Thousands of protesters swarmed the Sri Lankan president&#8217;s home in Colombo and were seen cavorting in its swimming pool as anarchy engulfed the bankrupt South Asian island and the leader said he would step down.
Surreal scenes captured on cell phone video showed citizens watching television, eating, and roaming the halls of the palace as the presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa teetered on the edge of collapse. Millions have been unable to buy food, medicine, and fuel for months amid a devastating financial crisis that has pitted parliament against the presidency and reopened old wounds between majority Buddhists and minority Tamils.
“Gota go home,” the mob was heard chanting, using a popular nickname for the reviled leader. Outside the sprawling residence, barricades were knocked down and a black banner was raised on a flagpole.
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NOW &#8211; Protesters storm the presidential palace in Sri Lanka&#39;s capital.<a href="https://t.co/Wv6oQ10kBQ">pic.twitter.com/Wv6oQ10kBQ</a>
&mdash; Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) <a href="https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1545689501758111744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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“I came here today to send the president home,” protester Wasantha Kiruwaththuduwa, 50, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/09/world/sri-lanka-protests-rajapaksa">told The New York Times</a>. “Now the president must resign. If he wants peace to prevail, he must step down.”
Rajapaksa, whose family has ruled the nation of 22 million for much of the last two decades, said Saturday he will step down July 13. His brother already resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests and three other members of the family were among 26 cabinet members who resigned en masse in April. Public anger has been directed at the family over claims of mismanagement and corruption.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over in May, has also been called upon to exit, even as he is scrambling to save the country&#8217;s economy through negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. In April, the nation said it would suspend repayment of foreign loans, which amounts to $51 billion.
&#8220;We are now participating in the negotiations as a bankrupt country,&#8221; he told lawmakers earlier this week. &#8220;Therefore, we have to face a more difficult and complicated situation than previous negotiations.&#8221;
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Just IN:— Protestors cool themselves in luxurious swimming pool of Sri Lanka president palace. <a href="https://t.co/3kP4p6zPto">pic.twitter.com/3kP4p6zPto</a>
&mdash; South Asia Index (@SouthAsiaIndex) <a href="https://twitter.com/SouthAsiaIndex/status/1545720103488323585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The economic crisis has ripped open old wounds in the nation, located off the southern tip of India in the Indian Ocean. Although a nearly 30-year civil war between the majority Buddhist Sinhalese government and the Tamil Tigers, the insurgent group that fought on behalf  of the minority Tamils, ended more than a decade ago, the division has re-emerged.
Rajapaksa won election in 2019 with a wave of popular support and a promise to end Colombo&#8217;s conciliatory approach toward minority groups including Muslims and Tamils.
“It is no secret that the majority who voted for me then were Sinhalese,” Rajapaksa told parliament in 2020. “They rallied because they had legitimate fears that the Sinhala race, our religion, national resources, and the heritage would be threatened with destruction in the face of various local and foreign forces and ideologies that support separatism, extremism, and terrorism.”
With the financial crisis undermining his popularity among his base and parliament demanding his ouster, Rajapaksa&#8217;s days as president appear to be numbered, experts say.

Protest Demand The Resignation Of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa In Colombo

WATCH: Mob Storms Presidential Palace, Swims In Pool As Asian Nation Teeters On Brink Of Collapse

WATCH: Mob Storms Presidential Palace As Sri Lanka Teeters On Brink Of Collapse

Foreign Policy

India

Revolution

Readers Pass – Horowitz – Heading Towards The Abyss16x9 copy

Horowitz: ‘Radicals’ Are Racist Criminals Driving America Towards The Abyss

1619 Project

Biden Administration

Leftists

Progressivism

Readers Pass

Nearly 20 cannons found in a Georgia river are believed by archeologists to be from British ships from the time of the American War of Independence. 
During an excavation job, workers uncovered 19 cannons that researchers believe to have been sitting at the bottom of the Savannah River, in Savannah, Georgia, for roughly 240 years. Experts believe that the cannons ended up on the river bottom after the ships were scuttled by the British around 1779.
“The mud- and rust-encrusted guns were discovered by accident. A dredge scooping sediment from the riverbed last year as part of a $973 million deepening of Savannah’s busy shipping channel surfaced with one the cannons clasped in its metal jaws. The crew soon dug up two more,” the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-savannah-us-navy-e64a3849bbba152fd2d3549ad401d18b">reported.</a> 
Historians note that before the siege of Savannah in 1779, it is likely that the British scuttled the ships with the cannons onboard around the time of the battle, which would last from September 16 to October 18 1779.
After closer examination of the cannons, historians ruled out that they were Confederate, which was the initial assumption, and then determined that they likely dated back to the Revolutionary War. 
“They’re in remarkably good shape,” Army Corps of Engineers archeologist Andrea Farmer said. “Many were buried in clay and covered by silt and debris that kind of protected them.”
Each of the cannons has been moved to a warehouse by the river over the past year, as archeologists work with officials from Georgia, the U.S. government, and Britain to create a display, with the Savannah History Museum being the likely final destination.
Logistics are complicated by the question of who actually owns the cannons, whether it be the U.S. or Britain, which is still in contention. 
“Everybody wants to keep the artifacts in Savannah,” Farmer explained, “because that makes the most sense.”
Farmer noted that, while researchers are confident that the cannons come from the war of independence, they still need official verification. Part of the verification includes examining other artifacts found in the river, including shards of a ship’s bell and anchor, to make the final determination. 
Historians say several of the cannons were likely made in France and ended up on two British ships, the HMS Venus and the HMS Savannah. They also explained why the British might scuttle their own ships. 
To prevent French ships from gaining access to the Savannah in 1779, the British scuttled several of their own ships to block up the river. “The land battle that followed was one of the bloodiest of the war. British forces killed nearly 300 colonial fighters and their allies, while wounding hundreds more,” the Associated Press explained.
The cannons are not the first artifacts from American history to be found in the Savannah River. Back in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/21/us/savannah-georgia-civil-war-ironclad/index.html">2015</a>, a Confederate ironclad ship, the CSS Georgia was pulled out of the water by Navy divers. Prior to its removal, the Confederate ship had been underwater for 150 years.

Sunken old cannon

Cannons Found In Georgia River Believed To Be From British Ships During The American Revolutionary War

Cannons Found In Georgia River Believed To Be From British Ships During American Revolutionary War

American History

Confederacy

Georgia

History

The annual Met Gala is coming up on Monday, May 2, and this year&#8217;s announced theme — Gilded Glamour — has social media buzzing about just how tone-deaf the organizers must be.
&#8220;The Met Gala returns Monday. The fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art&#8217;s Costume Institute draws pop culture&#8217;s biggest stars to its red carpet — the true event of the evening,&#8221; The Associated Press reported. &#8220;This year&#8217;s theme? &#8216;Gilded glamour.’”
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The Met Gala returns Monday. The fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art&#39;s Costume Institute draws pop culture&#39;s biggest stars to its red carpet — the true event of the evening.
This year&#39;s theme? “Gilded glamour.” <a href="https://t.co/3RuconlUVq">https://t.co/3RuconlUVq</a>
&mdash; The Associated Press (@AP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/1519772630596861952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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According to the Associated Press&#8217; <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-met-gala-guide-338a825ce95e47df3cb37bfb6c3ba12f?utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_medium=AP">report</a>, the 2022 gala will be hosted by Regina King, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Vogue Magazine&#8217;s Anna Wintour will be running the show as she has for decades, joined by honorary co-chairs designer Tom Ford and Instagram&#8217;s Adam Mosseri.
The gala is always a who&#8217;s who of the richest and most famous from Hollywood, fashion, sports, politics, and every other possible arena — and while the glitz and glamour are kind of the point, a number of critics wondered whether saying so out loud was a little too on the nose.
&#8220;Gilded Glamour? They&#8217;re begging for the pitchforks, aren&#8217;t they?&#8221; RealClearPolitics co-founder and president Tom Bevan tweeted.
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Gilded Glamour? They&#39;re begging for the pitchforks, aren&#39;t they? <a href="https://t.co/WOWmI3XNNo">https://t.co/WOWmI3XNNo</a>
&mdash; Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/1519788156807225346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I don&#8217;t see the word Equity here anywhere,&#8221; Washington Free Beacon contributor Noah Pollak <a href="https://twitter.com/NoahPollak/status/1519785698840092673">added</a>.
Amy Curtis joined a number of Twitter users who referenced &#8220;The Hunger Games,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/RantyAmyCurtis/status/1519798796389163014">adding</a>, &#8220;We are living in Panem.&#8221;
Mark Hemingway, senior writer for RealClear Investigations, noted that the timing of the event made the optics even worse. &#8220;The WHCA and Met Gala just a few days apart, right after today&#8217;s economic news. Just absolutely perfect optics for all involved,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1519779195466956806">tweeted</a>.
&#8220;Impeccable timing,&#8221; David Burge <a href="https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1519774679275388930">agreed</a>.
Some noted that only a few months had passed since the 2021 Met Gala, which was delayed from it&#8217;s regular date — the first Monday in May — until November due to ongoing concerns about the spread of COVID-19.
The guest list — which is kept largely quiet until the red carpet is rolled out and the celebrities start rolling in — is predicted to be around 400. That&#8217;s similar to the turnout from last November&#8217;s gala and slightly below the pre-COVID attendance of 500-600 guests.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) raised eyebrows when she attended the November gala — which is estimated to cost over $30,000 per attendee — <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/tax-the-rich-aoc-wore-450-earrings-600-shoes-to-met-gala-report/">wearing a dress</a> with the words &#8220;Tax the Rich&#8221; emblazoned on the back.

The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion – Street Sightings

‘They’re Begging For The Pitchforks, Aren’t They?’: Met Gala Theme Announcement Raises Eyebrows

Met Gala's 'Gilded Glamour' Theme Provokes Social Media Response

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Celebrities

Entertainment

Fashion

Met Gala

We are flirting in this country with the darkest and most serious kind of civic disaster: the disaster of political violence. Not only the shameful and deadly fiasco in the Capitol building on January 6, but the merciless parade of arson, defacement, and slaughter that tore through our cities in the summer of 2020: these are like the first thunderclouds that pass over the air before a storm. If the storm comes, it will be the ruin of us all.
Our career politicians and their lackeys in the press grinned and cheered while Marxian revolutionaries ravaged our streets. They are now putting on a farcical display of mock principle, portraying the Capitol rioters as organized insurrectionists and issuing earnest calls to root them and their kind out of American society forever. The arrogant cynicism of aristocrats like this is a major root cause of the American people’s desperation and fury.
If people like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris are pretending now to be shocked and appalled at the possibility of armed rebellion, remember that just last year Harris publicly <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bail-fund-backed-by-kamala-harris-and-biden-staffers-bailed-out-alleged-child-abuser" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bail-fund-backed-by-kamala-harris-and-biden-staffers-bailed-out-alleged-child-abuser&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHjfxYDGvDtobqHdbgjngZgnfP-JA">invited</a> donations to a bail fund for rioters in Minnesota. Just as much now as then, whether they fret theatrically about insurrection or egg it brazenly on, what people like Harris are out for is power. They are part of the problem and should be regarded as nothing more.
But the hard truth is, whichever faction of rioters seems most sympathetic to partisan eyes, mobs in the street and in the Capitol represent profound failure all around: failure of leaders to lead, failure of the people to respond maturely and wisely, failure of government to serve the men and women who employ it—failure, in a word, of the American regime.
I’m far from believing that the failure is permanent or fatal for the country. But it’s worth understanding this moment for what it is so we can take it with the seriousness it deserves: this is not about grandstanding or hot takes. This is an urgent crisis that requires mature reflection. It is a make-or-break moment for our society that will determine how we and our children’s children live going forward.
What Did the Founders Think about Revolution?
Beyond the screaming and the pontificating, beyond the dimwitted children at CNN stoking the flames, the question at hand is: when and why do people take up arms against their fellow citizens and against their government? Strangely, framing it that way gives some small hope for a path forward, because we have confronted these questions before. Our Constitution was written by men who believed deeply in the rule of law, and yet they had just fought a war to overthrow their rulers. Less than a hundred years after the revolution, America would turn in on itself and fight another gruesome war between the federal government and a rival army of American citizens. That war, awful though it was, would end slavery and let the nation come into its own.
So it’s not as simple as saying “political violence is never justified” and leaving it at that—if only it were. But political violence founded our nation, and there are times—times of extreme catastrophe and oppression—when it is tragically the only solution. I want to be as clear as possible at the outset that I do not believe this is one of those times. But I also want to seek some clarity, for all our sakes, about what those times are and how we should think about them. For that we can refer to the founders themselves, who were well aware of these complexities and reflected on them deeply.
If you read only one document about revolution and insurrection from the founding era, it should probably be <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed28.asp" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed28.asp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZGUmgu12O78MUcJtHsE_MKJFHZw">Federalist #28</a>. It was written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787, as the states were voting on whether to ratify the new Constitution which would eventually become the law of our land. Hamilton was reflecting on the dangers and the necessity of a national army, and arguing that a stronger central authority wouldn’t stop the people from exercising their rights.
Perhaps the first weirdly encouraging thing Hamilton says about clashes between the government and the people is: they happen. “Seditions and insurrections are, unhappily, maladies as inseparable from the body politic as tumors and eruptions from the natural body,” he writes in the first paragraph; “the idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government), has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.”
Hamilton was thinking first about the need for the government to put down conspiracies and insurrections with military force. As Senator Tom Cotton wrote in a now infamous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHx5-UnqdQOvaMML8RuFwaMcVVmEA">Op-Ed</a> for the New York Times when Antifa and BLM were terrorizing urban centers, “the federal government has a constitutional duty to the states to ‘protect each of them from domestic violence.’” That is the practical consequence of what Hamilton was arguing.
Shortly before the Constitution was drafted, Massachusetts had faced an armed uprising now known as “Shays rebellion,” in which a veteran of the revolution and his supporters fought against increased taxation. The founders were appalled at the prospect that the revolutionary spirit might not have been satisfied by 1776: “The flames of internal insurrection were ready to burst out in every quarter&#8230;and from one end to the other of the continent, we walked on ashes, concealing fire beneath our feet,” said James Wilson looking back on the tense days of Shays’ Rebellion. It sounds familiar.
So Hamilton was keen to vest the government with power to stamp out anti-Constitutional insurrections. He wanted to ensure the stability of the government and protect the people from the horrors of sedition. It helped that Washington, whose revolutionary credentials were impeccable, had reacted with passionate “indignation” when a group of his own soldiers conspired to attack Congress and demand pay in the “Newburgh conspiracy.” The founders had learned the hard way, and taught explicitly, that violent revolution is something to be avoided if it’s even remotely possible.
When is it Justified?
And yet, there was—and still is—the fact that our own Declaration of Independence takes the possibility of justified revolution as a given. “When in the course of human events”—not if, but when—“it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.” But how to know “when”? If revolution is such a painful, bloody, miserable thing—and it is—how can we know when to make the terrible decision of taking that cost upon ourselves?
Hamilton addresses this, too, in Federalist #28. What has been called the “right of revolution” may fittingly be invoked “if the representatives of the people betray their constituents.” In such a case “there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.” It would, Hamilton argued, actually be more feasible to rebel against the federal government than against state governments, because rebelling against the federal government would require a vast, coordinated, and carefully planned assault. “In a single state,” he explains, “if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource.”
That is a pretty apt description of the Capitol hill assault, which was a federal-level riot with a state or local level of disorganization. The motley crew of protestors and rabble rousers that flooded into the building were unruly, disorganized, and without a plan. They had concerns about election integrity—some of which I share—but the court cases attempting to prove that November 2020 was a fraud had failed. One would be hard-pressed to say what they wanted, or—if what they wanted was Trump back in office—how they realistically thought they were going to achieve it.
What Hamilton argues about real, justified rebellions is, in part, that they have to be thought through and given the gravity they deserve. The fact that the United States is a big, diverse, and centrally governed country actually helps ensure that any successful revolution, in the event of true federal usurpation, would have to be carefully considered. Its costs would have to be weighed, and its rationale would have to be defended persuasively before a large number of citizens. Anything less than that is unserious and juvenile—not to mention counterproductive. The riot on January 6 was all those things.
Taking Riots Seriously
In a funny sort of way, Hamilton’s arguments here mirror those of James Madison in <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHYOUFLe40Cp9g1Ni8zubyU_s3Weg">Federalist #10</a>. This is one of the most famous Federalist papers—it argues that liberty and representative government can thrive in a large republic because it means the different interests and factions have to find ways of working together if they want to accomplish anything major at the national level. This forced compromise and collaboration is a national safeguard against “the cabals of a few.”
For Hamilton, true revolution means collaboration, organization, and coordination among a variety of Americans, all of whom agree that their country has been stolen from them. He goes so far as to say that a successful revolution will have to ally with some parts of the government—either state governments against federal, or vice versa:
<blockquote>
Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general government. The people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress.
</blockquote>
It is not my opinion that either the protestors at the Capitol or the rioutous mobs from summer 2020 have thought through and coordinated their efforts seriously enough to justify revolution. If there is any group of people who really have tried to coordinate insurrection in recent memory, it’s oligarchs like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/us/politics/george-soros-racial-justice-organizations.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/us/politics/george-soros-racial-justice-organizations.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFF1fsbn8pE5CoXunyuRsaMjIntlA">George Soros</a> and <a href="https://www.bu.edu/articles/2020/jack-dorsey-bu-center-for-antiracist-research-gift/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bu.edu/articles/2020/jack-dorsey-bu-center-for-antiracist-research-gift/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGrls2bolS0D8mVyNikyjGIlMODww">Jack Dorsey</a>, who have calculatingly funded and encouraged racialist agitators while silencing opposition. That kind of puppetry and deceit really does amount to something like a coup—though not one, God willing, that has yet taken full control of this country.
I imagine some will object that the tech magnates and their Democrat stooges effectively have staged a silent revolution of their own, one for which violent rebellion is the only available mode of redress. To this I respond: grow up. We have not even begun yet to pursue all our legal and nonviolent options for fighting back against Big Tech and Davos. Conservatives talk a big game about local politics, but do you know the name of your local representative? Do you know whether he or she really stands for what you believe in? How about your neighbors—do you have any idea what their politics are? Any chance you can work together with them to get someone good on the ballot? Any chance you’ve tried?
The Left has played a long and in many cases quite sinister ground game for decades—infiltrating the schools, funding election efforts, building infrastructure and connections that have enabled them to insinuate themselves and their psychotic ideas into the culture. We laugh at the Democrats’ <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gretchen-whitmer-stacey-abrams-prayer-candle" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gretchen-whitmer-stacey-abrams-prayer-candle&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610731558671000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEwXr2iQYudXNd9McydS4LOHewumw">worship</a> of the failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, but they know that her relentless local campaigning was a big part of what clinched the Senate when it all came down to Georgia.
We can—must—play the same ground game in reverse, substituting our good ideas for their bad ones. We have to get serious about building new schools for our kids, about seeking new servers for our digital communications, about making the local connections that will be the foundation of our new coalition. The alternative is more frantic, unpremeditated political violence, which won’t do what we want and will eventually make everything much, much worse. Count me out.
If, on the other hand, you’re ready to get serious about winning the ground game on the New Right—if you’re ready to start working yesterday for a more robust populist coalition, one that can win locally and, in time revitalize conservatism nationally—then I’m right there with you. Let’s get to work.
Spencer Klavan is host of the <a href="http://youngheretics.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://youngheretics.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608237713152000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFegURPjAdNFJd0-_mKudXAgmAp5g">Young Heretics</a> podcast and associate editor of the <a href="https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608237713152000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEwm82CEKe6gHOjTWwdZQOTR6iQow">Claremont Review of</a> Booksand <a href="https://americanmind.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://americanmind.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608237713152000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQm8tQMK1XoUSXLWkCl3KkGZJgrQ">The American Mind</a>. He can be reached on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/spencerklavan" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/spencerklavan&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608237713152000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHzq-src8474zs7-nMknyLYtgJwCA">@SpencerKlavan</a>.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Protests As Joint Session Of Congress Confirms Presidential Election Result

The Threat of Revolution

The Federalist

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in mid-June in a discussion with former NATO Secretary Anders Rasmussen and Politico’s Ryan Heath, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?473232-3/copenhagen-democracy-summit-conversation-john-kerry">insinuated</a> that the Republican Party traditionally suppresses the vote of non-Republican voters and warned that it could precipitate a &#8220;revolution&#8221; in the United States. Kerry stated, “If people don’t have adequate access to the ballot, I mean that’s the stuff on which revolutions are built. If you begin to deny people the capacity of your democracy to work, even the Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, we have an inherent right to challenge that.”
Kerry stated that the voter suppression affected the Bush-Gore 2000 election, his own campaign against George W. Bush in 2004, and the Stacey Abrams gubernatorial candidacy in Georgia as he said, “I’m also concerned about something that affected my campaign in 2004; it affected Al Gore in 2000, and it has obviously affected other campaigns in our country in the last few years, including most recently in Georgia, where certain officials of a particular party purposefully make it difficult for the other party to vote where they control those matters.”
Kerry was asked, “How worried are you about the future of American political institutions?”
The man who was <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00000245">reportedly worth $100 million</a> in 2013 replied with a class-warfare answer as he replied, “I’m worried. I’m worried. Right now our democracy is not working up to war. Very simple. Too much money in our system. Far too little sensitivity to the plight of a whole bunch of people who are living far more unequal lives. The disparity of wealth distribution in our country has grown worse and worse by the year.”
He continued, “So we have major challenges. If people don’t have adequate access to the ballot, I mean that’s the stuff on which revolutions are built. If you begin to deny people the capacity of your democracy to work, even the Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, we have an inherent right to challenge that.”
Kerry then celebrated that massive protests around the country in recent days as a “torrent of awareness” and 2020 as a “fascinating year”:
<blockquote>And I’m worried that increasingly, people are disaffected. What encourages me is this incredible spontaneous reaction to the killing of George Floyd by those police officers has unleashed a torrent of awareness that people see this unfairness now and it’s I think becoming a voting issue. It wasn’t a voting issue; it may now become one.
So this is going to be a fascinating year; we have not had a year like this in the United States since 1968 … I am more optimistic now that we’re going to see a massive response and perhaps real change for the better. That will strengthen America in the world; we’ll have greater credibility with countries all around the world, and if we get a new president who the world respects and is ready to listen to and believe, I think you’ll see a world of difference in other countries, too.</blockquote>
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Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Campaigns In Iowa

John Kerry Accuses GOP Of Historically Suppressing The Vote, Warns Of 2020: ‘That’s The Stuff On Which Revolutions Are Built’

John Kerry

Protests

Voter Supression