Politics 2017 style
Rep. Steve Scalise (R, LA)
Regarding the Congressional shooting at the baseball practice, consider: Prominent leftists praise the play being presented in Central Park, New York City, showing the assassination of a Trump look-alike. Then Republican lawmakers are attacked in a park in Alexandria, Virginia, by an anti-Trump Bernie supporter. Do you suppose that these events might be, you know, connected?
In order to connect the dots, you first have to recognize that they are dots, and then have a desire to connect them. But the New York Times has no such desire. It blames the mass shooting on ‒ yes ‒ Sarah Palin. This goes beyond the irrational and reaches the delusional. The Los Angeles Times, with only a slightly less feeble grip on reality, blames the National Rifle Association ‒ which the leftist shooter no doubt despised.
These leftists have not a shred of self-awareness, not an iota of ability to examine their own consciences, if any. Their inability to admit their own responsibility is reminiscent of the “Son of Sam,” the serial killer who claimed he was ordered to kill by a 2000-year-old black Labrador retriever named Harvey. The jury didn’t buy his excuse and sent him to prison for life. I have similar regard for the two newspapers’ explanations.
Oh yes, Congressional Democrats call for “unity,” but what does this mean? When a politician calls for “unity,” he means, “Let’s all get together and push my agenda.” But guilt, or any awareness of the role their hate-filled, bitter rhetoric must have had on the would-be mass murderer? Are you joking? According to leftists, only conservatives spread hate. But leftists ‒ that is, “progressives” ‒ oh no, their motives are pure, their intentions are honorable, their actions are beyond reproach, and their hearts are filled with kindness and mercy. Really?
For a look at a small fraction of vicious anti-Trump hatred, check these out:
http://michellemalkin.com/2017/06/14/climate-of-hate-shooting-at-house-gop-baseball-practice/
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/16/this-list-of-attacks-against-conservatives-is-mind-blowing/
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/2016-election-demise-journalistic-standards/
Until now, almost all of the violence has come from the Left. Trump supporters were beaten up during the campaign. Trump was blocked from his own rally and had to stop on the side of a freeway and hike up the embankment. Kids in Trump hats were harassed at school. Women in Trump tee shirts were harassed at coffee shops. Mobs shut down conservative speakers on campuses. And now a leading Republican Congress member was critically wounded by a Bernie activist, who fortunately was killed before he could act on his hit list of conservative Republican members of Congress.
But this can change. You can drive from Key West, Florida, to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, on the Canadian border, and not go through one state that voted for Hillary. And I’ll bet serious money that Trump supporters own many more guns than do big-city Hillary and Bernie voters.
If leftists don’t moderate their hate-filled rhetoric, and if they don’t stop praising plays depicting assassination of a Trump look-alike, and if they don’t stop posing with mockups of Trump’s severed head ‒ that is, if they don’t stop inciting violence ‒ then the current societal civil war may turn into a physical civil war.
I pray that this will not happen. But it very well might.
Leftists tend to live in bubbles containing almost exclusively more leftists. They eat lunch and dinner with people who agree with them. They avoid contact with (ugh!) conservatives, who they believe are the “deplorables” and “irredeemables” described by Hillary Clinton, and the “bitter clingers” described by Barack Obama. And why should the elevated, enlightened, self-important, self-anointed “elite” rub shoulders with the unwashed, ignorant peasants of “fly-over country”? Why, indeed?
Beware the fury of a patient man.
− John Dryden
Do these people really believe that they can continue to insult, ridicule, and defame all those millions of ordinary Americans? Do they really believe that they can continue to shut down streets and freeways? Do they really believe that they can continue to shout down and assault conservative speakers? Do they really believe that they can continue to set fire to cars and break campus windows? Do they really believe that they can continue to physically assault conservatives, slather them with pepper spray, beat them unconscious, and even shoot them ‒ and get away with it? Do they really believe that millions of conservatives will remain passive indefinitely?
Yes, they do believe that.
But they may very well be terribly mistaken. The problem is that all the rest of us will be caught up in the ensuing violence. The time to stop the escalation is now. There may not be another chance to save our republic. No one can know in advance where the tipping point will be. We will recognize it only in retrospect, when it will be too late.
Like naughty children, leftists throw a massive tantrum when they don’t get what they want ‒ and are utterly unconcerned with the consequences. But this isn’t a law-school seminar, where the worst injury is hurt feelings. This isn’t a focus group, where the greatest risk is harsh criticism. This isn’t a position paper, where the worst result is a do-over. This isn’t a movie, where the foremost danger is a bad review. This is reality.
My advice is to be careful of the “bitter clingers.” Watch closely what they are clinging to. You can only push them so far.
Mandan Sporting Goods, Mandan, North Dakota
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