We have racists in our country. Every country and every race of people include racists. But America in 2020 is not a fundamentally and institutionally racist country. Monuments to Confederate leaders and flying the Confederate flag — even still including it within the Mississippi state flag — all make it harder to defend this argument. Many of these monuments were erected 100 years after the Civil War as a thumb in the eye to Civil Rights-era reforms. Some of these materials belong in museums for historic purposes, but I do not shed any tears about these statues coming down.

But the toppling hasn’t stopped at Confederate monuments. Memorials to America’s Founding Fathers are also being destroyed. Even memorials to our young heroes from World War II — the so-called greatest generation, who saved our country from the Nazis, the Imperial Japanese and later the Communists — have been defaced and desecrated. Police officers have been killed, some in brutal, point-blank attacks.

Trump seems to be sliding in the polls. His response to the pandemic was uneven. His response to the protests, and later the riots, has been worse. And now, the ultimate irony, the left may be doing Trump the greatest favor of his entire presidency. Americans don’t want our monuments shattered. Americans don’t want our cities burned. We don’t want anarchy. We don’t want to defund our police departments. The never-Trump crowd should pay attention. All this may, in the end, lead to a second Trump term. It may even be the only thing that can.