The public lost the battle in San Jose last Thursday.  But the liberals lost the war.

The great and prolific writer of westerns, Louis L’Amour (loo-ee la-moor) was being interviewed some time back and was asked about High Noon,  the great western movie with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, where a bunch of bad guys just out of jail are coming to town to kill Cooper, the sheriff, who put them away.  The movie focuses on a clock, which shows “high noon” getting closer and closer.  Townsmen one by one stop by the sheriff’s office, acting nervously, and say they have some urgent task to do, so they won’t be able to help the sheriff.  He is left all alone to face the bad guys.

L’Amour practically spits when he is asked about the picture.

That is not America.  That is some communist’s fantasy of America.  That is exactly what America was not about.

Let me explain it to you. Two-thirds of the men who settled the Old West (1865-1895) were Civil War veterans. They knew how to shoot and they taught their kids to shoot. They were homesteaders, worked the land themselves in most cases, and had nowhere else to go. That is where they were.

The westerns that you see in films and on TV really took place on the wrong side of the tracks. There was also a respectable part of town where standards were maintained by the townsfolk.

If some bunch of bad guys took it into their heads that they were going to take over a town, every citizen within miles would show up with a rifle, sometimes having elected and officer from one side or the other in the late war. They would simply mow down the bad guys. There is not a single instance of outlaws overrunning the citizens. That sheriff would never have been left out there alone.

In 1876, the Jesse James Gang, having worn out their welcome in Missouri, decided to take down the bank in Northfield, Minnesota.  They traveled up there by train and rode into town on horses.  After they got inside the bank and pulled out their guns, one of the clerks ran out of the bank onto the main street of town, shouting that the bank was being robbed.  There was no Federal Reserve in those days, no deposit insurance.  If the bank lost the money, it was gone.

Some minutes later, the James Gang started to exit the bank.  They were met with a hail of bullets.  Townsfolk were firing virtually from every window in every building.  While the gang got away, they were cut to pieces and were caught, except for the Jameses themselves.  (Jesse James was famously later killed at home by Bob Ford.)

The point is that the Northfield, Minnesota raid – and the lesser known Dalton Gang raid on Coffeyville, Kansas – was stopped cold by the citizenry.

The riotous opposition to Donald Trump's rally in San Jose last Thursday was Northfield, Minnesota.  Not exactly.  History never repeats, and Trump supporters – the public – minding their own business, got the worst of it.  But that fracas, with some excellent video of citizens being assaulted and/or taken down, showed the public what is at stake.  Are we a constitutional republic or not?

Prediction?  The crowds at Trump rallies will grow, not diminish.  And while we are not talking vigilante, they will be more prepared to cut a path through the paid thugs than they were this time.

The public is going to prevail.  Liberals got away with this shinola in the past because it was on the fringe, because the public was not engaged.

It is now.