The shocking violence in Alexandria, Virginia, by a crazed gunman, who shot five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana is a sign of escalating violence in this nation, incited by bad blood on both sides of the political spectrum, but also by Donald Trump, who in the past two years has called for violence against his opponent Hillary Clinton, and encouraged violence by his supporters at his campaign rallies against any critics, and that he would pay their legal costs, or so he said.
The political invective is higher now than it has been since the Civil War Era, and Trump cannot be said to be innocent in any fashion, and he likes to act like a bully, and intimidate his critics and opponents. But also, the two parties, Democrats and Republicans, have reached a stage where they cannot “cross the aisle”, as they often did in past decades, to accomplish major goals in legislation.
And conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel has also incited people with their poisonous atmosphere–including Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson, and so many others, all of whom spew hatred.
Some conservatives try to claim that Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, and others considered to be progressives, are doing the same thing on their programs, but that is pure BS!
The political atmosphere has been deteriorating for the past 25 years since Bill Clinton came to the Presidency, and many of the talk show hosts on the Right have become multimillionaires in the process, and Republican leadership has gone along with this to gain their own agenda.
The fact that the shooter of Steve Scalise and others was a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016, will, assuredly make the right wing talk show hosts further inflame the situation, so those on the left cannot remain silent, as some are advocating.
We deplore the shooting, and do not advocate violence, but that does not mean we shall remain silent in the midst of government abuses and illegalities.
The American people expect their government to be accountable to its citizenry!
The toxic rhetoric is coming overwhelmingly from the right.
The House representative for our Congressional district had a meltdown on Twitter, calling Democrats bugs that need to be exterminated: http://bluevirginia.us/2017/06/leftist-terror-root-evil-country-says-congressman-tom-garrett
Entertainment, such as reality TV shows, deserve some of the blame. They normalize rude and crude behavior.
To clear up what Southern Liberal said, Garrett didn’t say that, one of his voters did. However, Garrett’s voter was clearly influenced by his attitude towards liberals and progressives. Here is the article in full:
http://bluevirginia.us/2017/06/leftist-terror-root-evil-country-says-congressman-tom-garrett
by Kellen Squire
Yesterday, in the wake of the shooting in Alexandria, my congressman (Rep. Tom Garrett) went on a sort-of public meltdown on Twitter. In light of what happened, I can absolutely understand why he’d be upset- I know he’s friends with Congressman Scalise, and it was nothing short of a miracle that the results yesterday weren’t even more horrific than they were.
But instead of doing what even the President managed to do yesterday- come together, to agree that we’re all one American family, and that violence is never an answer in our political system… he decided the answer, instead, was to go after the root of the problem.
Violent leftists. Yes, indeed, it’s folks on sites like here at DailyKos that are the problem. And it wasn’t just a passing comment in the heat of the moment… his tirade extended throughout the day, and continued into this morning, in fact. He did everything he could do to “prove†all the problems of vitriol and acrimony in our system were laid directly at the hands of “leftistsâ€, in a fairly transparent attempt to avoid any culpability for his role in the diminishing of public discourse in our country.
I had enough of it. Leaders are supposed to do exactly that– lead. They set an example in dark times, they are the rock in the storm that steady us to go onward. It’s not supposed to be easy, particularly at times like this. But Mr. Garrett in particular seems to have been of the opinion that his Congressional seat was simply something owed to him; that any hard work it takes for him to do the things he’s supposed to do as a Congressman is unacceptable.
What’s more is that on Tuesday, while my race for the House of Delegates wasn’t on the ballot in Virginia, I spent the day visiting every polling place in my district, and our campaign had two-dozen volunteers spread across four counties. At two different places, our volunteers were threatened– and I was personally told by someone that Democrats were like bugs, and needed to be exterminated.
I wasn’t really in the mood to be lectured about “discourseâ€, or to hear that my volunteers– not local county party volunteers, which would be bad enough, but my volunteers, the almost two-dozen men and women who went out in the 90 degree heat in central Virginia all frickin’ day to stand up for a race that wasn’t even on the ballot until November– didn’t actually get threatened. Or, even if they did, meh; probably a joke, amirite?
So I took it to him. (See pictures of Tweets in article link)
There’s plenty more; feel free to read the thread if you like. But predictably, while he read my tweets to him, he ignored responding to them, as he usually does. Like a lot of bullies, he only likes to go after folks on Twitter he think he can punch down at.
But I know he did read ‘em, because he took the time to ask his Chief of Staff to go after me once I told him if he wanted the job, he needed to be a leader. How dare I accuse the Congressman of not being a leader? Why, he’s got a great track record of leadership.
Yes, that’s right, folks– Congressman Garrett is leading the charge to fix the acrimonious nature of our political system… by making sure everyone in Washington, DC has a gun. Yes, that’s the best example of “leadership†my Congressman can point to.
I get it, Congressman Garrett- this is a tough situation. But you rode to power here in Virginia state politics largely on the Tea Party movement, that said Obama was evil, that Democrats were murderers, that anyone who didn’t agree with you were the enemy– not that you disagreed with their politics, not that we needed to find consensus– the enemy.
Now you’re in a position to fix that. And yes, it’s dangerous. Trust me, I know– I worry every single day about that. Keep in mind, I’m running for the House of Delegates in the Trump Winery district, against an incumbent so close to the Trump family he was invited to spend election eve with Ivanka in Northern Virginia. Remember back in December, when that union leader from Indiana, the Carrier guy, deigned to call Trump out on Twitter… and then Trump went after him personally. Guess what happened after that?
“We know where you live.†“We know where your kids go to school.†Death threats. All for calling a spade a spade!
But the state of affairs we find our political system in today isn’t one our Republic can long abide. And if principled folks don’t stand up and charge headfirst to change that, now… I have real concerns about whether or not our Republic will survive it.
So if you want to be a leader, Congressman Garrett, you best suck it up and do everything in your power to fix it, instead of casting blame on Twitter. That’s exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing; why I’m running, even though my race is supposedly one of the toughest in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. Because the time for inaction is over. We were complacent for far too long, and it’s going to take the blood, sweat, and tears of principled leaders of all stripes to stand up and bring us back from the precipice we find ourselves perched on. Now- not later, now.
Before it’s too late.
Kellen Squire is an emergency department nurse running for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 58th District this fall, the seat once held by Thomas Jefferson
Reports are that the shooter had a history of violence in his past. Sensible gun control laws would have kept him from being able to buy a gun.
https://www.vox.com/2017/6/15/15813436/blaming-heated-political-rhetoric-useless-response-to-scalise-shooting
(Agreed, that is brain dead; political rhetoric has ALWAYS been heated in this country – and every other country throughout human history. The problem in THIS country is the proliferation of guns. Duh.)
Democrats won the ballgame last night. http://www.roanoke.com/news/a-ballgame-of-unity-spirit-friendly-rivalry-won-by-dems/article_272df398-8307-57a2-8ade-e5248cb59153.html