LA Riots Reflect Failure of Progressive Leadership
The current unrest reflects a deeper dysfunction steadily eroding the city’s foundations.
Los Angeles has a long, combustible history — and it’s flaring up again. The current unrest, driven in part by political grievances, reflects a deeper dysfunction steadily eroding the city’s foundations. Once a cradle of conservatism and the political home of Ronald Reagan, LA has become a hub of resurgent radicalism, and, to many outside its borders, a symbol of why the country turned to a nativist strongman like Donald Trump.
Now, amid the chaos, there is talk that Trump might go beyond the National Guard and deploy the Marines. It’s a characteristically extreme move, but one that, for anyone familiar with LA’s history of protests spiralling into violence and tragedy (as I witnessed during my 40 years there), may not be entirely out of step with the city’s volatile reality.
Often migrants who come to LA find opportunity but also profound disappointment. African Americans who arrived in large numbers during the Thirties and Forties escaped the overt racism of the South, only to encounter a hostile police force and deeply discriminatory housing practices. Their disillusionment erupted in two of the most explosive racial uprisings in American history: the Watts riots in 1965 and the unrest following the Rodney King verdict in 1992.
Politics
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Is American Nationalism Still Creed-able?
We are not there now, but there is reason to worry that the United States is in danger, if we are not careful, of ceasing to be a nation with the principles of 1776 at its core.
National Civitas Institute Poll: Americans are Anxious and Frustrated, Creating a Challenging Environment for Leaders
The poll reveals a deeply pessimistic American electorate, with a majority convinced the nation is on the wrong track.
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Teddy Roosevelt’s Expansive Spirit
Roosevelt left a mark not only on the American presidency but also on the American imagination, continuing to affirm the necessity of the American myth.
