Our country is in the throes of upheaval. We are not on the brink of change⏤we have already changed and not for the better. Chaos is our new normal. Protests, a staple of American rights has been usurped by radicals, criminals, and those who wish to create havoc and intimidation to silence the masses. Looting is seen as a legitimate activity and encouraged by one of the major political parties in the United States either by open affirmation or silent affirmation and the wink of an eye. 
American is turned against American, family member against family member, life-long friendships are ended in a flurry of insults and accusations. Hatred seethes openly on social media as the agents of change riot in the streets, stop cars and pull drivers from their vehicles for a beating. Statues are torn down based on the decision of the mob of the moment, and our police are held back from their mission of protecting the innocent as they come under assault.       
While many of our fellow citizens watch this unraveling of our society from the safety of their homes, the time is fast approaching when the empowered mobs, violent rioters, socialist true believers, and Antifa militants show up on their doorsteps too. At that point it will be too late to stop the inevitable. 
Much has been made of the potential for another civil war, which only a few short months ago was the thing of impassioned talk radio, conspiracy theorists, and those with a love of the dystopian genre of fictional TV, movies, and books. The idea of blood running down our roads as leftist crusaders attack our society was a script for a “B” movie on a streaming TV channel. Indeed, the Hollywood movie “The Purge” was a depiction of this kind of thought; ordinary people venting their anger, lust, rage, and animalistic base instincts on other people as a way to keep society under control. The stuff of exciting, if not disgusting escape for an hour and half, but certainly not a reality any of us would actually have to face…. right?
Unfortunately for all of us, that horrific fantasy world of Mad Max is no longer restrained to our movie and TV Screens, we can see it live as you drive to the gas station on the way to work. 
You can very easily find yourself in the middle of a “Peaceful” protest where the highway has been blocked by a bedraggled group of misfits from mom’s basement wearing masks to conceal their identity, dressed in make believe army clothes all dyed black carrying bats, chains, or bricks. You might also see a sea of “Karens”, aligned across the road carrying angry misspelled signs expressing their rage at your privilege or ignorance of their cause. And these are only a couple of the groups who now demand⏤not that they get to express themselves, but that you listen, agree, and repent for your sins, real or imagined. Oh yeah and that you pay for those sins with your time, money or your home depending on the location of the protest and the target of the day. 
And if you find yourself in this situation⏤you and your passengers, kids, or adults, might have to accept the beating of the mob to atone for your sins. I suspect even if you accept their ideas and demands you’ll probably get the beating anyway, or at least your vehicle will be damaged to teach you a lesson and allow the righteous to vent their frustrations on you.
If that happens your choices are limited. You can sit tight and hope they don’t attack you, pull you from your vehicle and administer your just punishment, or if the luck of the moment is with you and they don’t target you for special treatment like a beating, you can allow them to damage your property by sitting quietly, not looking them in the eye which can stir more rage, as they bash your windows, scratch, kick and pummel your car with baths and sticks, or worse.
As this happens you can probably calm your crying children without incurring their wrath, but not always, sometimes this fear response from you, your children and the elderly can spark an immediate sense of the kill and they will converge on you. You might even consider calling the police, but that really doesn’t work, the cops are too far away, are on other calls or have been told not to respond and disturb the peaceful protestors from exercising their rights. Your rights be damned.
The final option if you are in this dangerous situation is to have the audacity to protect yourself and your family. This action on your part is probably the one thing you can be assured will arouse the mob to violent action. Kind of like finding yourself next to a hornet’s nest. If you back away slowly or stop moving maybe they will not descend on you, or maybe just a few will sting you, but if you make any sudden moves or hit the nest, all bets are off, it won’t be pretty.
So, if you choose self-preservation and decide to make a run for it, or push through them you have to be prepared to follow through, this is no time for half measures. Nudging them easily in hopes they will back off is like flicking the hornet’s next with your finger as a polite warning to leave you alone, the response will be immediate, and you will be in danger. Tough choices here and before too long we all may be in the position to decide how we will respond when the mob comes to our towns and cities, because they are coming and they don’t care if you agree with them or their cause or you have fought the same battles either, so don’t think you have an out here, you don’t. You are in the crosshairs.                      
This scenario is still really almost unimaginable isn’t it? But it’s happening, watch social media, and see the hundreds of examples of people being victimized, alone and without help. It is the new norm. 

The thing I believe most people don’t understand is why aren’t there any police officers on the scene of these events? As soon as a crowd starts to gather, why don’t they respond and quell the violence, clear the roads, and protect the people from these insurgents? 

Those questions have a political answer. Many of our political class see this upheaval as a way to attain power, a way to change the paradigm of American life with them making all the decisions for you. They use the rage of the rioters as weapons against those they want to punish and take power away from. In this current incarnation of insurrection, they want to take away any power of the constitution, your freedom of speech, your second amendment right to possess weapons for your defense, and they want to extinguish any opposition to their plans. I won’t say who these politicians are, Ill leave that to your powers of observation, they can be seen very easily.
In the opening of this piece I said we are not on the verge of change, we have already changed and not for the better, that is the truth of our times. As it stands now, no one is coming to the rescue, no one is amassing troops of justice to fight back the violent hordes. We don’t see mass arrests of people openly and wantonly attacking police officers, in some cases severely injuring them or killing them, we don’t see arrays of police taking back our streets and moving the violent away from us. We don’t see our prosecutors “throwing the book” at these violent attackers and ensuring the message goes out to all the other like-minded mobsters to stop the violence or face sure and severe punishment. In fact, we see exactly the opposite. 
When we do see arrests, we hear the criminal is released with no bail right back onto the street to attack again and then charges are ultimately dismissed as a show of either solidarity with the mob or as an acquiescence and appeasement of “good faith”. No matter the reason, the innocent citizen is abandon, left to their own devices for safety, but of course if you fight back be prepared to be arrested and charged and made an example out of. That is the new picture of justice.

We are living in Bizarro world and it will only get worse. To be clear I don’t blame our law enforcement. These men and women want to do what’s right, but they serve at the mercy of their political leaders and they too are suffering.

There very well may be another civil war in the offing. We cannot continue to live like this. When citizens are left to the violent to do with as they wish there will come a time when a movement will begin, and a Fort Sumpter moment will take place. A shot will be heard around the world and true chaos will descend. That is the nature of evil. That is the nature of this moment.
For our leaders to forsake their people and allow them to suffer to appease others is both evil and criminal. It is also a clear signal that we are in serious trouble. The unthinkable must now be considered as imminent. 
The next civil war will not be between the people versus the government as historically happens in divided nations, this one will be citizen versus citizen on the streets of our towns and cities. Where our feckless politicians align themselves is evident, but not total. We must make wise decisions in the days ahead if we are to turn this tide. In the old saying- “feeding the alligator in the hope that he eats you last” is not a long-term plan, it is the mission of the dead.
When do we decide its enough?