‘Death to America”: the standard Iranian rally cry. We were always told they didn’t mean it literally. It was a ritual expression of geopolitical and cultural conflict. What they probably meant was “Steady, incremental decline to America, which, combined with an atrophied economy and manufacturing base, will, over time, lead to a reduced ability to project power in the Middle East.” But you can’t chant that! You’d get winded after a while. So they settled on “Death to America” as a shorthand. They didn’t really mean it.

Death to Israel, though, abso-rootin’-tootin’-lutely.

Well. The other night a large group of masked miscreants, clad in chic protester-black, romped through Oakland, Calif., breaking things and yelling. Their chant: “Death to America.”

You wait for CNN and MSNBC shows to explain what they really mean.

News analyst: “This chant may sound shocking to some, but you have to understand the context. To them, America is a systematically oppressive system that has been oppressing, systematically, since the first Pilgrim set foot on this continent, saw an Indigenous person, enslaved him, shot him, and was acquitted by the second Pilgrim off the boat. To the protesters, this America cannot be reformed, it can only be replaced.”

Token conservative guest: “So in other words, they want death to America.”

“Well, sure, if you want to get literal, but it’s more about rebirth. People get hung up on the whole death part. ”

The host interjects: “You have to admit that for Donald Trump supporters, they’re hearing ‘Death to America’ and thinking that the president is correct when he says the protesters want death to America.”

“Of course,” says the analyst. “The president is certainly encouraging that view at every turn, stoking anger and fanning hate when he’s not fanning anger and stoking hate. Systemically, I might add.”

Token conservative: “Look, I dislike Donald Trump as much as anyone, but — ”

Host: “Thank you, that’s all we have time for. Coming up, we’ll talk to someone who believes the right wing is behind the unrest in the cities, in order to boost the job numbers in the plywood and glass-replacement sectors of the economy. Right after this.”

Supposedly the Democrats have realized that riots are polling poorly, so you might not get a gentle endorsement of “Death to America” from mainstream figures. The media people who’ve been insisting that protests are “mostly peaceful,” often while standing in front of something that looks like the last reel of a Godzilla movie, will reframe the occupation of nighttime cities as a pushback against Trump orcs, who stream from the heartland in numberless waves.

The leftist academics will still endorse “Death to America” as a metaphor, since they want to replace the current system with one that is utterly egalitarian but somehow still includes tenure.

Meanwhile, the protesters will continue to endear themselves to the nation with destruction, immolation, beatings, and that surefire trick for getting a torpid, weary, hard-working Middle American demographic to flock to your side: endless screeching from young white women who sound as if they have a pantsful of fire ants.

What is it with these women? They’re always screaming at big beefy cops, who are standing impassively while 97 pounds of concentrated bile shrieks the F-bomb because the police are not letting the protesters destroy/occupy/deface something. Luke Skywalker didn’t have this level of father issues. The rage is so off-putting and all-consuming you imagine it continues when they get home, and all their cats are deaf.

One of the popular tactics consists of going into neighborhoods after dark, making a lot of noise, and chanting, “Out of your homes and into the streets.” Surprise: There is no exodus of weary residents who throw back the covers, shrug on a robe, and go outside to join a mob of hectoring Marxists.

“Where are you going?” the wife asks.

“Just going to head outside and demand the end of property and commodified labor for a while.”

“Well, don’t stay out too late.”

“No, of course not, I have to work tomorrow.”

As noted, the Democrats are starting to realize that waving away the nightly riots isn’t good for business and hence they have to lie about their decades-long love of shouting and breaking things. What began as veneration for the peaceful civil-rights movement quickly morphed into nodding approval of anti-war unrest, and “protest” was valorized without regard to its form. Then the Democrats who understood American exceptionalism were replaced by gassy-noggin progressives who saw America as exceptionally rotten, an anomaly in a world that would otherwise be peaceful and just (except for the part about Iranians hanging gays, but give ’em time, don’t be Islamophobic). Protest and destruction were now signs of a pure heart.

It’s odd how destruction seems the only means in which a group that says it wants change by any means shows any interest.

Here’s another tired slogan: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” People who pay attention to the nightly disorder, the lawless streets, the broken glass, the filthy graffiti, the shuttered storefronts, the demands for ideological conformity — oh, they’re outraged, all right.

But they’re outraged by the wrong things, so they don’t count. They’re probably Nazis. Death to Nazis! Also to America, which defeated Nazis! Hell, death to everything!

It says something about the protesters, no? You hear them chant for death, and you know they’ve never felt so alive.