No one likes to predict riots. Even when it seems tensions are about to boil over, we would all like to hope cooler heads will prevail, and to expect that they will. Expecting the worst of our society is an uncomfortable feeling.
In our recent stretch of jury verdicts following racially charged police shootings, it was tempting to wonder which results might send violent reactions pouring into the streets. Sometimes it happened, and sometimes not. There have been moments of pleasant surprise and deep disappointment. You just never know.
But as the day approaches when we may see the Supreme Court reverse Roe v. Wade, I find it impossible to be optimistic. If angry mobs are turning up at the homes of Supreme Court Justices, and even making the occasional assassination attempt, what kind of nightmare awaits us when 50 years of federal abortion protections finally swirl down the drain?
Will it be open season on the Justices who viewed Roe as constitutional fiction? Will anger spill out into cities? In this era of inconsistent police willingness to quell riots, will such uprisings be stopped or facilitated?
There will surely be little attempt by our media culture to discourage the worst. We saw Black Lives Matter riots coddled and excused by the same voices currently painting January 6th as a day of incomparable infamy. It is bitterly cynical to say that some violence gets a free pass from those who believe the cause is just. But it also appears to be true.
Can you imagine the reaction from the media and the Democratic Party if a guy in a MAGA hat were found hovering with murderous intent near the home of a liberal Justice? That offender would become an immediate household name, with a face peering from every news site as an example of what conservatives do.
No one should identify every liberal with the deeds of the man who stalked Brett Kavanaugh, or with BLM rioters. But this is why the Left pays so little attention to the violent troublemakers in its midst; it simply doesn't find violence as repellent when undertaken in service of one of its causes.
President Joe Biden said nothing about the man who tried to kill a Supreme Court Justice. Kamala Harris mobilized to raise money for BLM rioters. While conservatives can be condemned for an ill-phrased tweet, liberal political violence is met with a nothing-to-see-here yawn. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned conservative Justices, "you will pay the price," and "you won't know what hit you" for thwarting his agenda. Where is the call from among his own party to avoid such rhetoric in these flammable times?
Earlier this month, protesters ripped off their clothes and screamed pro-abortion slogans at Pastor Joel Osteen's service in Houston. This does not rise to the level of violence, but it reveals the mindset of many on the Left who give a free pass to their own worst instincts.
Once Roe is overturned, the likelihood of a wave of violence will be markedly increased because of the political and media culture telling millions of Americans that they are losing a constitutional right. If I felt that the First or Second Amendment was about to be wiped from the Bill of Rights, I would be deeply disturbed. But the key difference is, those rights are actually enshrined in the words of the document. Abortion rights are not.
Pro-choicers are not about to lose a fundamental right; they are about to lose an argument. It happens. But for every liberal who absorbs the loss and assesses how to responsibly navigate a post-Roe America, how many will lose their minds in fits of violent unrest?
I want to expect the best of my country. I want to feel strongly that reactions to the overturning of Roe will be loud and emotional, but will not explode into bloody conflict.
But on the day the Kavanaugh family was spared a murderous attack, we saw President Biden speaking of a "revolution" if Roe falls. Of course he was speaking metaphorically. Of course Chuck Schumer was not giving specific instructions to would-be assassins to take out offending jurists. They will not be responsible for Roe rioting any more than Donald Trump is responsible for the January 6th Capitol breach.
But in this season of public disregard for the Constitution, it's not a single mob at a single building that causes greatest concern; it is the prospect of crowds of varying size across the nation adopting the idea that if you are a leftist and you are really angry, you may do whatever strikes you without fear of rebuke.
This is a dangerous brew in the American kettle. It would be reassuring if we could expect Democratic leaders and the media to restrain their side from the worst types of reactions when Roe goes down. But we can't. All we can hope for is the relief of differences playing out in the arena of debate instead of on bloody streets.
Mark Davis is a talk show host for the Salem Media Group on 660AM The Answer in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and Townhall.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
