So, the republicans are going with this line that the reason Trump keeps being targetted by would be assassins is because of democratic rhetoric claiming he's a threat to democracy. As someone who deals in this rhetoric, my response: "have you considered not being a threat to democracy?" I dont use the rhetoric lightly. I avoided painting trump in existential terms in 2016 and 2020, despite many fellow lefties and democrats doing so. I rolled my eyes at such rhetoric, but this time, Trump is scary. He literally incited a mob to overturn the results of the 2020 election. HE engaged in heated rhetoric. he's also talked about suspending the constitution, being a dictator for a day, locking up political opponents, and so many other things that arent worth mentioning or counting. THe fact is, trump has lobbed so many rhetorical bombs since 2015 or so that it's impossible to count them all in one simple blog post. Heck, last week he started talking about haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats and now neo nazis and KKK members are making threats against haitian immigrants, even though the narrative has been thoroughly debunked as nonsense. But hey, we're supposed to tone it down by pointing this behavior out? Screw you, Trump. I don't agree with the would be assassins, I've condemned them several times over the past few months, including a post today, but come on, the reason there's so much heightened rhetoric about you is because you're saying blatantly incendiary and dangerous stuff. And JD Vance, despite pushing the same narrative, himself has made criticisms about Trump being a threat to democracy. He might be distancing himself from those comments, and even claiming to being willing to go along with Trump's coup if he were in Pence's shoes, but that's the pathetic thing about vance. He sold out HIS principles for power. And he is now part of the same problem, and just as dangerous as Trump is in my eyes.
And to focus on the other side of the equation, did any of the shooters attempted or otherwise embrace the specific anti dem rhetoric that was spoken of? Crooks was a right wing republican. He wasnt that politically motivated, he had the same mentality as your typical school shooter. And I say that as someone with a criminology degree btw. I at least feel qualified enough for a cursory analysis on that. As for this new guy, Routh, details are still coming out about him. He looks like he was pro trump in 2016 and became anti trump in recent years. He voted in the dem primaries this year, but also endorsed a lot of republican candidates running against trump. He also seemed to be a whack case with tons of firearm charges in the past. If either of these shooters tell me anything, it's that maybe we should consider stricter gun control in this country if we want to stop gun violence. Of course, the GOP ain't ready for that conversation. And I'm kind of pro second amendment in principle anyway. I wouldnt mind SOME stricter gun control, but I would be leery of an assault rifle or high capacity mag ban. It seems obvious that neither shooter really should've had access to firearms though. Especially this Routh guy.
But yeah. As such, can we even say its the heightened rhetoric that is the problem here? It doesnt seem to be the common denominator here. Neither shooter was a die hard democrat, and while the second one was very obviously anti trump, he seemed independent if anything. Anyway, my abvove comments still stand. My honest view is if Trump or his buddies want people to tone down their rhetoric regardless of him, maybe he should stop doing things that justify such rhetoric in the first place? It aint that hard. I ain't for exaggerating or catastrophizing candidates as existentially evil unless the situation calls for it. I mean, I remember the GOP doing this to every democrat in my lifetime and it backfired pretty hard, and I dont normally appreciate dems acting in the same way either. I'm only treating Trump in such a way on this blog because...yeah...he really IS that dangerous. Reporting on things he's said and done hardly seems worthy of criticism. If you dont like people saying bad things about you, dont do bad things, it's that simple. I consider myself a fair and reasonable person on such matters. And yeah, that's how I see it.
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