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Editor’s note: The following commentary first appeared on christopherrufo.com.
The pro-Palestinian encampment drama could prove a disaster for the Left. Let me explain why, and how the Right can exploit it.
Most Americans do not understand the Israel-Hamas conflict or how it relates to the United States, but for good reason, most support Israel over Hamas. In this context, left-wing protesters will not be able to manipulate the emotions of sympathy and guilt on a mass scale, as they did with George Floyd.
Ultimately, the spectacle of masked Antifa-style protesters occupying campuses over a foreign conflict and supporting Hamas-style “decolonization” does not offer a clear and significant upside.
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But there is a significant potential downside.
VideoThis encampment escalation divides the Left, alienates influential supporters, and creates a sense of chaos that will move people against it. The correct response from the Right is to create the conditions for these protests to flourish in blue cities and campuses, while preventing them in red cities and campuses.
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If these protests become more volatile and go all the way to the Democratic convention in Chicago, we could see a 1968 scenario. That didn’t work out too well for the Democrats.
In other words: make the Left own its pro-Hamas faction, or, alternatively, force the Left to deal with it – by breaking up the encampments, punishing wrongdoers, and restoring order, at whatever political cost this may exact. Let Ivy League presidents discover the consequences of their actions (or inactions) – and gently increase pressure from the outside.
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There is, however, one danger for the Right: overreaction. Conservative leaders must work to prevent violence and disrupt violent left-wing political networks before these can mobilize, but they should be judicious in how they respond to provocations.
VideoOur leaders must appear calm, cool, rational and successful in preventing, rather than responding to, violence. Keep red jurisdictions functioning normally, while drawing the contrast with blue areas that appear to be the opposite. Whatever their party affiliation, most Americans want stable governance, support Israel over Hamas, and are exhausted by the prospect of George Floyd redux.
If the Right can successfully keep order in its regions, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has done so far, and keep the focus on the disorder overrunning left-wing jurisdictions – culminating, perhaps, in coalitional discord at the Democratic convention – it will move public opinion in our direction.
One path to success in politics, after all, is shifting problems to your opponents – and capitalizing on them.
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Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Sign up for his Substack here.
