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Everyone loves a peaceful protest.

“I am … an ally of all peaceful protesters,” Donald Trump declared in the Rose Garden on Monday. “We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means,” George W. Bush cautioned. “I support and protect peaceful protest in this city,” New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said.

Often the sentiment is framed as a negation: “What nonviolent protest gains, violent protest unravels” (Ross Douthat); “If you loot riot and destroy you lose all moral credibility, in my eyes, to protest injustice” (Charlie Kirk).

Attorney General Bill Barr wrapped the sentiment around a threat. Announcing a crackdown against anti-fascist activists, he claimed, “the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements.”

They are all full of shit. Nonviolent protest is just a tactic; a means to an en…