{"id":1690,"date":"2017-06-14T11:28:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T15:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2017-06-14T11:28:34","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T15:28:34","slug":"shooting-republicans-gunman-influenced-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/06\/shooting-republicans-gunman-influenced-resistance.html","title":{"rendered":"The Shooting of Republicans: Was the Gunman Influenced by “the Resistance?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s still early yet, but, reportedly, shortly before a would-be assassin opened fire on a baseball team comprised of Republican members of Congress, hitting three of them, including House of Representatives Majority Whip, Steve Scalise, he asked Congressman Ron DeSantis whether his prospective victims were Republicans or Democrats.<\/p>\n

Presumably, when the shooter, who has just been identified as James Hodgkinson, was satisfied that it was Republicans on whom he was about to set his sights, he shot off dozens of rounds from his hunting rifle.<\/p>\n

If these eye-witness accounts are accurate, then there is no question that this potential massacre was the worst act of political violence that we have witnessed in this country in a long time.<\/p>\n

Neither is there any question that it is the culmination of a trend of leftist <\/em>violence that, in a variety of ways and in a variety of contexts, the left has been visiting upon Donald Trump\u2019s supporters and Republicans generally from at least the time that our President announced his plans to run for the office back in June of 2015.<\/p>\n

There have been literally hundreds of documented attacks against those sporting pro-Trump paraphernalia and attending Trump\u2019s rallies.<\/p>\n

Leftist billionaires and millionaires have been busy financing mercenaries, paid leftist agitators, to crash Republican politicians\u2019 \u201ctown hall\u201d meetings, to \u201cget in the faces\u201d of Republicans, a course of action that Barack Obama once infamously urged his supporters to appropriate when dealing with their political opponents.<\/p>\n

Shortly prior to the last presidential election, a GOP campaign office in North Carolina was firebombed.<\/p>\n

Academics, like Cornel West, along with others of his ideological ilk, have created a \u201cResistance\u201d movement against, not any particular policies of the President and his party, but the very election of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Celebrities like Madonna admit to fantasizing about \u201cblowing up\u201d Trump\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n

Comedian Kathy Griffin has a photoshoot in which she is featured holding up the decapitated, bloody head of the President.<\/p>\n

Rapper \u201cSnoop Dogg\u201d makes a video of himself shooting a clown that is obviously meant to resemble Trump, and his nephew \u201cBow Wow\u201d threatens to \u201cpimp out\u201d the First Lady.<\/p>\n

The New York Public Theater stages a play that depicts a Trump-centric Julius Caesare being stabbed to death.<\/p>\n

The left, whether in its standard Democrat or neoconservative\/NeverTrump varieties, spares no occasion to delegitimize Trump\u2019s presidency and demonize, no, dehumanize, him as a person.\u00a0 By implication, leftists, as represented by Hillary Clinton\u2019s immemorial remarks, demonize and dehumanize as well the President\u2019s tens of millions of supporters, those \u201cirredeemables\u201d and \u201cdeplorables.\u201d<\/p>\n

The left has long backed Black Lives Matter (BLM), a movement\u2014begotten by the lie that black thug Michael Brown had his hands up when he was shot and killed by a white Ferguson, Missouri police officer\u2014some of whose members have openly demanded the death of police officers and others of whom have literally tried to bring this wish to fruition.<\/p>\n

The left has spawned \u201cAntifa\u201d (\u201cantifascists\u201d), thugs dressed in all black and wearing masks.\u00a0 These punks make it their business to burn American flags, curse police officers, and use any and all available weapons in order to literally beat those who support the President and America.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Congress, along with their NeverTrump allies across the aisle, show utter contempt for Trump.\u00a0 Their fellow travelers in the Fake News media\u2014places like CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post<\/em>, and the New York Times<\/em>\u2014promote entirely unsubstantiated propaganda, like the Russian \u201ccollusion\u201d Conspiracy, designed to vilify Trump and those in his administration as traitors to the country.<\/p>\n

Given this toxic environment, in some cases, the murderously disdainful environment, that leftists in academia, Hollywood, the media, and Congress have promoted, it is unsurprising that some hate-filled person would decide to get in on the game by gunning down a bunch of Republicans.<\/p>\n

What is<\/em> surprising is that shootings of the type that occurred this morning in Alexandria, Virginia haven\u2019t been occurring more frequently.<\/p>\n

Among the things the left has given America is the return of political violence in 2017.\u00a0 The mass shooting in Alexandria seems to be a product of this.<\/p>\n

Of course, thus far, no leftist commentator or \u201cjournalist\u201d is speaking to the role that their ideology likely played in this.\u00a0 What the talking heads in the media have told us, though, is that the shooter was described as a \u201cwhite middle-aged man<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Ah. This is telling: \u00a0Whenever there\u2019s a case of Islamic terrorism, say, or of black-on-nonblack crime, these same folks who trip over themselves in their rush to identify the whiteness of suspected criminal perpetrators are conspicuously silent on the matter of race.<\/p>\n

All too predictably, there are already those on the left who are exploiting the gunning down of Republican lawmakers for their <\/em>political agenda. Twitter is aglow with tweets about Steve Scalise\u2019s refusal to support gun \u201ccontrols\u201d and his willingness to accept money from the NRA. Here\u2019s one by \u201cKatrina\u201d or \u201csilentkpants\u201d: \u201cSteve Scalise supported bills to loosen gun restrictions, opposed controls, & accepted $7, 450 from NRA.\u201d This tweeter then adds: \u201cMy thoughts & prayers are with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though this remark doesn\u2019t deserve to be dignified with a response\u2014it\u2019s irrational and disingenuous on multiple levels\u2014I will briefly address it anyhow:<\/p>\n

(1)As of this point, we do not yet know whether the shooter legally owned the weapon that he used.\u00a0 He could have obtained it through the black market or stolen it.\u00a0 And this brings us to our next point:<\/p>\n

(2)Even had guns of the sort allegedly used in Virginia been completely banned, this would only create that much larger of a black market.\u00a0 That is to say, just like the plethora of drugs that are criminalized but which remain very much available to those who desire them, guns of all sorts will remain very much available to those who want them. Restrictions on the Second Amendment guarantee this.<\/p>\n

(3) Because of (1) and (2), it is offensive, both intellectually and morally, to think that Scalise is somehow reaping what he sowed in opposing \u201ccontrols\u201d and accepting money from the NRA.<\/p>\n

Again, details are still murky.\u00a0 However, to repeat, that leftists have mainstreamed hatred of their opponents and legitimized political violence can easily explain how Republicans became targeted for death while practicing for an annual Congressional baseball game.<\/p>\n

Republicans and all decent folks should indeed capitalize upon this outrage as a teachable moment, the moment when the remotely sober-minded, and perhaps even some of the haters, may recognize the dangerousness of the environment that their noxious words have contributed to creating.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s still early yet, but, reportedly, shortly before a would-be assassin opened fire on a baseball team comprised of Republican members of Congress, hitting three of them, including House of Representatives Majority Whip, Steve Scalise, he asked Congressman Ron DeSantis whether his prospective victims were Republicans or Democrats. 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