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Brewer: West Coast anarchy could happen in Arizona if we don’t stand against it

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The insanity we’re seeing in the Pacific Northwest would have free reign to spread to the rest of the country under a prospective Biden administration.

It would be a terrible mistake to believe the dismal scenes of disorder we’re seeing in Democrat-run cities such as Seattle and Portland as merely another iteration of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests that proved so comically ineffectual a few years ago.

The rioters who have been crashing through police barricades to vandalize federal courthouses in Portland and temporarily established an “autonomous zone” in Seattle represent the crest of a tidal wave that threatens to wipe out the very foundations of our Republic. Through years of effort in universities across the country and the enthusiastic activism of sympathetic journalists, the extremists are currently operating in the most receptive public environment ever --- and they know it.

A new Wall Street Journal poll shows that 56 percent of voters believe American society is “racist.” Meanwhile, a Fox News poll found that a 39 percent plurality of black Americans believe the Founding Fathers were villains, not heroes, and a recent YouGov survey indicates that 53 percent of black respondents believe statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson should be torn down.

While these numbers certainly don’t mean that a majority of the American people actually support the tactics of the mobs tearing down statues, defacing federal buildings, and attacking police officers, they do embolden the radicals, convincing them that they will be able to get away with their excesses.

In the Democrat-controlled states to our west, politicians have institutionalized tolerance for lawlessness and street violence. Federal proceedings in Portland, for example, have already been made impossible by civil unrest, yet local officials are more upset by the presence of federal officers to protect public property in the city. The only reason federal law is clinging to life in Oregon’s largest city is the steadfast refusal of the Trump administration to follow the path of surrender blazed by city and state authorities.

“For decades, politicians running many of our nation’s major cities have put the interests of criminals above the rights of law-abiding citizens,” the President explained while announcing that federal officers are being sent to assist overwhelmed police forces in several cities. “These same politicians have now embraced the far-left movement to break up our police departments, causing violent crime in their cities to spiral — and I mean spiral seriously out of control.”

“This rampage of violence shocks the conscience of our nation, and we will not stand by and watch it happen,” he continued, adding, “No mother should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because politicians refuse to do what is necessary to secure their neighborhood and to secure their city. Every American — no matter their income, their race, or their ZIP Code — should be able to walk their city streets free from violence and free from fear.”

States like Arizona, which have maintained order and have no desire to tolerate “autonomous zones” in our cities, would not have anywhere near the same backing under Joe Biden, whose far-left policy platform reveals his willingness to take marching orders from the most radical elements of the Democratic Party.

It is not difficult, for instance, to imagine the federal response to future agitation in Arizona being coordinated by someone like Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan who was content to call the anarchist takeover of a downtown neighborhood as a “summer of love” block party until people started being killed.

The fact is that the forces responsible for the violence and disorder on the West Coast are not confined there by any magical force — water follows the path of least resistance, and the tidal wave of radicalism will submerge any city that does not maintain a firm commitment to public safety and the rule of law. Even then, the federal government will sometimes have to step in when local resources prove insufficient.

As Arizonans are well aware, California is only a bus ride away. Without President Trump in the White House, there’s no reason the anarchy afflicting the West Coast can’t happen here.

Editor’s note: Ms. Brewer is a public servant and former governor of Arizona