A man broke into the home of Nancy Pelosi and attacked her husband with a hammer. Mr. Pelosi is in stable condition in the hospital, and I pray for his full recovery.
Indeed. Politicians and the Infotainment Media Complex are begging for it, with the continued drumbeat of civil war, domestic terrorism, etc. We are already an over-stressed nation of the overworked, the overweight, the overwrought, over-medicated and over-propagandized.
WaPo helpfully informs us, Attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband follows years of GOP demonizing her.
No shit. Politics is all demonization all the time. People on the left routinely demonize those on the right. So what? In the fevered minds of the “never let a crisis go to waste” Democrat left, this all leads back to Trump and his MAGA followers. Pushing that stale propaganda is nakedly transparent, and it’s not working anymore, other than to whip the msnbc crowd into an even frothier rage-filled hysteria.
Donald Trump is no more responsible for this than Maxine Waters was for innocent people being attacked by violent leftists “getting up in their faces and letting them know they’re not welcome.” Bernie Sanders was not responsible for the leftwing kook shooting up the GOP softball practice. Enough already.
“Thoughts and Prayers”
Then we have those hollering that Republican so-and-so didn’t repudiate the attack. So? I doubt any politician in either party supports breaking into someone’s home and attacking them with a hammer.
Will obligatory, perfunctory and performative statements really help?
Does anyone really believe violent crazy people will be swayed by a politician’s canned statement?
It Goes Both Ways
Further, if you believe irresponsible, unhinged rants by prominent people like Trump goad people to violence, then you must also believe that taunts, trolling and name-calling from prominent people on the left directed at the right also foment violence.
It can equally be argued that calling people white supremacists, neo-nazis, fascists, etc, gives a green light to attack and even kill them.
I reject it all. I’ve already said I hate Trump’s blowtorch rhetoric, just as I detest the snarky insults and irresponsible name-calling by the Acela Corridor elites aimed at the red state “deplorables.”
I believe in personal agency and responsibility, so I blame the perpetrator. Having said that, irresponsible rhetoric from all sides is stoking rage on all sides, and I’m pretty sure it pushes some unstable people over the edge.
Blaming one “side” or the other every time an act of violence happens is a downward spiral of insanity. Worse, it chokes out any opportunity for self-reflection and productive conversation.
What say you?