A high is always using a low. If your protest gets positive coverage on television, someone up on high in the system is using you. If the president or political elite comment positively on your actions or fail to rein you in, then they support you and want more. If we look around at actions by the racial fringe of the Left and subsequent reaction by the political and media elite, we can see from their cues that they want conflict.

Did now-former President Barack Obama ever step out and ask for BLM or any other blacks to slow down the riots or rein in the violence? Recently, he gave an interview, in which he said that the old style of agitation was not the way anymore. He said this as he simultaneously complained about racism in office, and did so in an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has made a career out of whining about slights to white liberal audiences. Not once did Obama denounce the burning of cities, including Charlotte, which was a swing state. The elite Left wants more friction and violence. That is their cue, and we should not miss it.

Do you remember when the Daily Show destroyed Occupy Wall Street? It did in mid-2011. It was an actual example of Jon Stewart destroying something. The Daily Show did a segment mocking Occupy Wall Street. The message—and this is important—was that it was acceptable for the Daily Show viewers and social strata to turn on OWS. Recall that in October of 2011, when Occupy was at its peak, Rep. Nancy Pelosi said “God bless them” in reference to OWS supporters. The Daily Show did this one month later… but just in time for the cities to crack down on the OWS protesters and clean them out.

Occupy received plenty of media and political support when it was useful. This meant overlooking the violence (some sexual) at encampments. This also meant overlooking the scope creep that happened as it went from being about the failure to address Wall Street’s crimes in the crisis to standard issue Marxist societal overthrow. The Daily Show was the signal to viewers at home that these protesters were simply no longer useful and also actual fools (as the right wing had been pointing out), and that it was permissible to support the Democrat mayors that would beat them down and remove them.

It worked. It served an even bigger purpose, which was to dampen down populist frustration with Obama, as some people honestly considered him a guy who would go after the TBTF banks and help the little man on Main Street. The Left did not want a primary challenge to Obama. It would have mortally wounded him. There were some rumblings Clinton was considering it. Fortunately for Obama, the 2010 midterms had cleaned out a lot of potential challengers.

This dynamic will be important to keep an eye on in the Trump era as the Left tries to cobble together an opposition. We could easily see a replay of Occupy, but there will be no need for the media to rein it in to protect Obama. The trimming of any movement would be if it creates primary challengers. In the ensuing populist anger, it will be incredibly tempting for the Left to pluck random amateurs and create candidates. This can be manufactured amateurs when the full force of the Left’s media organs is behind it. Like the current free run of the racial agitators, this may be an unchecked force for the next four years.

There is no one stating the racial animosity should be pulled back. The Left is doubling and tripling down on their anti-white slogans. They are positioning Rep. Keith Ellison as the next Democratic National Committee chair. They want minorities fired up to go after Trump. Nick Land states a Left populist wave will come, but that relies on the Left holding its pieces together for that united message. Fragmentation of the Left, as the pie they can split up either stagnates or contracts, is a probable outcome. Who is going to get a seat at the table if budgets are cut back: a white woman who was raped, a gay Asian man, a Hispanic immigrant, or a black lesbian?

After a while, even the Left’s foot soldiers will grow tired of playing privilege and victim rock-paper-scissors.