With this morning’s shooting at the congressional practice
field in Virginia, it is fair to say that our political discourse has finally
sank too low. After watching rhetoric on both sides become more incendiary and
violence slowly escalate over the past few years, someone has really gotten
hurt.
Not bruises, broken bones or damaged pride either.
Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) or the other people at the practice,
including the security officers, could have been killed. That was apparently
the aim of the attack.
The Washington
Post has identified the shooter as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville,
Ill. Hodgkinson was a campaign worker for Bernie Sanders whose Facebook page
allegedly features a post that reads, “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed
Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”
Political violence is not new to this country. We fought a
War Between the States over our political differences. Groups like the Ku Klux
Klan used violence and intimidation to further their political aims. There have
been assassinations, from Abraham Lincoln to Huey Long. Radical anti-war groups
in the 1960s used bombings to further their political aims.
In the last half-decade, things seemed to change. We have
enjoyed a relatively peaceful period. There was violence against political
figures, but for the most part, it was the work of the mentally ill, not
political assassins. The attempted murderers of Ronald Reagan and Gabrielle
Giffords were both crazy, not trying to make a political point.
While it is still too early to say for sure, the baseball
field shooting feels different. The shooter reportedly asked which team was
playing, the Republicans or the Democrats, before opening fire. If the reported
Facebook posts are accurate, there seems to be a clear motive for the attack.
There will be plenty of anger against the liberal media and
Democrats for stoking the fires of Hodgkinson’s anger. At this point, those
charges seem to be legitimate. Much of the reporting about the Trump
Administration has been sensationalist and over-the-top. The problem is that
the liberals aren’t the only ones to blame.
Both sides are guilty of whipping up the anger of the base
with outrage-of-the-day styles of reporting that focus on the most extreme and
offensive actions of the opposition. For every action, there is an equal and
opposite overreaction.
Hodgkinson’s Facebook post was repeated almost verbatim on
many right-wing timelines over the past eight years. Just substitute “Obama”
for “Trump.”
Liberals stage a play depicting the assassination of
President Trump. Conservatives circulated internet picture of President Obama
with his head in a noose. Liberal protesters riot and stop traffic.
Conservative protesters stage armed revolts and occupy a federal building in
Oregon and engage in standoffs with law enforcement on federal land. Businesses
destroyed by riots had it coming according to the leftist narrative, but so did
reporters and protesters who get beat up, if you listen to those on the right. President
Trump is a Russian traitor? President Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,
so there!
The two sides barely even talk anymore. We listen to
different media, read different newspapers and websites. We focus on our
differences and they become magnified.
Originally published
on The Resurgent
As David
French recently wrote, we seem to be headed for a national divorce. If we
really love our country, we need to look at what a spouse would do to prevent a
divorce. Look to find the good in our political opponents. Look for common
ground instead of nitpicking. Realize that we aren’t going to get everything on
our political wish lists. The alternative is likely to be more political
violence and national divorce that is unlikely to come amicably.
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