The politically motivated shooting of Republicans in Washington DC today by an apparently rabid Bernie Sanders supporter is a tragedy that is as unsurprising as it is troubling.
Before the echoes of the shooting die down, the left will spin this as a tragedy that points to the need for gun control. I am open to discussing the issue of assault riles in the hands of wing nuts. But that is not the real issue here, and no amount of spin can change that. This is about an increasingly shrill, angry, off-the-rails opposition hell bent on destroying the current Republican leadership in Congress and undermining the Trump administration by any means necessary. I have never seen the level of vitriol aided and abetted by too often intemperate media coverage actively gunning for President Trump, his administration and Republicans generally. The constant drumbeat of highly negative coverage and the increasingly violent form of protest tolerated in the name of freedom of speech have consequences.
We've seen hatred aimed at politicians before. My best friend, a life-long very progressive Democrat who worked for one of the largest banks when President Reagan was shot told me at the time that colleagues actively cheered when they heard the news of Reagan's shooting. He too got bad press throughout most of his presidency that, unlike President Trump, he seldom deserved objectively speaking with few exceptions (such as Iran Contra). Of course the press piled on Nixon during and after Watergate but, he too, had earned the negative coverage. But I've never seen a fevered pitch of thinly disguised hatred of any prior administration. The drumbeat of "Trump is an illegitimate president that needs to be impeached/undermined or even beheaded (wink-wink)" has consequences. We see those today. I fear more will follow.
Violence can NEVER be tolerated, neither as a form of political or social protest and especially not as the means to attain political change. Shooting at Republicans because they are Republicans as we saw today, and shooting or calling for cops to be shot because they are cops for that matter, are criminal acts by deranged people--not a form of protest and never, ever justified. Period.
I am not an ardent Trump supporter. I am neither blind nor tone deaf to his shortcomings and have always had serious questions about his temperament. I was even less of a supporter of Secretary Clinton and, though I respect Senator Sanders and his integrity, I could never support him because of his European socialist-style policies. I would have been a very vocal detractor had either Democratic candidate for the Presidency had won the election. But I would never, ever have condoned violent protest of either candidate, let alone disgusting mock-beheadings, hangings/burnings in effigy, or unwarranted, untimely calls for impeachment of either without proof of actual high crimes or misdemeanors. "I hate him/her" is not the basis for impeachment. Those calling for President Trump's impeachment even before he took the oath of office based primarily if not exclusively on a bad case of sour grapes have done a huge disservice to our democracy. Those who would obtain through violence the victory denied them at the ballot box are criminals and traitors, pure and simple, a fact that cannot be spun or explained away.
No comments:
Post a Comment