Kenosha

There are a lot of horrible things that happened as the result of the even more horrible police shooting of Jacob Blake, Jr. in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin last Sunday.  There were the subsequent protests that devolved into violence, some of it the result of black anger at the police but far more likely brought on by right-wing troublemakers.  There was one right-wing troublemaker in particular, Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people with a long gun during the protests and was not arrested (he turned himself in to police, most likely because his image was caught on video).  There was the destruction caused by the riots that resulted from the actions of people like Rittenhouse, who was descried as "troubled," though a black man would have been called "violent."  But the most horrible thing, apart from the actual shootings, was particularly horrible.

The Republicans exploited it at their heinous convention, especially Donald J. Trump.

The Republicans tried to pin the riots on failed Democratic policies in cities and states under Democratic control, and they tried to tie this to Joe Biden, saying that this is what Joe Biden's America would look like.  No, no, no - this is what Donald Trump's America already looks like!

And there's been a pandemic, not to mention a hurricane in the Gulf Coast and severe thunderstorms in the Northeast (a couple of which generated tornadoes) souped up by climate change, which Trump denies.

There are some mitigating factors about what happened in Kenosha.  One is that Jacob Blake, Jr. is still alive, though he's likely to be paralyzed from the waist down, and as a survivor of a police shooting, he has some strong testimony to offer.  Another is that sports leagues, included the lily-white National Hockey League, temporarily suspended play in protest of the Blake shooting.  And the fact that Rittenhouse, the white kid, was ignored by police even after he killed two people even as Blake was shackled to his bed - not for medical reasons but for standing charge against him for sexual assault (which apparently hasn't been proven yet) - should make more people aware of the inconsistencies in policing in America.  (To be fair, Rittenhouse has since been charged with homicide.)

Alas, Kenosha seems to be helping Trump more than Biden, at least for the time being.  While Trump parades around with swagger and vowing to restore law and order in a situation his penchant for lawlessness and disorder has helped create, Biden has done little more than condemn the violence in low-energy, meekly presented social-media videos without addressing the larger question of whether the violence in Kenosha has made suburban voters and particularly voters in crucial Wisconsin feel less safe.  Democrats are now worried as to how Kenosha may play into Trump's hands despite his Orwellian efforts to deflect blame for violence happening on his watch as a result of his embrace of chaos to others.

Biden has nine weeks and change to sharpen his condemnations of violence that comes out of peaceful protests as well as call out rhymes-with-glass-poles like Kyle Rittenhouse for adding fuel to the flames.  He plans to hit the campaign trail after Labor Day with pandemic-restricted events, an acknowledgment that his basement campaign no longer works.  And I hope Kenosha is his first stop.  The virulent racism in These States may have helped Trump during his party's connection week (don't get me started on Mike Pence's comments), but, hopefully, it won't help him for long.