Riots in the Streets

Those of us old enough to remember the riots that reduced major American cities to ashes in the 1960s are getting serious déjà vu tonight. Riots are breaking out in Los Angeles and now Portland, with similar powder-keg conditions building in Chicago. What we’re seeing is a cascade—a rapid, combustible breakdown of civil order that has been a long time coming. And while it hasn’t gone fully national yet, the signs are everywhere.

We’re a week out from the June 14th protests, which were supposed to be peaceful demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. But it already feels like that moment has passed. The protests are mutating. Spreading. Radicalizing. And turning violent. If you’ve been paying attention, this shouldn’t surprise you.

I’ve warned for some time now that the level of Trump Derangement Syndrome in this country was unsustainable. The depth of hatred—genuine, visceral loathing—for this administration is not just political, it’s psychological. I actually thought this would boil over during election night or the inauguration. But what’s surprising is the spark: immigration.

We’re not talking mass deportation—not yet. The Trump administration has so far focused enforcement on criminal aliens and individuals who entered under Biden’s lax asylum policies. And yet the reaction is seismic. The Democratic base, particularly its radical flank, appears viscerally opposed to any immigration enforcement at all. It’s gone far beyond rational debate. This has become tribal.

A telling anecdote: I read recently about a young woman—non-Jewish—who was sympathetic to Israel. She attended Brown University, and after relentless harassment by pro-Palestinian students, she actually converted to Judaism. Her rationale? If they were going to target her as a Jew, she might as well stand with the people they hated. She also wrote a powerful piece explaining how, on elite campuses, Palestinian advocacy and illegal immigration are now fused into a single oppressor/oppressed narrative. It’s not about the specifics. It’s about identity and grievance.

Let’s be clear: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nothing to do with U.S. immigration enforcement. But through the lens of progressive ideology, they are viewed as one: brown and black bodies oppressed by white systems. Never mind that many illegal immigrants are not people of color. The majority are from Latin America due to geography, not ideology. But facts don’t matter in a fever dream.

This, I fear, is the start of our next season of riots. We’ve had them before—Watts, Rodney King, George Floyd—each with its own flashpoint, but always driven by deeper structural tensions. This feels just as volatile. Maybe worse. The President has called out 2,000 National Guard troops to L.A. already. More are likely to follow in Portland, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Chicago needs similar intervention in the coming days.

Meanwhile, blue-city leadership is openly aiding and abetting the lawlessness. In Chicago, aldermen have physically interfered with immigration enforcement. There have been no arrests. In Congress, some Democrats are suggesting doxing ICE agents. Others talk about “sanctuary” not as a policy, but as a rebellion. And the most radical voices—the ones stirring things up on the street—aren’t talking about reform. They’re talking about revolution.

At some point, the National Guard will be tested. And here’s the real nightmare: what happens if they don’t follow orders? What happens if governors or mayors instruct them to stand down? At that point, we are no longer dealing with civil unrest. We are dealing with insurrection—perhaps even civil war in miniature.

What’s shocking is how fast it’s all happening. But if you’ve followed social media in the past few weeks, you could feel the pressure building. The sheer hatred toward this administration, expressed daily in unfiltered rage, was always bound to spill over. That’s why, truth be told, I didn’t vote this time around. I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020 either. And in Illinois, what’s the point? The state’s locked in as blue.

But I’ve always said that the real danger of Trump isn’t the man himself—it’s the reaction he provokes. Reagan was arguably more conservative than Trump, but he didn’t arouse this level of existential fury. Trump does. Rational people I’ve known for years—good people—are now consumed with rage. That’s what worries me. That’s why I fear this might be the breaking point.

Because when we lose the center, when everything becomes a referendum on who you hate, the glue that holds the country together starts to dissolve. And the streets, as we are now seeing, begin to burn.