"You know what? Nobody fears pro-Trump riots." Nobody sane fears Biden is going to try to steal the election. Everyone knows if Biden wins, unless by landslide, Trump is going to try to steal the election. Weird to blame the left for effects of that. theamericanconservative.com/dreher/riots-e…
Everyone knows that, if Trump squeaks out an EC victory, threading the needle, the result will not be a gracious, humbled Trump, keenly aware he lost the popular vote by millions and therefore he has a civic duty of office to reach across the aisle, find accommodation.
If Trump wins most Americans will be mad because they will know that, though the result is formally legitimate (but how can one be sure, knowing Trump's willingness to cheat?) it lacks substantive, democratic legitimacy. Most Americans will know they are unrepresented.
They will be saddled with an American government that is positively hostile to 'the people', insofar as that notion has meaning. The problem with ensuring 'the people' cannot prevail by the ballot box is that they may not give up in despair. They may take to the streets.
The main public policy goal of the GOP, currently, is suppressing Democratic votes to the extent possible. A highly predictable effect of a successfully-executed GOP policy is, thus, mass protest. This may be an unintended consequence but no one can call it unanticipated.
If you support the GOP you support vote suppression. If you support vote suppression you are on the policy hook for predictable effects of your policy, like businesses boarding up in anticipation of protests. That's the cost of doing business, GOP-style.
You can say it's wrong to riot. Be that as it may be - and it gets less obvious, the more you suppress the vote - that doesn't get the GOP off the hook for for governing in a way that causes angry riots. Disenfranchising causes feelings of disenfranchisement. This is predictable.
If you favor politicians who favor policies that will - unless the policies fail - cause riots, then you favor paying the price of rioting. That price may be worth paying, if it gets you something valuable - like minority rule. But Pottery Barn rules apply: break it, buy it.
The inconvenience businesses are suffering, fearing rioting if Trump tries to steal the election, is like a white ethnonationalism tax. Businesses pay, in damages, to subsidize the cost of securing minority rule. Securing that rule is costly, since most Americans don't want it.
And I didn't even bother mentioning actual right-wing violence! This is just the degree of GOP culpability for left-wing rioting!
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