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Rich Lowry,\u00a0Syndicated columnist.<\/p>\n
The Democratic party is finally realizing its vulnerability on culture issues, and perhaps no group better exemplifies the problem than Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s eponymous slogan swept all before it in recent years.<\/p>\n
It was repeated by Democrats around the country. Corporate leaders paid obeisance to it.<\/p>\n
Sports leagues displayed it. Such was its totemic power that a more inclusive version of the three words \u2014 all lives matter \u2014 was considered a dangerous heresy.<\/p>\n
The BLM agenda on criminal justice \u2014 based on the idea fewer criminals should be arrested and held in jail \u2014 took hold in blue jurisdictions, and the slogan \u201cdefund the police\u201d got traction despite its utter impracticality and obvious political destructiveness.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s obvious how shortsighted and foolhardy all this was. The rise in violent crime is a clear and present danger to the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, and progressive prosecutors allied with BLM who have pursued soft on crimes policies in the midst of a crime wave are under fire, facing either recalls or heavy criticism.<\/p>\n
BLM the group is continuing to find ways to underline its own extremism as it withers under scrutiny for its dodgy finances.<\/p>\n
If a right-wing purveyor of internet misinformation wanted to discredit BLM and its allies, he couldn\u2019t do much better than concoct a story where a disturbed activist attempts to shoot and kill a local politician and immediately gets bailed out by his BLM brethren\u00a0spouting cliched attacks on the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what happened in Louisville, Kentucky, though. After 21-year-old Quintez Brown allegedly shot at \u2014 and missed \u2014 mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg, the BLM chapter in Louisville quickly posted his $100,000 bail. From attempted murder to walking free a couple of days later is quite the turnaround.<\/p>\n
The BLM organizer in Louisville, Chanelle Helm, explained it was necessary to bail out Brown because: \u201cThey are calling for this individual, this young man who needs support and help, to be punished to the full extent. It is a resounding message that people are down for the torture that has taken place in our jails and prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone agrees that Brown has mental health problems and needs treatment, but given the violent act he\u2019s accused of, common sense dictates that he receives it while confined.<\/p>\n
In the wake of George Floyd\u2019s death, BLM\u2019s radicalism was very good business. The group\u2019s co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, said the other day that the money raised itself, as practically every entity in America that wanted to bolster its \u201csocial justice\u201d credentials\u00a0tried to buy its way into\u00a0BLM\u2019s good graces. \u201cPeople have to know we didn\u2019t go out and solicit the money,\u201d Cullors explained. \u201cThis is money that came from white guilt, white corporation guilt, and they just poured money in.\u201d<\/p>\n
If that sounds a tad defensive, it\u2019s because BLM raised $90 million in 2020 and it\u2019s unclear who has stewardship of the funds or how they\u2019re being spent. BLM has gone from a sainted group to one that\u2019s on the run. California and Washington have ordered BLM to stop fundraising in those states and, in a telling symbolic blow, impeccably woke Amazon has kicked BLM off its charity platform, AmazonSmile.<\/p>\n
Cullors has the explanation that you\u2019d except for the new focus on BLM\u2019s lack of financial controls \u2014 \u201canti-Black racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, good accounting is racist, now.<\/p>\n
Democrats wonder how they can blunt GOP attacks on culture issues and believe that if they explain their positions better, they\u2019ll be fine. But the party is positioned so far left that it needs bold gestures. If it wanted to send an unmistakable signal of change, it would denounce the leadership of BLM, call for investigations into its finances, declare that the group\u2019s priorities aren\u2019t those of the Democratic Party, and wear the ensuing furor from the left as a badge of honor.<\/p>\n
But Democrats won\u2019t do that and can\u2019t do that \u2014 which is why they are in such trouble..<\/p>\n
Rich Lowry is editor of the National\u00a0Review.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n