Dodging Hate with Donald Trump
Nothing deserved a soft reboot less than 1968. Donald Trump is okay while conditions are not. Rage doesn’t quite seem to help. Let’s all agree to tone down. You first. No, it’s your rhetoric. Project 2025 is not a threat to democracy for the next hour or so.
The craven loser who got the upper bunk in Leon Czolgosz’s eternal cell is responsible for his own actions. But there’s never a bad time to excise baseless lunacy. We shouldn’t need such a moment, but we may as well use it. For one, calling someone a fascist even though he didn’t impose the rather pushy system in question when he was already president is precisely the sort of mean daftness everyone’s encouraged to avoid. By contrast, taking down political rivals falls in line with Mussolini’s dreams. The side that thinks hate speech isn’t protected sure says hateful things.
The media isn’t finally going to feel bad for this particular individual who was nearly killed any more than they are for their own shamelessness. Fretting about imaginary sufferers while downplaying the real one is their take on truth. CBS stooge Margaret Brennan was upset the shot person forgot to blame himself. It must be the blood loss. And professional ghoul Martha Raddatz’s self-parodic pointing at Trump’s fans just after their candidate was wounded shows her WWE referee-style debate moderation was far from her nadir.
Journalists are liberals who couldn’t get high follower counts without a network’s help. The attempt on Trump gives them one more chance to show they’ll always blame the victim when they’re not blaming the gun. The same people condemning violence Trump fans haven’t committed accuse Israel of genocide for hunting down terrorists who attacked a music festival.
We’ve found one more government agency that doesn’t do its job. The Secret Service puts federal work on display. A task that’s within the government’s domain used to be performed capably by respected staffers. Now, the inability to serve is no secret.
The Olympics isn’t for amateurs anymore, and neither should be protecting a presidential hopeful. If you were making a movie about an assassination on your phone and you got your book club to portray Secret Service agents, they would’ve looked like the technical real thing. I wish we didn’t learn that everyone paid by taxpayers is universally awful at work responsibilities. The one thing better than arresting a criminal is preventing a crime. The same idea applies to protecting a perpetual presidential candidate.
This is the worst occasion for calculation, so expect plenty of it. Nobody’s improving incessant poll checking by announcing how this affects just that.
The incumbent sets the tone, unfortunately. Joe Biden’s strategy for uniting the nation was to mispronounce words to distract from pretending his party’s the casualty. The lucky person who forgets he’s enduring his own presidency will claim he won’t remember calling to “put Trump in a bullseye”. Stubborn liars who still blame a shooting on Sarah Palin’s map will stay silent.
The shooter is the only one at fault. Personal responsibility triumphs again. We need an electoral college for as long as taking a turn of phrase literally is a problem. Those who indulge in grandiloquent flourishes can’t modify speech for fear of dreadful nitwits misunderstanding. Blaming words of some for spurring actions of others is acceptable for meeting the progressive precedent so believers have something to rue.
Oatmeal brain is not to blame. Biden acting like he’s not the source of the nasty bombast he purports to oppose is something he’s been doing long before he should’ve been dropped off at a nursing home. The flunky churning out tweets under his name was no more enthusiastic despite being a quarter of his age: the initial chance at the easiest condemnation possible featured the same energy as a Wendy’s drive thru worker asking if you’d like to try new Saucy Nuggs.
The president’s boss pretends to loathe his own disgraceful mentality. De facto executive Barack Obama’s empty condemnation was full of hypocrisy. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton may have also been less than truthful. I hate to be cynical. But the consensus-builder who blamed talk radio hosts in disagreement with him about how many federal programs there should be for the Oklahoma City bombing has occasionally seemed disingenuous.
A dastardly failure who was as bad at aim as everything else isn’t going to affect my vote. The previous president who’s still in the running is unchanged even while undaunted. Trump remains a self-serving game show host and big-spending president who couldn’t profit operating roulette wheels even after his miraculous dodge and defiant fist. I wouldn’t vote for him even if, well, what happened happened. And I’m still ticked. See, Democrats? That’s not hard.
The bid for nonconsecutive terms seems automatic this week. But there’s way too much time before voting with even a monumental moment like this as a factor. The last time a bellowing ex-president big-government Republican survived an attempt on his life during a speech, Teddy Roosevelt lost the ensuing election.
A lone wolf terror attack thwarted only by fate might not affect the upcoming contest as overwhelmingly as it feels right now any more than his arrest. The social media era facilitates supernova-style impact that disappears as quickly. Try to list the charges from his first impeachment to remember how easy forgetting is.
As always, Trump is helped by his most unhinged enemies. The non-assassin did more for his personal villain than any ad buy from an alleged $10 billion fortune. Remembering the person who the public only learned about in death offers a reminder that it wasn’t just potential harm inflicted. The departed monster murdered heroic Corey Comperatore in the clearest distinction between villainy and decency possible.
The sole way Trump gains sympathy is by claiming to be persecuted. His most monstrous foe made his case even more than a show trial did. Everyone should feel mad. An attack on any political candidate is an assault against America. Being ticked is nonpartisan.
