As the reader likely knows, there was an assassination attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump while campaigning in Western Pennsylvania.
It is typical of such events that initial news stories must be modified so we don’t have the full truth yet, and possibly, we never will. The latter is another problem with incidents like this one. Key facts will get covered up.
One glaring fact, however, is the failure of the Secret Service to allow an armed man to occupy a rooftop near the scene, even when alerted by civilians. A 150-yard shot with a scoped rifle is not that difficult. Many sportsmen in the Western part of the US take deer and elk at twice that distance as a routine matter.
Sniper counterfire came quickly after the perpetrator shot at the former President. If so, they knew of the shooter’s presence on the rooftop and did not take pre-emptive action. Why was that?
But let’s talk a bit about what we do know.
We will start by saying Conservatives do not believe in collective guilt. Crime is not caused by environment or political speech. People have free will, they have moral agency. Those who commit crimes are responsible. Not their parents, not social media, and not heated rhetoric.
We don’t know much about the man who did the shooting and we should not blame Democrats for the act. But while we should not blame them for the act, we can say their repeated attacks on Trump as a “threat to democracy”, a dictator in waiting, a Hitler-like figure, may destabilize those with poor social filters. There are those among us who can’t tell the difference between heated opinion and fact. After all, would it not have been good for the world if someone had assassinated Hitler? If Trump is Hitler, would not taking him out be justified?
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So, such rhetoric is not the cause, but it can be a contributing factor among those mentally immature or unstable.
Many liberals do believe in collective guilt and that is the irony. Some readers are old enough to remember that after President Kennedy’s shooting in Dallas in 1963, the media, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and the Kennedy widow, pinned the cause on “an atmosphere of hate” because Kennedy had been booed in Dallas. They blamed the killing on Conservatives. They even blamed it on guns, as there were virtually no laws restricting firearms. Many laws followed, however, based on the false premise that the “availability of arms” caused the event.
Forgotten, of course, was that Oswald had purchased an inexpensive and relatively crude Italian military bolt action carbine by mail, had already attempted to kill General Walker (an outspoken Conservative), was a trained Marine sniper, was a member of Communist front organizations, had traveled to Russia, and married a Russian woman. He was then remarkably allowed to re-enter the US. Was he a Russian agent or was he working for the CIA? We still don’t know.
But it is not surprising that heated Democrat rhetoric is due for some scrutiny. It is revealing that shortly after the shooting, one of the first acts of President Biden was to pull Democrat ads from the media, largely because they were highly inflammatory. Why was that felt necessary? Because the public relations look bad given the provocative nature of those ads.
In talking to Conservatives, we often hear that “they will kill Trump.” Tucker Carlson made the same comment just months ago. The Russian conspiracy didn’t work, their spying on his campaign didn’t work, their impeachment did not work, the J6 “insurrection hoax” did not stick, and their lawfare against him so far has not worked. Conservatives feel that since Democrats have violated every legal and ethical tradition, and keep talking about “any means necessary”, that violence logically follows from that assumption.
With Biden’s dementia now evident, and the Democrat Party unable to remove him, the odds of Trump winning have gone up. An unstable mind may well conclude the only answer is to kill him.
Political rhetoric has deteriorated. And to some extent, President Trump has been a party to that as well.
But of greater concern has been the greater acceptability of political violence. Democrats have selective outrage. They certainly have been zealous at prosecuting those involved in the Capital Riot of January 6th. But they have tolerated and encouraged Black Lives Matter riots that went on for months. They have failed to prosecute Antifa, which has become the political Brownshirts of our era.
They have further tolerated anti-Semitic riots on college campuses and attacks on Jewish people in broad daylight with hardly any police response.
The Soros-funded DA in New York refused to prosecute violent attacks on Jews at Columbia University.
For us, it is not so much the rhetorical levels of Democrats’ attacks, it is their acceptance of political violence. This conveys a strong message to society that such activity is now condoned, if not approved, as it was by Vice President Kamala Harris.
You might remember the Left also during the “pussy riots” after the election of Trump had many speakers hinting at killing the President or bombing the White House. And indeed there were serious riots that required Trump to take refuge in the”secure room” in the White House.
“Comedians” were carrying around Trump’s severed head and stage plays showed him being stabbed to death.
There was no condemnation of these excesses, except from Conservatives.
The Administration has classified Conservatives, veterans, and churchgoers as “domestic terrorists” and racists. Remember the investigations into the “white supremacists” in the military and law enforcement taking the license plate numbers of parents who simply wanted to present their views to school boards?
Their elevation of a riot to an insurrection bred a scenario that Trump and MAGA Republicans were an existential threat “to our democracy.” Allowing illegals to vote and imprisoning your political opposition is not.
If you in your heart believe that Trump is a white supremacist, a dictator, a Hitler just waiting to gain power, then what is a Progressive to do under this circumstance?
If you believe Trump is a threat to Democracy, is voting against him enough? And what if voting can’t stop him?
No, Democrats are not responsible for the shooting. The perpetrator is guilty. However, they have agitated the public to a frenzy which allows unhinged people to find justification for their acts. Beyond that, the selective enforcement of the law suggests political violence is OK, as long as it comes from the Left.
The political blowback from this event will likely be significant. Democrats need to be doing some soul-searching.
Moreover, Trump’s demeanor after the attack, yelling “fight, fight” and raising his fist in defiance was remarkable. He always seems to have a knack for the iconic photograph and boy did he produce.
He is one tough man. He has a strong will and the making of a great leader.
This makes a stark contrast to his enfeebled opponent. No huge ad buy can create this kind of impression on the American people.
