When I heard about the shooting of Congressional Republicans practicing for a baseball game with their Democrat opponents, I was saddened but not surprised. Since the election of Donald Trump, there has been a nonstop cacophony of insults and an ever-increasing call to violence by the left. Will the Democrat leadership stop this? I doubt it.
If we look at the most recent situation, we have at least two current incidents of individuals and groups targeting the President. Kathy Griffin beheaded the President and a Public Theater group of actors and actresses portraying a modern version of the death of Julius Caesar stabbed a lookalike of Trump to death. Both of these are directly inciting violence.
The head of the DNC and many Democrat legislators are using all kinds of profanity to describe Trump. Importantly, the vitriol is constantly reported in the biased news media and repeated in virtually every gathering of Democrat Party faithful. I blame this crescendo of profanity and calls to violence on Hillary Clinton and her “Basket of Deplorable” comments. By her very statement, she encouraged the Democrat “faithful” to use any and all means to eliminate dissent. The “faithful” took her words to heart, particularly on campuses around the nation.
The collapse of Obamacare and the contrived Russia collusion situation merely increases the anger and frustration of the losing Democrats. Notably, the appointment of a Special Counsel can only add more fuel to the fire since the appointee, former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, appears to be seeding his office with Democrat operatives. If this is to be a fair and unbiased investigation, then the entirety of the Presidential Election should be scrutinized not just focused on Trump – a point confusingly made by Arizona Senator John McCain with his questioning of fired FBI Director James Comey.
The ultimate danger in all this is the destruction of rational debate and its substitution by emotional and ideological diatribe, and open civil warfare in the future. Democrats have been pushing violence in talk, language and now reality – and Republicans are actually beginning to understand the political and social implications.
Frankly, I do not see how Americans can be brought together when one group thinks that global socialism and the destruction of America is a good idea while the other favors pride in America and its borders, language, culture and Constitution. Add to this the Islamic terrorist situation and you have a very combustible future.
84 comments
“Add to this the Islamic terrorist situation” – this is the sort of radical right rhetoric that is ruining our republic – you are a terrible person to attempt to gain political gain from shootings like this (another by a white guy, BTW).
I suggest you study what is happening in Western Europe. Both the totalitarian left and the totalitarian Islamists are competing to see who can do the greatest damage to civilized society. But, of course, you really don’t care.
As far as political gain from this, that is laughable. The left, BLM and antifa, are overwhelmingly destructive but claim the mantle of equality and tolerance for political gain. Your problem is that those of us on the right are starting to fight back.
The far right has bullied the country for decades. Only now are you starting to get push back
Who can forget Trump encouraging supporters to violently attack dissenters in the crowd?
Promised to pay their legal bills.
Need video proof?
http://bit.ly/2sf6cI7
I am sorry he offered to pay the bill but not sorry he called out the constantbviolent protest orchestrated by DNC operatives.
Call-out? He called for more! He called for retribution! And for what? Protest signs or shouting?
You are a hypocrite.
Fortunately for me, there is videotape of Democrat protstorbassaulting trump rally goers. Am guessing you forgot that.
Who can forget Hillary naming a”basket of deplorables” and suggesting its elimination? Somehow she wasnt upset when her supporters attacked Trump rally goers around the nation. And, by the way, which group did more personal and economic damage.
I agree. I did not vote for her. She cut her own throat with that and it’s one more reason we are discussing Trump today. It hurt her in the wrong places and so she lost the electoral votes even though she polled 3 million more popular votes.
Trump promised to unify this country and heal;
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/12/07/trump-promises-to-heal-divisions-unify-nation/
I guess the power company has him on their payroll, too, huh?
Why are you asking me, when apparently it is you who rubs elbows with the power company lobby?
Judging by vpap records, the power company has already picked (or purchased) a winner in the governor’s racket, I mean race. But, maybe not, takes time to follow all that power company money being pumped into Virginia politics.
If I were ever elected governor, I would want the same treatment McAuliffe received on February 4, 2015 from the power company. Did McAuliffe show everybody how fundraising is done on that day? Was the fundraising bar raised? Ole’ Terry is major league. All legal.
Are Virginia consumers now paying BILLIONS more for electricity (SB 1349) just so the Hillary campaign could get a few bucks from the power company? February 4, 2015, remember that day. All legal, of course.
I feel certain that the power company is more “focused” these days on the Virginia Supreme Court case #161519.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make em drink.
How many government deposits hit your bank account every month?
Too many. I would prefer the government give me back what they have taken and with appropriate interest. The welfare state is nothing but robbery by government means.
“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Warmac999, you might consider another country. This one has made its goals clear.
I will mark you down as one who wishes the Constitution read differently, dissenting from its preamble as you do.
Promote is not the same as provide. There is no question that the welfare state was not intended to provide anything but individual liberty. Paying people to do nothing is simply wrong.
Warmac9999, you are a gem. That’s what you’re hanging your hat on? Good luck in life. You have a very unique perspective. BTW, paying people to do nothing is absolutely the right thing to do if that are incapable of doing anything. Victims of shootings, violence, disability, and so on. Were you including social security as welfare? If so, it is paid into with the expectation of being paid out for doing nothing.
Have you ever read anything about the history of Social Security? I don’t think you understand its original purpose or its ongoing destruction. As far as helping victims, we are the most charitable nation in the world. We do not need the government controlled welfare state except for very short periods of time, and we really didn’t need it in the depression if the depression hadn’t been extended by poor government policy making.
We were once the greatest creditor nation in the world and we are now the greatest debtor nation in the world – all in about a hundred years. This cannot continue indefinitely – and ever increasing debt has never been a prescription for success in individual or national affairs. I wonder if we can even agree on that.
So you will oppose your president and your party’s demand that Congress raise the debt limit? Stand firm, Warmac9999. This President spends like no tomorrow and will shift spending to interest on the debt fueled by deficit-billowing tax cuts. Kansas has had enough.
Obama doubles the national debt. Trump has done virtually nothing. Yet you blame trump. You must be a democrat.
Your lack of logical ability fails you again, Warmac999. I asked a clear question: Republicans are seeking another debt limit increase. Do you support that? Or will you hypocritically excuse that?
Oh, and here’s a pop quiz: Which party was in control of the budget while Obama was in office? Hint: Same party that’s in control of it now. Same party that is demanding another increase in borrowing authority.
The wall aside, of course, because everyone knows the Mexicans are paying for that.
Wrong once again. The democrats had complete control for the first two years of the obama presidency – thus the disaster known as Obamacare.
You cannot credibly deny responsibility for the past six years. Spin, spin, all you want, it is unavoidable. If you want to pin two of the past eight on Obama, you need to take full responsibility for the last six, or you are a hypocrite, and the next four are on you, too. Get crackin’! You’ve run up quite the debt! No debt limit increase for you, it’s liquor for a drunk.
Who was president during those six years and vetoed every budget – thus forcing continuing resolutions to keep the government running.
I would shut down the government until there is an actual budget in place. Continuing resolutions are a dereliction of congressional duty, and no president should get away with forcing such gimmicks by using the borrowing power of the government and the money printing power of the federal reserve.
And the welfare they were talking about had nothing to do with “state welfare” as it is now used.
Righto, AmyH, and that’s because there were few states nor direct welfare systems at that time. They directly provided care to one another as would a single-payer system.
And that is anti-historical too.
You are delusional. A more perfect union and promoting the general Welfare were precisely the point and exactly how our forefathers behaved. Shame on you for your selfishness. There is plenty for all.
The founders were not talking about welfare payments.
Nor did they foresee radio, television or websites — to cite a few examples, AmyH — but hey, let’s apply the First Amendment to them anyway, OK? And while we’re at it, let’s agree the Second Amendment applies to weapons unforeseen, right? And so on. Is this your best argument?
Oh, and are you with Warmac9999 on ending social security? I’m curious, just so we can take the temperature on how likely you are to advance a politically palatable idea here in the future. A hint: If you’re abandoning social security, you’re not going to make a political difference during your lifetime, nothing but a liability to your party.
Well, I guess your willingness to wave the Confederate flag speaks volumes on your behalf, so abandoning Florida (social security?) isn’t such a big deal for you, who’d prefer to nurture single digit support among the populace. You don’t think many people will miss Medicare, do you? Good! Work with that!
Whatever you do, AmyH, don’t dilute the brand. Don’t fight for the middle. Leave that for the other people. After all, you have standards, right?
Mies… that is not even CLOSE to the same thing. “the general welfare”, in the context of the Constitution, means what is good for all “the people” of the United States NOT to welfare payments paid to some citizens out of the pockets of others. That is not “promoting the general welfare”… it is theft and redistribution. It is also specifically condemned by the founders:
“To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose
fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’”
— Thomas Jefferson
You can go back to the pilgrims who embraced communism only to find out that it didn’t work because some people are industrious and some are lazy.
Exactly… they starved.
Saddened is not the correct response… infuriated. Determined to FINALLY hold Democrats accountable for their actions. Filled with righteous rage. Those are the correct responses.
Save your fury for the battle. Save your sadness for this great nation.
My great nation profits not at all from sadness.
I think it was a mistake to have such a measured response from Republicans today, all too eager to forgive Democrats and the media for what happened today. Had it been the Democrats they would have destroyed Republicans over it, you would never hear the end of it, but Republicans, ever taking the high road, are loath to even make a connection between the daily dehumanization of conservatives and the President that happens in the media and a gunman who literally brought a rifle to a public place hunting Republicans as if they were white tail deer in the forest.
Conservatives deserve to be angry about this, they deserve to use it as a touchstone to highlight the issues of media bias, violent leftist rhetoric, and Democratic intolerance and hypocrisy. Conservatives have to deal with people saying hateful things to them all the time and nobody seems to care, certainly nobody in the media, the media is happy to perpetuate all of this hate, and its high time conservatives start arguing the point.
Again, Democrats would make hay with this until the end of time, and I believe conservatives should do the same, not because turnabout is fair play, but because its a teachable moment for Democrats and they need to hear their own words being said back to them.
There is more to this than just one man. You don’t hang around for a couple of months camping out at a ymca without a support network of some kind. The media won’t report the truth – already have dropped Republican from victims of shooting. This article takes no prisoners and pins all of this on the Democrats where it belongs.
By all accounts, he was living in a van. He was mentally ill, a convicted domestic abuser.
A sincere question Warmac9999: Should the shooter have had legal access to a firearm, let alone a Military-style assault rifle? Where should the fitness line be drawn?
As far as I can see, the only problem was disarming law abiding people so they were helpless in the face of an armed political terrorist. Western Europe is a perfect example of what happens when you do that.
I’m asking about yesterday, which occurred in Virginia, where respect for the Second Amendment is strong and protected by the law. In fact, in Virginia open carry requires no permit, so I cannot see how any law abiding people were made helpless.
The guy was mentally ill and yesterday was not his first run-in with the law or charges of violence. Should he have had access to a gun legally?
As one congressman said he was driven to do this by extreme political rhetoric.
Just like I said: He was mentally ill. Anyone who takes a life like that is sick. It wasn’t his first rodeo: He engaged in domestic violence. He lived in a van.
Dylan Roof was driven by ideology, but from the opposite spectrum. I think they were both nuts (Roof is still alive).
Evil exists and it is not always tied to mental illness. I think you can name a bunch of very evil men who are quite sane – Putin, Stalin, Mao, pol pot, Castro, most of the leadership of mid-eastern countries, on and on.
None killed with their own hands. I offer them no defense but note that very different circumstances. The shooter was crazy. I have no doubt of it. There is nothing rational associated with the acts undertaken. He is no one’s hero, a completely deranged loser living out of a van. Nuts.
WOW… that is anti-historical.
And you are hysterical! In every deep sense of that word, AmyH! Hysterical!
Happens far too often and directed at both sides of the aisle. No excuse for violence, condemn it in all its forms.
What’s your excuse for turning a mentally ill terrorist into a partisan issue?
Right-thinking people stand united against these despicable acts. Misguided people fuel discord on a partisan basis. Thanks for raising your hand, Sarah. it’s useful for counting the house and maintaining order.
That is a false equivalence.
Equivalence, true, but not at all false.
The shooter was mentally ill, a convicted domestic abuser who either was or should’ve been properly restricted from access to any firearm (although I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment, I think the vast majority of such supporters support reasonable restrictions on those unfit).
We’ve seen them from all sides of the spectrum and doesn’t Gabby Giffords know it, as do the Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan families among many others.
In the final analysis, I know of only one president captured on video inciting violence and “promising, promising” to pay the legal bills for those perpetrating it.
You have NO indication that the shooter was any more mentally ill than the antifa crowds that beat people with impunity or the black lives matter idjits that are given “safe space to riot”.
FYI… the guy that shot Gabby Giffords was a liberal if not a Democrat… as were the guys who shot Lincoln and Kennedy. The ONLY one on your list that was truly mentally ill was John Hinkley.
Your last paragraph is just false… or you lived under a rock for the last 8 years while Obama encouraged and condoned rioting and looting.
I’m sorry, AmyH, rational discourse with you isn’t going to be possible. Enjoy your perspective. The shooter is so clearly mentally ill that no further discussion of it is warranted. By definition he committed an act of clear derangement, not his first. He lived in a van. The list wasn’t intended to be exhaustive and the non-partisan nature of yesterday’s occurrences is so obvious that the Speaker and POTUS both emphasized it immediately. Without any doubt these acts come from individuals across the spectrum of political belief. Grow up. Get a clue. Yours is an infantile view of the world. Bare minimum acknowledge the leadership of the party and act accordingly. You simply intend to sow further discord and unwarranted partisan retribution.
That circular logic is not logic at all. People can and do commit terrible acts while being fully sane. It is called evil.
Yesterday’s act was not non-partisan. It was an attempt at assassinating Republicans.
So then what was Dylan Roof? Sane too?
An evil racist murderer.
Yes… he was sane. Evil but sane (which is why he was tried instead of committed).
Dylann Roof posed with the same Confederate flag Corey Stewart and you defend. It was the focus of his website. It would be the focus and face of the Republican Party this fall but for a one percent difference in votes Tuesday.
The picture is infamous, easily searched and found. Now admit you and Dylann and Corey aren’t far from one another on the political spectrum. You love that flag, don’t you? Admit it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/dylann-storm-roof-photos-website-charleston-church-shooting.html
or shortened to:
http://nyti.ms/2sxroMv
And?
And yes I do esteem that flag… I have several several times great grandfathers and other relatives who fought (and sometimes died) under it. Valuing your heritage != being a racist.
Frankly, Amy, he has to make up facts to suit his argument. There is no diagnosis of mental illness, however, there is considerable evidence that he was driven to do this because of constant incitement to violence by democrat politicians, the MSM, and supposed entertainers. And this incitement continues today.
I do not believe his claim about being a supporter of the 2nd amendment. With upwards of 20,000 laws on the books, lobbying for more because of mental illness is simply another attempt to put a nail in the coffin of the 2nd. We have had states try to force a registry, take weapons away from senior citizens and veterans, and use very sensational shootings to push for more “reasonable” regulations. As one congressman who was on the ball field noted – I am going to carry from now on and to hell with the D.C. Prohibition.
Virginia is a solid pro-2nd -Amendment state. Make your claim otherwise. Let’s hear it. Open carry without a permit. You can walk through Arlington’s high rises with a gun or two loaded on your hip and in your hands, handgun or long arm. Totally legal. I do not suggest otherwise, but I am surprised by your claim that restrictive gun laws were somehow an issue.
Timothy McVeigh? Dylann Roof?
And how is the last paragraph false? Should we disbelieve our own eyes and ears. Video may stimulate your memory:
http://bit.ly/2sf6cI7
Obama incited violence with Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Hillary incited violence with “basket of deplorables”
Dylann Roof was not a conservative or a Republican. Like most KKK types, his stated beliefs and personal choices indicate an affinity with liberalism. (You do know that the KKK was actually started by Democrats, don’t you?)
Timothy McVeigh’s stated beliefs appear to be libertarian and also deeply anti-government so we will give that one to you. So that is, what? One out of the six you mentioned?
And the last paragraph is false because, for one, it ignores the last president’s words and actions.
The opening paragraph of Roof’s manifesto:
“The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. I kept
hearing and seeing his name, and eventually I decided to look him up. I
read the Wikipedia article and right away I was unable to understand
what the big deal was. It was obvious that Zimmerman was in the right.
But more importantly this prompted me to type in the words “black on
White crime” into Google, and I have never been the same since that day.
The first website I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens.
There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I
was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very
wrong. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while
hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?”
Not conservative?
Post a video link with Obama inciting violence just like the one I posted of Trump specifically inciting violent behavior, even “promising, promising” to fund the consequences.
Otherwise I call fake news from you. Video or it didn’t happen.
http://nyti.ms/2sxroMv
He adored the Confederate flag. Flew it proudly. And you deny he is a conservative?
Yes, not conservative. Only an ass (or, apparently, someone named Mies) equates racism with conservatism.
AmyH: It’s not me that equates them (read the name of the website that inspired him) and I am not an ass, thank you, but I understand your frustration and the subsequent name-calling: You were trying to distance yourself from Dylann Roof and now we know you adore and fly the same flag. Need we say more?
Read, AmyH: He was inspired by a website called Council of Conservative Citizens. He considered himself a conservative. He displayed a picture of himself with the Confederate Flag. Case closed.
And remember: Unlike you, I do not deny for a moment this crazy person was a leftist of some kind. I am simply observing there are insane killers motivated by all manner of ideology, right and left. The issue is not partisan, which was the point of Paul Ryan and Trump, but it seems you missed that part.
We stand united against this. An injury to one is an injury to all. Absolutely, so stop trying to divide people. You are a Confederate Flag waver and that is bad enough.
You are ruining the good name of conservatives and Republicans. You are Warmac9999 must be allies! Both planted here to taint the otherwise good people who assemble here and draw me to read, people like Steven Brodie Tucker.
Visiting a website did not make Dylann Roof a conservative.
Agreed on that! But mentioning the origins of his motivations in the opening paragraph of his manifesto, priceless. Not to mention again the Confederate flag, the affection for which he shares with you and Corey Stewart.
All this because you simply refuse to acknowledge violence comes from all ideological corners, both Right and Left, with the common component that the mass murderer must be insane to commit such irrational acts. I stand with the leaders of all major political parties: An injury to one is an injury to all, we stand united against these acts.
Too bad you cannot. You make about as much sense as Corey Stewart burning down the Republican Party. It is essential Virginia offer an alternative to the Democrats, but if that’s going to happen it’s going to take a long time to get back to that place and you are Exhibit A, AmyH.
Those who cannot even acknowledge a problem stand no hope of fixing it. Political violence is not now and has never been equal from the left and right. As I pointed out using YOUR EXAMPLES, political violence is mainly a leftist thing. you can plug your ears all you want to stop from hearing that fact, it will not make it any less true.
Thank you, AmyH. Stay involved, be energetic and never, ever give up. Keep waving that Confederate flag! Let everyone know where you’re coming from!
My examples? Right, Dylann Roof. About that, AmyH. You think he’s a leftist and you proved that to me, right? Even though he cited a conservative publication as his political inspiration and makes the Confederate flag the symbol of his website. Okay, AmyH. Righto! Whatever you want to believe is fine with me!
You seem to be stuck on the Confederate flag… that is not now and never has been a conservative avatar. It is esteemed by both conservative blue-blood Southerners (as part of their heritage) and Democrat-voting rednecks (as a symbol of freedom and rebellion). Dylann Roof being pictured with a Confederate flag does not make him a conservative or a Republican.
It does mark him as conservative, sharing ideology with conservative democrats (Dixiecrats) and conservative Republicans, primarily in the South. It is a political ideology to which you subscribe. There are no modern Democrats defending the Confederate flag. It is a standard only for those on the Republican side of the aisle and you know it. Stop lying.It is your brand and you share it with him. Admit it.
It does not… you are factually wrong.
OK, AmyH! Keep flying that flag!
And again, people can commit murder (and attempted mass assassination) without being crazy. Why do liberals have such a hard time admitting that evil exists?
I am not a liberal, but I think all people admit evil exists.
You are among the very few who is stirred to action by the false belief evil originates exclusively or even predominantly from any one part of the political spectrum.
Coincidentally — or perhaps causally — you share this belief with the crazy shooter.
I do believe, with the vast experience of history to stand as evidence, that evil predominantly and most destructively, arises from leftist thinking. Communism, Socialism, Nazi-ism… all leftist, authoritarian ideologies. Together, they have a death toll of well over 100 million souls. On a smaller scale… it is liberals and progressives who are regularly filmed rioting/looting/beating people NOT conservatives.
As I said earlier, your equivalence is false. I will newly add, it is also obscene.
I revise my statement: You are a crackpot who would neither acknowledge today’s America is a socialist state — with Republicans in charge — nor could she tell the difference between it and communism or capitalism — or for that matter Nazis. You truly are a fool. Stay involved and strong with Corey, AmyH. You belong with one another, waving your Confederate flags. Dylann Roof will be proud and thankful to you for advancing his symbol.
As some lawyer once told me: “when you have the law on your side, pound the law. When you have facts on your side, pound the facts. When you have neither, pound the table.”
YOU, Mies, are pounding the table. Go read some history (and look up what the acronym NAZI stands for and what party it arose from) and get back to me.
Get back to you? Read some history? AmyH, I am running from you, not getting back to you and your Confederate flags, which you deny have anything at all to do with conservatism. Or the Council of Conservative Citizens. Or whatever. You are simply out of your mind.
There have been nearly 200 attacks against Trump,supporters not including the ballpark shooting. Latest count involves homicides, attempted homicidea, arson, assault, and attempted assault.