Riots push governors to new levels of 'cowardice, incompetence'

Music legend Charlie Daniels

The time swiftly is coming in America when everyone will be forced to "pick a side" in what has become "an all-out socialist attack on our Republic," says country rock superstar Charlie Daniels.

He wrote in his weekly "Soap Box" commentary: "When you get past the very thin patina of 'peaceful' protest and look beyond the fallacy that violence and destruction brings about racial equality, you have to come to the conclusion that there is a radical fringe of people who would literally burn this country down, given the opportunity."

The media ignores that, he said, but "if you’re willing to scratch the surface and dig a little bit, it will dawn on you that this is not a simple protest against the unjust killing of a black man, but a revolutionary street battle against America and everything we stand for and it IS funded and lead by socialist factions, and it’s not just in the U.S. but in many democratic nations around the world."

"In other words, an all-out socialist attack on our Republic," he said.

Many of those who should be protecting America are failing, he charged.

"I don’t remember a time in my 83 years when the cowardice, incompetence, indifference and downright impotence of governors, mayors and others responsible for the protection of citizens and their property have been more evident, disappointing and disgusting."

The nation is not having a "block party" or a "summer of love," he said, as politicians have claimed.

Instead there is a "clear and present danger to the well-being of every human being in their constituency."

He said it's textbook anarchy.

"And the laxity of the curriculum we have allowed to be taught in our schools and the doctrine that socialist university faculties have drummed into the heads of our young people is coming home to roost, as deceived twenty-somethings cause havoc for a cause they have no way of understanding, under the impression they are in a struggle for justice, when all along they are joining the battle to dismantle their whole way of life," he warned.

He noted attempts to revise or erase history.

"Communism cannot exist where there is a strong belief in God and now there is a move afoot to remove any statues of Jesus Christ," he said.

Gun sales are "through the roof," and he's praying for "cooler heads" to prevail.

But there is the reality, he said, "at least amongst the people I am familiar with and the area I live in, they will not allow their cities to be occupied, their businesses destroyed nor their lives interrupted without a fight and almost everybody I know has guns and knows how to use them."

Daniels has been honored for his gospel music, Southern rock anthems and country hits.

He started out in the blue grass genre with the Misty Mountain Boys and moved to Nashville in 1967.

Elvis Presley recorded a tune Daniels co-wrote titled "It Hurts Me," which was released on the flip side of "Kissin’ Cousins." He played on such landmark albums as Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline."

He started the Charlie Daniels Band in 1972, and among the many hits he's known for are "Long Haired Country Boy," "The South’s Gonna Do It Again," "In America" and his signature, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."