“Democrats, I think, have come to understand, they somehow got on the wrong side of order,” Brooks said. “And they got somehow attached, even though Biden is not actually attached to it, to the idea of defunding the police.”

“They need to somehow make some gesture to show they understand the insecurity of the American people,” he said. “The country has been through an anxious time, with the pandemic, economic turmoil. There’s just this great sense of fear, of fear and a sense of unsafety, physical unsafety, from the pandemic and everything else.”

“Your movement doesn’t stay healthy unless you draw a boundary separating what’s good and peaceful and democratic and civil from what’s not, from what’s illiberal, violent and, frankly, self-destructive to your whole movement,” Brook said. “And so I think that boundary line can be drawn. It’s been drawn by most politicians in most times. And I think — I hope, in the days ahead, the Democrats will draw that line.”