Last night rioters and looters burned a dozen U.S. cities. CNN headline? "OMG, our 'news' crew was arrested!!""

As the rioting, looting and burning continue in a dozen U.S. cities, Tucker Carlson noticed a few things:

Here's a simple question: A police station in a major American city was occupied, looted and burned on Thursday night. Most of us assumed we’d never live to see something like that happen here. But it did happen.

So the question is, has anyone been arrested for doing it? Will anyone ever be arrested?

No one in authority seems especially interested in apprehending the people who did it. All of it happened on camera, but the perpetrators just walked away. And it’s likely that most of them will never be punished for it.

It’s a very different experience from the ones most Americans have living here.

As Minneapolis and other cities burn, the rest of us are continuing on as we always do -- dutifully following the rules. There are many of those.  In fact, every year there are countless new rules to follow. They multiply like insects.

We do our best to keep up. We get our permits, apply for our licenses, put on our reading glasses to check the latest regulations on the internet.
We wear our little masks.
We keep our dogs on leashes.
We drive sober.
We don’t eat on the subway. We never litter.
We make orderly lines and patiently wait our turn.
In airports and government buildings, we remove our shoes and submit to body searches from strangers. We lose our dignity every time we do this, but they tell us we must, so we accept it without complaint.

In public, we hide what we really think.
We bury our natural instincts. We keep our deepest beliefs to ourselves.
We know the boundaries. We understand we will be punished for telling the truth.
This is the America those of us who don't riot live in.
For the privilege of citizenship in a country like this, we work as hard as we can.
And government at all levels takes half of what we earn and "shares it" with others.

It sends money we’d rather give to our own children to politicians in faraway cities. With that money, they make new rules--which we are forced to follow under penalty of jail.

That’s what we were told to do as children. That’s the deal we’ve struck.

At least we thought it was.  Now we know that some people have somehow negotiated a far better deal than the one we have.

They get to ignore the rules. There don’t believe in order or fairness. They reject society itself.

Reason and process and precedent mean nothing to them. They use violence to get what they want--and get it immediately.

People like this don’t bother to work. They don’t volunteer or pay taxes to help other people. They live for themselves. They do exactly what they feel like doing. They say exactly what they feel like saying.

They spray paint their opinions on buildings.

On television, hour by hour, we watch these people — criminal mobs — destroy what the rest of us have built.

They have no right to do that. They don’t contribute to the common good. They never have.  Yet Democrat politicians allow them to burn and loot.

Those who support the rioters will tell you that the problem is race relations, or capitalism, or police brutality, or global warming. But only on the surface.

The real cause is deeper than that and it’s far darker.

What you’re watching is the ancient battle between those who have a stake in society, and would like to preserve it, and those who don’t, and seek to destroy it.

Which side in that war have our leaders taken?  It’s obvious.

The rioters in Minneapolis and in other places act as if they’re allowed to loot and burn.
In fact, they are allowed--because no one stops them.

The authorities don’t arrest them. Instead, they pander to them, flatter them, desperately try to win their love.

Why are masked lunatics setting fire to Wendy’s?  Liberal politicians tell us it's because the rest of us are sinful.  They tell us the crimes of the mob are the punishment we deserve.

That’s their argument, and many Americans--roughly half--seem to buy it.

We should have seen this coming.

When you express an opinion liberals don’t like, they call it violence.  But when criminals commit acts of actual violence, liberals call it "free speech."  Or "mere protests."  In other words, the game is rigged.

So why are the rest of us still playing it? We have more power than we think we do. Our system only functions because dutiful normal people — people with self-control and decency, and a sense of responsibility toward others — created our system.

They sustain it. They pay the bills. None of the thugs looting Target, or the well-paid nihilists on television who are egging them on, have added a thing.  Nothing.  Yet all the destroyers expect this arrangement will last forever. For them, it’s been a very good deal.

But what exactly are you getting in return for your contributions to this system?

Liberal mayors and congresspersons clearly don’t care about the people who fund the system and make it work.  One proof is that in liberal-ruled cities the police will let the mob burn your business to the ground, without lifting a finger to intervene.

During election years sweaty politicians claim to be on your side. It’s a lie. They’re not. They’ll feed you pointless symbolic victories and expect you to celebrate like you’ve actually won something. But when the mob comes, they’re gone. You’re on your own

Should you keep playing along with them?  Ponder that the next time they demand you get a permit to put a storage shed in your own backyard.

You might think about it even harder the next time you write a check to pay the taxes your rulers demand.