JoCo commissioner’s rant was reckless — but correct about threat of far-left violence
Critics say Mike Brown is beating the war drum. He says he’s only noting its echo.
Others wonder if an elected official should do either.
The fiery Johnson County commissioner is under fire himself for his Facebook post Sunday warning of “the war-drum off in the distance from a not far away place foreshadowing in whispers the haunting cadence of the coming war.”
The long post came after two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were the target of a shocking assassination attempt Saturday while merely sitting in a patrol car.
But Brown says his sentiment has been building for some time, as have the fears and frustrations of his constituents in the western part of the county. The riots and other violence in U.S. cities that Brown and others blame on the hijacking of the legitimate Black Lives Matter movement is the top election issue for many of his constituents.
“This is at the top of the list,” he said. “It’s absolutely going to play into this election. There’s no way it won’t play into this election. People are outraged. They’re going to show up to vote — specifically on these issues.”
Brown believes he is simply giving voice to the silent majority who, he says, should be silent no more.
“That’s exactly what you’re seeing,” he told me, adding that the reaction to his post has been “100-to-one support. Or more. It’s nothing compared to what I know is built-up, pent-up frustration with what’s going on, and what’s been allowed to go on in cities across our country.”
Their outrage isn’t as noticeable as that of protesters, but Brown notes that people on the right don’t generally show up in the streets. “They show up to the ballot box to protest.”
Brown argues the violence is a transparent attempt to damage President Donald Trump, but as it’s not working, he predicts even more chaos from the left. His post encourages folks to vote, to have a weapon and to know how to use it.
“This is not a joke nor is it hyperbole,” he writes. “It is a real fight for control of America — and control of you.”
Do I agree with the post? Absolutely not the way it’s written. No elected official at any level should invoke war lightly. It would be reckless any time, but in such an incendiary climate it’s precarious at best. I wish he hadn’t done this. His post’s clumsy, over-the-top rhetoric has only served to obscure his own point.
Yet, however provocatively, Brown has expressed a combustible anger that is quietly exploding, among otherwise unassuming Americans, at the unrelenting battering of our republic by the far left. And the deafening silence of others on the left, starting with Democratic officeholders.
“I would say from the very tip-top — the guy running for president — all the way down. They sat for months silent,” Brown says.
Those who oppose his post have misread it, he says: “As though I’m inciting an insurrection. The whole point of the post was, I can hear it off in the distance. They’ve murdered police. They are looting, they are rioting, they’re burning down buildings that don’t belong to them. Those are the drumbeats of the war. And it’s coming from the other side. That’s what this was about.”
How can the war he warns of be averted? “First and foremost, speaking out,” he says.
It’s hard to know whether his own style of speaking has given like-minded citizens cover to speak out too — or whether he’s merely shot himself in the foot, wounding his supporters in the process.
Whatever the repercussions for Brown, I hope his firestarter post can lead to a more constructive dialogue — and a less-silent majority across the political spectrum.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
