The shots heard 'round the USA

At a baseball field where Republican congressmen were practicing for their annual charity baseball game against the congressional Democrats, James T. Hodgkinson shot five people. It was a cowardly, premeditated attack. The attack took place on Flag Day and may have been associated in the shooter's mind with being a patriotic act of defiance against America's taxation policy and against the Republicans specifically. Photos of Mr. Hodgkinson have been published showing him protesting the lowering of federal personal income taxes on the rich, beginning with the presidency of Ronald Reagan. One sign reads, "Tax The Rich." Yet the Washington Post article about the shooter had only nine sentences about the political orientation of the shooter out of 72 in the entire article. Instead, it focuses on some of the shooter's run-ins with the police and his reputation among people who knew him.

In an interview with a man who had worked alongside Hodgkinson in support of Bernie Sanders, Hodgkinson's associate said the shooter was a "passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others." Assuming that the interviewee is himself a "passionate progressive," we can understand that he lacks sufficient perspective to see that passionate progressivism is inherently violent and malicious. Can there be any doubt about the political orientation of this would-be mass murderer? He has a big photo of Bernie Sanders on his Facebook page. He is clearly identified with the left wing of the Democratic Party. If such a shooter had had photos of conservative Republicans or President Trump on his FB account and had shot Democrats, there is no doubt in this writer's mind that headlines would be blaring, "Right-Wing Trump Supporter Goes on Murderous Rampage." Instead, the political significance of the shooter being a far-left Democrat is muted. The evening news is showing how both sides of the aisle are coming together in their common grief and condemnation of violence. Sorry to say, the tears of the Democrats are crocodile tears. Shown by their nonstop obstructionism and vilification of the duly elected president, the Democrats during the past few months – with unremitting hatred and vile denunciations – have been fomenting violent attitudes against Republicans insofar as Trump is our Republican president.