So...some MAGA whackjob broke into Nancy Pelosi's house screaming "WHERE'S NANCY?!" and assaulted her husband with a hammer. Nancy herself was in Washington DC, 3000 miles away.
I'm going to be honest, this political violence situation in this country is getting out of hand, and while I won't say the left is blameless (I've criticized violent leftists on this blog before), let's face it, the vast majority of the problems are coming from the right. The right has festered over the past half century into an extremist cult. The problem has become increasingly acute in the post Reagan years between Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and Newt Gingrich's "contract with America." I mean, I noped out of the right when they started getting REALLY extreme after the neocons were ousted and the tea party took over. This has been an ongoing problem. And for a while now, the right has not existed within the realm of reality. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but they haven't. 10 years ago this was almost comedic, with Jon Stewart going on his "BS mountain" skit in his debate with Bill O Reilly, and Rachel Maddow just owning the right after they lost the 2012 election. But since the rise of Donald Trump, the problem has gotten far worse. Right wing extremism is not a new thing. I remember learning in college in the late 2000s that the biggest source of terrorism in the US isn't from Islamic terrorists, but home grown right wing terrorists. People like the KKK and neo nazis and Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma city bombing). The problem is now, while back in the 90s and 2000s, these groups were obviously considered fringe for a reason, these days these extreme voices are getting mainstream support in the republican party. Conservatives are so out of touch due to misinformation that it's radicalizing them to do crazy things like attack pizza restaurants, or try to commit an insurrection to overturn an election, or in this case, go to the home of the speaker of the house and try to attack them with a hammer. This is getting nuts, and this radical GOP is becoming a problem of existential proportions to the future of the country. I don't think all of the people in the GOP are that bad, especially most of the elected representatives. I might think Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, and Ted Cruz are piece of crap, but I don't think they're terrorists or enabling this crap too much. While they are eroding some electoral norms (like Mitch stealing a SCOTUS seat for Trump via obstruction), they're not calling people to VIOLENCE. But at the same time, some people are. Donald Trump explicitly called on people to attack the capitol, and the January 6th hearings have built up a comprehensive case against him. Even people like Marjorie Taylor Greene have done things like blow up cars with high powered sniper rifles in campaign commercials, not to mention practically stalking AOC. So this is a problem. I would love to say that the solution to this is more education, and ultimately it is the solution, but some of these people are so far gone at this point they're not living in reality and don't even trust educational institutions to deliver the truth to them.When people are that far gone, can they really be saved at this point? Either way, we can't stop trying.
The second issue I would like to bring up with this is the issue of home security. I've heard people say, "where was the secret service, doesn't she have body guards"? And the common answer I get back is that SHE does, but the rest of the family can decline protection and presumably did for privacy reasons. Of course, here that backfired. But let's put this aside. There is a solution that any law abiding family can try, at least if you don't live in an extreme blue area, which pelosi does. It's called "getting a gun". I know that the left tends to hate guns these days, and goes way too gung ho on gun control, but as someone who lives in a crime ridden area where there are regular shootings and burglaries, yall need to embrace guns more. What are you going to do when someone breaks into your house? Why, you shoot them. Because if you call 911 and wait for help, you're dead or seriously injured by the time they get to you. And in states like Pennsylvania where I live, there's this thing called a castle law. It's kinda like stand your ground, but it only applies to your home. Your home is your castle, it's your refuge, it's your last resort, and while in public you have a duty to retreat, well, if they come into your home, feuer frei (that means "open fire, for those of you who are not Rammstein obsessed metal heads). And you're protected by the law. It's basically self defense. If someone breaks in, you are well within your rights to shoot them. I know some leftists will be like "but but, you shouldnt execute someone who invades your property". Why? So they can hurt me and take my stuff? No, if you break into someone's house, and they shoot you, that's totally on you. I'm not gonna have sympathy here.
I'm not sure this is an option in a city like Frisco, I know that deep blue states and cities have draconian gun laws and border on outright banning the darned things, but I think if democrats want to get serious about crime, they need to talk about ways for people to protect themselves from it. Right now, the democrats are losing the culture war on this issue. Crime is the #2 issue as we discussed recently, and the democrats look bad on it. The right wing narratives are that liberal cities are creating crime, and all of this wokeness and defund the police stuff is getting in the way of police doing their jobs. I know that this isn't really what's going on. Crime is a complex sociological issue, and I can tell you as the dude with a bachelor's degree in the subject (dual major in political science and criminology/sociology), I can't even tell you why crime is up right now. I have theories, but this crap is complex. But...the public gets very skittish over it. They get very defensive very fast, and want to feel safe in their neighorhoods. And I know that democrats will bring out studies showing that the more guns the population has, the more gun violence (yes, that's true), unless you ban ALL guns, which is never gonna happen in this country, and even if you did I would question the effectiveness of such policies give the prevalence of illegal weapons, well, maybe lefties should get a little more gun comfortable and think about getting them for their own protection. Because if you can't get them, the result is...stuff like what happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband can happen to you. It might not be some deranged attacker looking for you specifically as a famous person, but it could be a stalker, an abusive ex, or burglars. I do support the right to bear arms here. Guns are the great equalizer, especially for those who are physically weak and unable to defend themselves like an 82 year old man trying to fend off a psycho with a hammer. That said, I would say that perhaps the solution here is maybe these liberal areas should relax gun control a little and allow law abiding citizens who pass the right background checks and competency tests to own a firearm, if only to defend themselves.
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