In this past week we have seen two mass shootings. The shooting in El Paso, we know the motive: The shooter was at some point radicalized by white nationalist ideology, and the fire of hate stoked by the racist who occupies the White House. The other shooting, at the time of this writing, we do not know the motive, but we do know that the shooter was a misogynist who sang in a pornogrind band. He was clearly a hateful individual, who was also radicalized at some point. We also know that he had a100-round drum magazine, and that in less than 30 seconds he fired 41 shots.
In both cases the shooters had weapons that would be more at home on the battlefield than on our city streets. This has happened before in America, and, sadly, it will happen again. The reason it will happen again? It is not because of loose gun laws, nor is it a lack of law enforcement. It is also not that we do not have the means to defend our nation. It is because we lack leadership in the legislative and executive branches of our federal government.
In the executive branch we have a rich man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a person who has never known hardship, has never known what it is like to actually work, to live paycheck to paycheck hoping to save up enough money to have the hope of retiring someday. He is a man who, if he had been born into different circumstances, would have never risen above mediocrity in whatever career he may have entered. Without his money, he would have never amounted to anything.
In the legislative branch, we have a Senate majority leader who has put party in front of country, who will do everything to hold on to power for his party, and damn the citizens of this nation he is supposed to be serving.
While the rich continue to gain more and more of the pie, the rest of us are fighting for what scraps are left. Most of the time, those on the political right in this country are somewhat savvy about what they say, and how they say it, but sometimes the truth comes out.
[Billionaire Republican donor Diane] Hendricks told [Gov. Scott] Walker she wanted to discuss "controversial" subjects away from reporters, asking him:
"Any chance we'll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions -"
"Oh, yeah," Walker broke in.
"- and become a right-to-work?" Hendricks continued. "What can we do to help you?"
"Well, we're going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill," Walker said. "The first step is we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer."
Divide and conquer. They use wedge issues to pit us against one another instead of working toward some kind of solution that would make the United States a better place for all of us.
Instead of working toward legislation that could prevent mass shootings from occurring in this country, we hear nothing but excuses. It is video games, it is mental health, it is a lack of discipline in the home. It is none of those things. What it is is easy access to firearms that belong on the battlefield. It is years upon years of conservative politicians talking in dog whistles to their followers. The nudges and winks that racism is okay, especially if you are a "good Christian."
With the election of Trump, his sycophants have become bolder:
But to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump’s sentiment was wholly unnecessary. On Tuesday night, Carlson argued that white supremacy is a fake crisis cooked up by Democrats as a campaign ploy.
“It’s actually not a real problem in America,” Carlson said. He then added: “This is a hoax, just like the Russia hoax. It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.”
White supremacy is real; it is the cause of at least one mass shooting in the last week. It will be the cause of more of them in the future. This hatred, this disease, is rooted in race, and it has become a sickness that has infected all parts of American society. Don’t take your hat off for the national anthem? Well, you may be attacked by a self-appointed member of the patriot police.
A Montana man was accused of assaulting a teenage boy during the national anthem at the Mineral County Fairgrounds this weekend, according to KPAX.
Witnesses told deputies the suspect, identified as Curt Brockway, grabbed, picked up and slammed the 13-year-old boy on the ground — apparently because he did not remove his hat during the national anthem.
For years we have heard about the right’s fear of Sharia law. We have heard their unfounded fears of socialism, their fears of anyone with brown skin coming into the country. We have listened to them as they have quoted scripture to prove righteousness. No amount of scripture can give them salvation from their hatred. The very hatred that has given us a nation that now cowers at the sound of a motorcycle backfiring.
If these were normal times, we would look to the office of the president to address some of these issues, to guide our nation through troubled times. That is unlikely to happen with the current White House resident. What we do need is for all of the presidential candidates that are polling low, and who can win a Senate seat, to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president and put their efforts toward winning back the upper chamber.
We need the remaining candidates to speak with a united voice against white supremacy, racism, and hatred in this nation. The only goals should be to defeat Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and take back the Senate—only then can we start cleaning up this mess that the Republican Party has created in its quest for money and power.