By Hank Beckman –
Another mass shooting and another completely predictable and pointless exercise in assigning blame to someone other that the person who actually pulled the trigger.
Sometimes the NRA and gun manufacturers are the bad guys; sometimes it’s a lack of attention to mental health; other times we blame local law enforcement for not being vigilant enough in enforcing local firearm laws.
But now we also have President Trump to blame.
The bodies in El Paso and Ohio weren’t even identified before Democrat presidential candidates began blaming the president’s rhetoric for normalizing white racism and signaling to other bigots that it was open season on minorities.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (DEM-Mass) said, “The president has embraced white nationalists. He has encouraged white nationalists.” Former congressman Robert O’Rourke (DEM-Tx) opined that the president was not just “tolerating racism, he’s promoting racism. He’s not tolerating violence, he’s inciting racism and violence in this country.” Corey Booker (DEM-N.J.) said that Trump is “sowing the seeds of hatred…he’s responsible, when he has taken no action whatsoever to even condemn white supremacy, even when his own FBI is talking about this being sourcing major parts of our problem.”
No honest person can find a statement by the president that remotely suggests that it’s acceptable go out and murder immigrants, legal or illegal. The canard about him describing Nazis and white nationalists as “very fine people” has been debunked more times than Bigfoot; even the New York Times admits that it is nonsense. And no sentient person should believe that advocating tougher immigration policies would trigger anyone but an insane person to commit mass murder. Trump can’t be responsible for every nut-job in America.
But since the Left thinks it can score political points by claiming Trump’s rhetoric causes violence—let’s play along.
The “manifesto” allegedly the work of the perpetrator of the El Paso shooting is a little more detailed than our liberal friends would have us believe.
In addition to the anti-immigrant rhetoric, he rails against corporations, bemoans the fate of the environment, and says that both parties are terrible. And he specifically states that his political values “predate Trump and his campaign for president.”
That doesn’t quite fit with the narrative of the white nationalist posting a hate-filled rant against people of color, but that doesn’t stop most media from framing it that way.
As for the shooter in Ohio, reports are that he approved of socialism, supported Elizabeth Warren in her race for the presidency and loved the left-leaning members of the congressional “Squad.”
So if rhetoric is responsible for mass shootings, does Elizabeth Warren have some explaining to do for what happened in Dayton?
And what part did the environmental rhetoric and activism play in motivating the El Paso killer?
For that matter, since we’re determined to examine how rhetoric causes violence, maybe this would be a good time for Democrats and their information arm in media to take a closer look at the Muslim community.
The list of mass murder in recent years by Muslims is impressive, to say the least.
There was the terrorists acts of Sept. 11, 2001, in which almost 3,000 Americans died. The perpetrators were devout Muslims carrying out their version of civilizational jihad. (And in in the country on visas…but don’t mention that to your leftist friends; they’ll get upset)
Then there were the Beltway Snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who terrorized the Washington, DC area in the fall of 2002, eventually murdering 10 random, innocent people.
Prosecutors theory of the case was that Muhammad, who most media identified as John Allen Williams to cover up any affiliation with Islam, was motivated by a desire to cover up the murder of his wife; but his jailhouse rants were filled with Islamic references.
A devout Muslim, U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, opened fire at Ft. Hood in 2009, killing 13 of his fellow soldiers and injuring 30 others. He was open about his commitment to Islam, which raised concerns from some of his superior officers. He even communicated by email with Anwar al-Awlaki, a notorious jihadist, from whom he sought spiritual guidance.
Then there were the 2009 Boston Marathon bombing, perpetrated by Muslim immigrants living at taxpayers expense in the country they grew to hate—three dead, several hundreds injured; and the Pulse Nightclub shooting—49 dead, 53 wounded; the San Bernardino attack of 2015, committed by a husband an wife jihadist team—14 dead, 22 injured.
Do any of these Democrats or their public relations people in media think it might be a good idea to turn some of their attention to what’s being taught in some of the mosques that have become so familiar with the growth of Islam in America?
It’s not exactly a secret that there are radical Imams openly spewing anti-Semitic filth from various pulpits around the country. A New York Post article just last year highlights five examples of radical Imams preaching violence against Jews.
And while we’re examining how rhetoric might cause political violence, now would be a perfect time for the Democrats to turn their attention to someone in their own party: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly-minted millennial voice of the party.
Her comments about ICE detention centers being akin to Nazi concentration camps apparently fell on receptive ears, with several incidents at ICE facilities around the country,
Two, at Washington, D.C., and Seattle, Washington stopped at protests, although protests bordering on being illegal. Two others, in San Antonio, Texas and Tacoma, Washington, involved gun play and incendiary devices.
No one was hurt in either attack, but only because the perpetrators were poor shots in San Antonio, and officials killed the Tacoma attacker.
So the Left wants to have a conversation about political rhetoric and violence. Fine.
But let’s not stop with President Trump.
