"Are they TRYING to get Trump re-elected?"

Protest is righteous and necessary. Throughout the history of this blog (and I've been writing since 2004), I've asked for more protest, not less. When Freddie Grey was murdered by cops, I wanted Baltimore's reaction to be far more intense than it was.

But right now, at this specific moment in history, that tactic is ineffective.

Right now, protest -- however justifiable -- can only help Trump. Peaceful protesters are the river in which piranhas swim.

African Americans won't listen to me, but I hope that they will listen to black leaders. I beg those leaders to tell the black community to forego all forms of street protest, because such gatherings will have the opposite of the intended effect.

(Unless re-electing Trump is, in fact, the intent -- as it may well be for some pseudo-Marxists who foolishly believe that "The worse things get, the closer we come to revolution.")

Protesters may espouse non-violent principles, but non-violent mass gatherings will turn violent. Trump supporters and white supremacists will do everything they can to make them violent. The agent provocateur is a real problem. Has been for centuries.

It's not enough to denounce violence. For the next two months, we must -- God help us -- renounce protest itself.

Just two months.

All protest provides cover for violence. All violence helps Trump.

It's a big ask -- an unbearable forebearance. But for two months -- JUST TWO MONTHS -- please don't take the bait, no matter what ghastly things the cops or the Nazis do to goad you into self-destructive action.

And remember: National polls don't matter. Only the battleground states matter. The protests are really hurting Biden there.

Black people voted for Biden in the primaries, so why wouldn't they want to see him win in the general election? Why are they destroying his chances? Why are they electing Trump?

BLM has become unpopular in the battleground states. If you've made yourself toxic, why continue to use your current tactics? What can you hope to accomplish? Do you honestly believe that BLM's goals will be more easily achieved under out-and-out fascism?

Santayana once said: "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim." Something similar is going on here, though what has been forgotten is not really the aim but the candidate.

Since I do not use social media, I cannot tell whether trolls have used Facebook and Twitter to send well-meaning people down a self-destructive path. But I know this: Black people did not mount months-long, increasingly violent protests after the outrageous miscarriages of justice involving Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Freddie Grey, Michael Brown and others. Yes, those events stoked outrage -- justified outrage -- but what's happening now is different.

It's as if black people decided to act out a script written by the Trump Re-election Committee.

Or maybe a script written by the neo-Nazis who want a new Civil War. You think things are bad now? The prophesied "Boogaloo" is a very real possibility; clever social engineers are doing everything they can to launch that apocalypse. If it comes, the result will be mass-murder on an unimaginable scale.

After November 3, fill the streets and scream your screams. But until then, everyone who hates Tumpism must do everything possible to insure Trump's loss. Keeping the Klansman's son in the White House cannot possibly benefit African Americans.