Almost as soon as the first bombs showed up, some prominent right-wing conservatives labeled them as a "false flag" - an attempt by Democrats to blame Republicans. With the arrest of the bomber today, most of those right-wing conservatives have gone radio silent, although a few have held onto a feeble narrative that the whole thing was a Democratic attempt to affect the elections, and the bombs were a hoax. These people are idiots, refusing to see the facts that are staring them in the face. The bombs were real - the fact that they didn't detonate says more about our law enforcement agencies than it does about the bomber.
Trump, in a bizarre tweet at 3 AM last night, said in frustration that the "bombs" (as he called them, suggesting they weren't real) were moving the media discussion away from politics and slowing what he thought was a GOP momentum heading into the midterm elections. This is a president totally out of touch with reality - the country is on edge about bombs targeting his opponents, and he's focused on politics.
It turns out that the guy who is apparently responsible for the bombs is what can only be called a deranged Trump supporter.
That doesn't mean that he represents all Trump supporters - I believe that the overwhelming majority of Trump supporters were as horrified by what was happening as were those of us who do not support him. There is no place for violence in our political system - I think we can all agree on that.
What concerns me is that the rhetoric that supports this type of behavior hasn't changed. Trump will simply not accept responsibility for promoting violence against his opponents or the media. In his mind, he's the victim because he's being "treated unfairly" by the press - it's ALWAYS about him. And he will not tone down his attacks - he will continue to attack the Dems as "a mob", and attack the media as "fake news" and "the enemy of the people" because they don't fawn all over him.
In the end, we get to some deranged person who listened to Trump's BS and decided he needed to do something about it. And that's how we get to someone building bombs and sending them in the mail in a misguided attempt to assassinate Trump's opponents. That's the danger of the rhetoric that Trump uses - if you can't see that, you're part of the problem.
This has to change... |
