What Should Americans Do?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the sharp divide in the United States. America and Americans are sharply divided between liberals/those who lean left and conservatives/those who lean right. This division shows in almost everything that happens in the United States, and it happened this week in Minneapolis. Simon Hankinson at The Daily Signal marked the two parts of the division there as “hot takes” and “cold reasoning.”

Hankinson defined hot takes as “anger, a lack of control, lack of thought.” He also defined cold reasoning as thinking and pondering “about how we got here and how we avoid things getting worse.” 

Renee Good was shot in Minneapolis for trying to run over federal agents. Hankinson described the reaction of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as a “hot take.” “He should have expressed his regret at Good’s death – whatever the circumstances – and offered condolences to her family. Then, she should have asked citizens to stay calm and to wait for all the information to be known and evaluated before passing judgment.”

Hankinson continued by saying that “Ideally, [Frey should] have expressed support for the beleaguered federal agents who are daily harassed, assaulted, and vilified for doing their jobs as instructed. But apparently that’s asking too much.”

Instead, Frey “gave an emotional, unhinged press conference, in which he blamed federal agents for a situation which he risibly claimed “they created themselves” before telling ICE agents to get out of Minneapolis in not so nice language.

In addition, Gov. Tim Walz also gave a “hot take” when he claimed that “someone [was] dead in their car for no reason whatsoever.” Walz was right and wrong, according to Hankinson: “He was right that the shooting was ‘preventable’ and ‘unnecessary.’ But he was wrong about why.”

Walz and many on the Left blame the government for any injury or damage caused during protests against federal law enforcement for trying to enforce the law. Instead, they should blame activists trying to stop law enforcement using physical means.

“They want a show,” said Walz. By that, he means that the federal government wanted something like this to happen.

If anything, the opposite is true.

Those who oppose the Trump administration in everything it does, but particularly immigration, wanted something like this to happen. They needed a martyr, and they created circumstances to make one.

America is fiercely divided between Left and Right. Between those who want laws enforced, and those who want them abolished or ignored. Between open borders and nationhood. Between socialism and free markets.

On immigration, the Left does not believe any alien in the U.S. should be deported, for any reason.

They believe enforcement of immigration laws passed by an elected Congress is an outrage….

There was a media rush to paint Renee Good as either a perfect mom peacefully protesting, or as a domestic terrorist.

In truth, she was probably somewhere in the middle. A person who, motivated by passionate beliefs, crossed the line between First Amendment protest and – at best – actively impeded federal law enforcement, which is a felony.

At worst, she tried to run over an officer, which is attempted murder.

Being passionate about politics is as American as apple pie.

But that passion cannot be allowed to spill over into harassment, intimidation, vandalism, or assault against law enforcement or other civilians.

Those who should know better – politicians like Frey, Walz, and various members of Congress – should control their “hot takes” and allow the facts to come out. Like Hankinson, I would like the “political temperature” to “cool down and calmer heads prevail.” However, we both fear “that the hot takes, and hot heads, are in the ascendant. The cooler, calmer, reasonable majority of Americans will be left to endure the noise and pick up the pieces.”

I believe that so-called “leaders” like those in Minnesota and Congress need to face consequences for their outbursts before we will see less of them. As long as they are not punished for “fanning the flames” among the common folks, they will continue with their “hot takes.”