October 5, 2020 at 10:54 a.m.
Doing bidding with the social justice brand
Doing bidding with the social justice brand
Given the tolerance - some say appetite - for violence by Democratic Party leaders, it would have been a shock if he hadn't thrown in with the president. Beth's endorsement was important, but what was more important were the specific reasons for his choice: the way Trump behaved when he visited Kenosha, compared to the way Biden conducted himself on his visit.
Behavior tells us everything, and in this case it exposed Joe Biden for what he is - not a leader for a social justice movement but a sop for a social justice brand whose pitch is for a globalism and elitism that hides personal power and wealth behind a curtain of wokeness and fake empathy.
It's the same behavior practiced by most of the elite Left, from George Soros to Barack Obama, a quest for privilege and wealth, not to mention for a seat at the table with their multinational corporate benefactors and bureaucratic buddies.
It took a sheriff in Kenosha to expose them all.
Beth did so by telling a tale of two visits. When Trump came to town, Beth said in a Fox interview, he was helpful and humble, and he met with citizens who had seen their lives and livelihoods go up in flames. He went to the scenes of the crimes, and he visited with owners of damaged and ruined businesses.
And when Trump sat down at his table of power, he was seated with average members of the community, including residents and businesses owners and members of law enforcement. Beth was there, too. Not only did the president promise help, he announced $1 million to Kenosha law enforcement, $4 million to support local businesses affected by violence, and $42 million to support public safety statewide.
Then along came Biden, and it was oh so different.
When the former vice president arrived, he met in solidarity with the family of the man police shot, and declared himself on their side, never mind any investigatory conclusions. Biden did not walk through the streets of devastation, either, and did not sit down with the victims of riots. His events that day were not open to the public, though he made time to meet with Black Lives Matters activists.
He did not give Beth a seat at his table. He did not meet with the sheriff. At Biden's table of power, the symbolic guest of honor was a man who had an outstanding warrant for sexual assault, and had violated a restraining order and physically resisted arrest before being shot.
On one side was the president, who stood with the innocent victims of violence and their law enforcement protectors and who called for an investigation and truth. On the other side was a candidate who had already declared what the truth needed to be - that all shootings of black people are racist, period, and social justice demands that law enforcement be dismantled and defunded as an inherently racist institution.
It was an eye-opening recognition of reality. Even more scary is that Joe Biden is not alone in holding this world view.
Take the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers, one of the wealthiest of all football players. Turns out social justice is his thing, and he too railed about "systemic racism" in Kenosha and in law enforcement rather than about the criminal violence on city streets.
LeBron James, too, he's another avowed social justice warrior who raged on about the racism of it all. He actually suggested the officer who shot James Blake might have awoken that morning with the express intent to shoot a black man that day.
What soon becomes apparent is that these actors - and "bad actors" they are - are not interested in social justice as a movement. They are only interested in social justice as their brand, a brand that, quite like a Nike endorsement contract, will be lucrative.
For instance, did Rodgers or James open their wallets to help business owners rebuild? Did they give cold hard cash to repair the damage from the rioters, or did they offer them only the cold comfort that, really, in their view, the victims of the riots were to blame?
The answer lies in their behavior. To be sure, Rodgers is good at giving away money - $1 million to victims of California wildfires - but not so good at empathy, for while the fires raged on, his own mother was in her California house, packed and waiting to evacuate. According to Rodgers' brother Jordan, Aaron never called.
Here's how Jordan Rodgers put it: "But when your own Mom is home alone during the fires, car packed ready to evacuate, & you miss the fundamental first step of compassion; calling your parents to make sure they are safe .... Everything else just feels like an act."
No compassion for mom. No compassion for innocent victims in Kenosha. An act.
LeBron James, too. He criticizes Hong Kong protesters seeking democracy and due process and sides with a brutal and totalitarian regime while in Kenosha he sides with a mob that, far from being authentic protesters, are violent criminals.
No compassion for Hong Kong victims of totalitarianism. No compassion for innocent victims in Kenosha. Another act.
For Aaron Rodgers and Joe Biden and LeBron James, it's all an act, and what it really is about is social justice as being part of their promotional brand.
Joe Biden wants to be president. LeBron James says he wants to be a billionaire. Aaron Rodgers wants to be as wealthy as he can be, too, and to be remembered always not only as a best-ever quarterback but as an icon in the world of philanthropy.
Each of them wants to ride the social-justice train to their goals. But, again, it's the brand they care about, not the movement.
With each pronouncement of radicalism, their bank accounts grow; with each proclamation of institutional racism, they gain entrance to ever more seats at the table of multinational corporate and bureaucratic power; with each donation to a politically correct cause, they gain more devotees in bureaucracies and leftist foundations everywhere.
No matter that Biden has to throw law enforcement and law and order itself under the bus to get there. No matter that Aaron Rodgers has to likewise throw mom into a burning canyon. No matter that LeBron James seems eager to be a foot soldier in Chinese oppression and aggression.
No matter all that. They are very woke social justice warriors, and that's all that counts.
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