The Shootings

     Heavy sigh. I really did mean to eat lunch and rest for a few minutes.

     By now, any American who pays the least attention to the news will be aware of the mass shooting this morning in Washington, D.C. Majority Whip Steve Scalise was wounded as were several other Republican Congressmen, aides, and associates. The shooter, James Hodgkinson, died in custody of the Capitol Police, who were on the scene as part of Congressman Scalise’s security detail.

     Hodgkinson, be it noted, was a volunteer for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. His intent, if the statements of persons at the scene may be relied upon, was to shoot as many Republicans as possible.

     Now it’s time for some harsh realities: This is not, as some are claiming, the consequence of “violent rhetoric.” Rather, it arose from the combination of two factors:

1. The storm of vicious, utterly unprincipled denunciations of the Republicans by the Democrats, out of their fury over having been beaten and a hunger for partisan advantage;
2. The de facto legitimization of street violence offered by left-wing groups such as AntiFa and Black Bloc, nearly none of which has been accurately reported by the media.

     The usual moral inhibitions that restrain people from committing violence against others obviously failed to operate on Hodgkinson. Why? Because of the Democrats’ vicious denunciations. They’ve characterized the Republicans as Satan’s minions, unworthy of consideration as human beings, and therefore without any right to life, peace, or privacy. That freed Hodgkinson to try to take their lives.

     Violence is a continuum that reaches from a mock swat on the wrist to murder. Once that continuum has been entered and no official reaction has occurred, those who have embarked upon it will proceed further toward the murder pole. Unless they’re met with the force of the law, they will continue to advance toward murder.

     It doesn’t matter whether the Democrats who’ve participated in these demonizations wanted this outcome. It was foreseeable from the moment they first claimed that the GOP wants to wreak harm upon the innocent.

     If there is any conscience left in such despicable figures as Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, they’ll don sackcloth and ashes and make a public confesssion of their guilt for this horror. However, given what we know about the Democrats and their unquenchable lust for power, it’s far more likely that they’ll use the incident to blather about “the need for more gun control.”

     As useless as the Republicans have often been, there can be no standing mute about this. It’s time for a nationwide roar of condemnation of everyone who’s participated in the vilification of Republicans and conservatives. (It’s also time for law enforcement to realize that watching street violence from the sidelines is not an option, no matter what some dickhead mayor or commissioner says.) The Left has left us without a choice in the matter.