Kyle Rittenhouse’s Vindication Proves Just How Important Local Elections Are

by Revolver News


The victory of Kyle Rittenhouse shows that, even in blue-leaning cities in blue-leaning states, there are still enough heroic ordinary Americans whose minds are not corrupted by left-wing poison, capable of delivering a just verdict in an unjust case.

The victory of Kyle Rittenhouse shows that, even in blue-leaning cities in blue-leaning states, there are still enough heroic ordinary Americans whose minds are not corrupted by left-wing poison, capable of delivering a just verdict in an unjust case.

But the Rittenhouse trial also shows the importance of something else.

While power in America is more federally concentrated than ever, local politics remains crucial for preserving the dwindling rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans.

For decades, power in America has concentrated at higher and higher levels. Cities have lost power to states, the states have lost power to Washington, and Congress has lost power to the executive branch. Participation in local politics has crashed; in many cities fewer than one-in-five voters turn out to vote in local elections that aren’t lined up with national ones.

As local political power has declined, so has local news coverage. Local newspapers have vanished across America. Even the New York Times, with its vast staff and massive budget, pays less and less attention to local news in America’s largest city.

But however much Americans’ attention has shifted to the national level, local politics is still crucially important, and the Rittenhouse case proves it.

Consider the central players in the Kenosha legal drama. First, there’s Judge Bruce Schroeder. Schroeder played a key role in bringing this abominable affair to a happy ending. He shut down the prosecution’s efforts to call Kyle’s attackers “victims”, introduce banned evidence, smear Kyle as a racist, and use his Fifth Amendment rights against him.

Why was Judge Schroeder there to prevent a miscarriage of justice? Because, over and over, local voters put him there. Although he was initially appointed to his post nearly forty years ago, Judge Schroeder is an elected official, currently serving his seventh six-year term. Had voters chosen a different judge, with a different, more racially-inflected view of what “justice” is, the trial may have ended very differently.

Judges like Schroeder used to be the norm in America; in fact, Schroeder himself was appointed by a Democrat. But Schroeder is 75. Most of the millennial lawyers now approaching middle age have very different beliefs about what constitutes “justice.” Making sure that judges like Schroeder are appointed and kept in office will require active effort, not passive indifference.