattoos, a friend of mine in grad school got a thesis approved on micro encapsulated vegetable based tattoos with future option of laser degradable wax envelopes causing natural absorption of such. Hey, why sweat 2 years on a PhD dissertation when you can get out easy.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Antifa Nazi are the democrat party's brownshirts.

Iman said...

“But progressive misgovernance has now tattooed the words 'soft on crime' on Democratic necks, and the country has noticed.”

I would characterize it as malgovernance.

Readering said...

If one rounds up like Trump does Biden got 82 million.

Owen said...

These violent morons are themselves an indelible inky scar on the body politic. It will be very very painful to remove them.

Gahrie said...

Keep up, Althouse, things are moving along at quite a pace in Democrat Party circles regarding criminality.

Some people find Democratic corruption to be oh so boring.

walter said...

tim in vermont said
Blake was not fleeing a stabbing, he was driving slowly, then sped up and zig zagged through the crowd.
--
Confusing AA WI perps.

Biff said...

"But progressive misgovernance has now tattooed the words 'soft on crime' on Democratic necks, and the country has noticed."

Getting "tattooed" suggests a superficial change in appearance, delivered by some outside agent. I think that "Democrats revealing their true colors" is a much more accurate way of looking at it.

Narr said...

If I see naked criminality, I avert my eyes. Unless she's hot.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

God they fear Trump so. As noted it’s not his policies, which led to better outcomes than we’re getting now. No. He threatens to (again) show how easily America’s inequities can be righted with good policy. Joe’s proving the inverse. But Trump’s worst sin is being an outsider who’s liable to reveal too many insider grifts especially having been Deep Stated good and hard all first term.

Amadeus 48 said...

Shorter Bret Stephens: "Eek! Trump!"

That is what they call "nuanced analysis" at NYT.

Amadeus 48 said...

"The Democrats have gone off a cliff..."

From your lips to God's ear, as they say.

Amadeus 48 said...

"Gave money to a man who violently attacked the opposition party."

Yeah. That's what Democrats do. Remember James T. Hodgkinson? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

CWJ said...

Soft on crime. Unless you're in jail without bail for trespassing during the first week of January.

PhilD said...

"And who has been helped the most by all this, politically speaking? Donald Trump and his mini-mes."

Well, it didn't help Trump because he lost the elections (whether through fraud or not).
And a factor in that was because the Left managed to let him get te blame for the dead of George Floyd in a DEMOCRAT stronghold and the subsequent 'protests' against 'systematic racism' pushed by the democrat party and mainly occurring in democrat areas by people living mainly in those same democrat run areas (which would suggest that it is the democrat 'systematic racist' party which has a 'systematic racist' problem).
A fine example of the power of propaganda, political violence and projection by the Left. A real 'coup'.