Kyle Rittenhouse and the Left’s terrifying assault on due process. By Gerard Baker.
The unhinged reaction from the left to Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal last week is easily dismissed as a glimpse into the rancid minds and rabid hearts of the ideological brigands of modern progressivism. …
With varying degrees of apoplexy, from President Biden on down, the party’s leaders and its allies emphasised their dismay with or rage at the decision … Mr. Biden, proving himself once again the consummate moral weakling, first declared his respect for the jury’s verdict, then pronounced himself — no doubt after consultation with his handlers — “angry and concerned.” While the follow-up statement paid lip service to the idea that a jury’s decision should be respected, the more striking message was that remarkable emotional response to its unanimous decision.
The president’s politically motivated disregard for the rights of accused defendants is well documented by now.
He had already included the young man among a video montage of “white supremacists” during his memorably “healing” campaign for the presidency. He also told the nation he was “praying for the right verdict” as the jury deliberated in April before convicting Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Running commentary on the guilt of criminal defendants is despicable when offered by barroom braggarts, but when it comes from the most powerful man on the planet it amounts to reckless endangerment of the rights of his fellow citizens.
But that’s the point. …
It’s hard to resist the conclusion that the intention behind the denunciation by some of the left of the Rittenhouse verdict reflected an even darker instinct. …
This is what the pernicious doctrines of the modern progressive identity left look like in practice. The “critical theory” they subscribe to says real justice cannot be delivered by a court, presided over by a judge whose outcome is determined by a dispassionate jury, since the entire structure is itself the product of racism, oppression and discrimination.
What they want is revolutionary justice. The legal system’s verdict will be supplanted by the people’s judgment so that someone like Mr. Rittenhouse will pay for his crime of defending himself and the property of others against the people’s paramilitary. …
If the left’s reaction to this case doesn’t scare you, I am afraid you don’t understand what it represents, or how rapidly and how far the poison of this subversive and illiberal dogma has already spread through a political movement and ideology we once called liberal.
The left thought Kyle Rittenhouse was on trial for being a white supremacist and not being woke enough, for being an armed, deplorable, white man. In their minds he is obviously guilty of these things, so he should have been locked up as an example to everyone.
Oops, backfired.
Some, such as Kamala Harris, have now expressed a desire to change the law so that the next Kyle Rittenhouse would be found guilty.
They don’t want a world of fair rules and equal opportunity for all, but a world of power and privilege for them. They are so transparently projecting, so envious of productive happy people.
