MAGA and the Right will use the attempted assassination of Trump by a Republican young man to scare Democrats into a false civility. America needs the truth — not cowardice and hypocrisy.
DEMOCRATS: Jump over the trap and remain engaged!
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I should not have to say this. But in our hypocritical society with more righteous indignation than righteousness and morality, I must. No politician or anyone should fear for their life because of the possibility of being gunned down or assassinated.
Most of the time, our government successfully thwarts the potential assassination of politicians. We must not forget the thwarting of the kidnapping and harming plot of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer by Right-Wing militias. Unfortunately, Trump’s Secret Service seemed to have failed him even though they had time to act.
Even if not most times, two often these purveyors of violence, mainly on the Right, are successful — the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, the attack on Bernie Sanders’ office, the shooting of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and the shooting of Steve Scalese to mention a few.
I am starting to detect the false equivalency call to action. If we consent to it, it will be the kiss of death not only in this election but in the future because we will have ceded the moral ground that Progressives have codified. We are the ones that support life, freedom in all respects, nonviolence, equity, inclusion, and much more that is anathema to the leadership of the Right that then permeates its base.
Specifically, it is ludicrous for Democrats and Progressives to feel or accept any responsibility for a young REGISTERED REPUBLICAN man using an AR-15-STYLE rifle to attempt to take the life of Donald Trump. We must find causality, and that is not difficult if we stop trying to play the false equivalence and balance game. Blame is not hard to ascertain. The Right has established a culture not of compromise but of my way or the gun way. The preponderance of the evidence is clear.
While one can find isolated incidents from a few with an affinity for the Left, the converse on the Right is countless. From the murderer in Austin, Daniel Perry, who gunned down an innocent man in a BLM protest that a corrupt Texas governor Greg Abbott pardoned, to January 6th, where Trump’s MAGA enforcers caused the deaths and injuries of scores of police officers and others. Of course, there is the constancy of mass killings with assault weapons and mostly regular guns because of a Right-Wing culture of virtually unadulterated access to firearms.
We should not forget the rhetoric from prominent MAGA and Right-Wing voices from the former president himself, Steve Bannon, and the head of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, among many others.
I felt that sick feeling as I listened to the news and watched Democrat after Democrat acquiesce to the need for both sides to tone down the rhetoric. Are you kidding me?
When Martha Raddatz, a host generally sympathetic to Republicans, specifically called out Trump, you know this false equivalence has gone too far. This morning on This Week, she said the following.
“We were just looking back this morning at some of the things that former President Trump has said,” Raddatz noted. “He warned last March of potential death and destruction if he were charged by the Manhattan district attorney. ‘Our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful.’ Trump in January warned of bedlam in the country if the criminal charges against him succeeded. And of course, in March, he said, ‘Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it.’ … Those are indeed his words, and you have heard it from supporters as well.”
Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts was not much different in his rhetoric. He declared himself an insurrectionist open to violence based on the following statement.
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution,” he said, “which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Bill Maher also played the false equivalence game.
“Whoever did this, the shooter has done so much damage to the Left,” Maher said. “[The Left] has lost a lot moral high ground in the ‘you’re the violent people,’ and the ‘liberals don’t shoot people, liberals don’t solve it that way.’”
As I mentioned above, violence on the Left in our times has been an aberration while a constancy for the Right. This must be pointed out. Maybe Maher should have waited a bit so he could find out that the shooter was a registered Republican in a county that voted two to one for Trump. I felt compelled to tweet the following to Maher.
I implore Democrats and Progressives not to cave in to play nice lest they get taken to the cleaners. In other words, lose big.
It is not our rhetoric that promotes violence. It is not our rhetoric that, in the aggregate, lacks civility. When the truth is describing uncivil, unethical, immoral, treasonous, and other behaviors existential to what this country has become seem uncivil, it is because what they are doing reflects it! We owe the unadulterated truth to the American people. They depend on our policies. And we cannot allow false equivalences and cowardice to enable Donald Trump, a wannabe autocrat, fascist, and provable chain liar, to go unchecked less we cede the 2024 election and fail Americans.
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