The folks at Black Lives Matter are really worried about black deaths. Not most black deaths, not even very many black deaths, mind you, but only that tiny fraction of a percent of blacks who have died at the hands of (presumably) white cops. Those are the only deaths that boil the blood of the folks at Black Lives Matter and spark the riotous mobs that loot and burn our Democrat-run cities.

Why Democrat cities? Because in 2015, Black Lives Matter activists tested Democrats’ resolve and found none. At a Netroots Nation Conference in Phoenix on July 18, presidential candidate Martin O’Malley uttered the unforgiveable words: “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.” Shouted off the stage, he was heard by a Guardian reporter muttering to himself: “Black lives matter, black lives matter, black lives matter.” At a Bernie Sanders event in Seattle on August 8, activists took over the stage. Sanders waved goodbye and rescheduled the event. From that point forward, the moral authority of Black Lives Matter would remain unchallenged by any Democrat politician.

“Black lives matter” sounds good, but it provides cover for a lot of bad behavior. It’s like the tuxedo that enables a thug to work his way into your party. If you’re a Democrat mayor and you notice the well-dressed thug robbing your guests, you might say "Here, take my watch and go away and I won't call the cops." He’ll happily take your watch, but he'll also grab your rings and your billfold, and then he’ll demand "Where's the safe?" and you’ll tell him and give him the combination too, right after he breaks your Ming Dynasty vase and tears up your Picasso. Finally, he'll set fire to your house, because he despises you for your presumption in thinking that you could negotiate how much loot he should take.

There's nothing you can say or do anymore. You applauded him when he burned Ferguson and Baltimore, and you made excuses for him when he screamed: "What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now!" He owns you and you know it. You can’t criticize him. Best to take a knee and mutter vague homilies about racial injustice.

Your buddies in the newspapers and television can't help you either. They championed the thugs every step of the way. All they can do now is report that your home is "mostly standing" and that your thug was “mostly peaceable.”

What do these people want? The rioter wants to have fun, which to him means stealing as much cool stuff as he can and destroying whatever he wants. Probably he’s a bit amazed at the topsy-turvy world he’s created. The people he used to fear -- the cops -- now fear him. He can see it in their eyes. And when the cops take a knee, he sees surrender. For him, these are the best of times. He knows this can't last forever, but he also knows that whenever it does end, he'll own lots more stuff and probably be immune from prosecution.

The leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement want political power. They’ve already acquired quite a lot of it thanks to their violent groupies, but power is addictive and they may want even more. Right now, their knee is on the Democrat throat. They can do whatever they want. 

For their nominal political pals in the Democrat party, these are the worst of times. They’ve got a tiger by the tail, and they know it. Their political survival depends upon getting an overwhelming majority of the black vote, and if that majority should shrink to 85 percent or so, they’re politically dead. Black Lives Matter, or revulsion to it, could make that happen.

Black Lives Matter brings in a lot of money for the Democrats. Corporations are donating millions of dollars to the cause (just as they paid tribute to Jessie Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition years ago) and BLM sends much of it to the leftwing political action committee ActBlue. Democrats love the cash and so are loath to say a discouraging word about the mayhem.

But if the riots continue and bleed into November, Democrats will probably lose anyway. They surely wish that Black Lives Matter would just quiet things down, but they mustn’t say so. For now, all they can do is wear a happy face and some Kente cloth and talk about police reforms.

What Democrats really need is somebody who’s tougher than the rioters and who has the resolve to stop them. But he's running against them in November.