I awoke this morning to the news
that Louisiana Representative Steven Scalise had been shot, along with two officers
from his United States Capitol Police security detail and two other persons,
while attending practice for an upcoming Congressional charity baseball game.
I would like to say that I am
shocked, but I am not. In fact, I am honestly surprised that it has taken as
long as it has to happen. I actually broached on this topic in my first book:
Perfect Pawn.
While the shooter is ultimately responsible
for his actions this morning, I lay the blame directly at the feet of both the
politicians and media for creating the environment that led up to this attack. An examination of the shooter’s social media account
highlights all of the inflammatory talking points which most of us have become
immune to. I say most because obviously some folks, like the shooter, take the hyperbole
to heart and it is exactly why I say that the politicians and media both bear
complicity in this heinous act. To be fair, I draw no distinction along either party
line or news outlet, as this has been building for decades.
Maybe I take these issues more seriously
than most because I spent five years doing dignitary protection in New York
City. I worked closely with members of
the Secret Service, State Department DSS and the aforementioned Capitol Police
dealing with potential threats to protectees. You learn early on in that
business that it doesn’t take much to push some folks over the line. Many times
it is a personalized affront; where they feel that the subject of their hatred
has wronged them in some way. However, the alarming trend that I am seeing now
is that people are being told, by both the media and politicians, that they
have been wronged.
We have always been a politically
divided country. In fact, I previously wrote about this topic regarding the
problem with political parties and one excerpt in this post was written five
years ago, almost to the day. It explains how they are dividing us for their gain.
While it is true that there has
always been politically motivated incivility in this country, the direction we
have been heading, over the last two decades, has sadly been all too clear for
some of us. The vilification, and outright demonization, of individuals, for
political gain or ratings, has created the world we live in today. What is
changing is the level of inflammatory rhetoric that is being used.
Over the past few months we have
seen some folks in the entertainment world blasting the President. Mock assassinations,
beheadings, as well as a host of verbal tirades that are meant solely to dehumanize
him. Because once you have dehumanized a person you can do anything you want to
him with impunity. If you need a case study in this type of behavior look no
further than Nazi Germany and their treatment of the Jews.
Now, I will be the first one to
say that no politician should be protected from the people’s disagreement. We
have a right to air our opposition to anything we might disagree with. I am a
gun owner and fully support the 2nd Amendment. I also served in law
enforcement for over two decades so I do have a significant understanding about
crime and safety in America. But I also understand that, while there are around
55 million gun owners in America, there are around 325 million people in the
United States and many of them do not. What is within our control is how we
discuss the issue. If you simply choose to yell at me with nothing more than
regurgitated talking points in all likelihood I will just walk away. That doesn’t
mean you have won anything, it just means that I value my time and breath.
Spend longer than five minutes on
any social media platform or the comment section of any online news organization
and you will see just how ‘uncivil’ we have become to one another: Libtard,
Teabagger, Left-Wing Loon, Right-Wing Nut Job, and these are the nice things,
most is simply unfit to print. What is
truly sad to me is that we simply cannot have a difference of opinion. Once
someone says they don’t believe in something they are immediately labeled and
castigated.
So what is the purpose of all
this vitriol? Well, at the end of the day it basically comes down to two
things: Power & Paychecks.
The media sows the seed of
discontent because it drives ratings. They want viewers or readers and you
attract them with bold rhetoric or headlines. It doesn’t have to be true, or
even address the real issues; it just has to be salacious. Ratings and
readerships equal bigger paychecks for those involved. Politicians want power,
so they appeal to their base. They vilify the other side as being hardliners,
when they are in the minority, so that you will re-elect them. If you re-elect
enough of them they get the power, but they still vilify the other side as
being obstructionists. They count on you being too confused to see that each is
only one side of the same political coin. Why? Because they really don’t have
the desire to fix anything nor to address the real problems we are facing.
As I sit here writing this I
wonder to myself if this is even worth it? Will anyone stop and actually
listen?
The problem is that no one really
wants to think they have been duped. We want to think we are smarter than that,
but we are like the parents who refuse to believe that their child was really
at fault for something, even when the cops bring them home. We make excuses for
the bad behavior as we seek to blame someone else like the teachers, cops or
the amorphous system, whatever that might be. Because God forbid we should
admit that a) we didn’t raise them right or b) that they truly are personally responsible
for their bad behavior.
So should we be surprised when
the media and politicians wring their hands and feign shock when something like
this happens. Neither group will take responsibility, even though they have
been fanning these flames for some time now. No, now the blame game begins and
first up is: Guns!!
Almost immediately the anti-gun
folks, like Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, seized the moment and began
re-directing the narrative by attacking guns. As if the gun, and not the shooter,
was responsible.
Never one to lose a political
opportunity, McAuliffe twice said "we lose 93 million Americans a day to
gun violence." Not exactly sure where he resides, but the United States would be
devoid of life within a business week with those numbers. I think the number is actually 93, but even that is political math. If you're interested, read this post on
Stat's & Gun Control.
McAuliffe then went
on to say "there are too many guns on the street," but then added that the
issue shouldn't be raised today, after he himself had raised the issue today.
Hypocrisy…………Shocking, I know.
Now my news feed is filled with
politicians saying: ‘An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us’ and ‘I
pray we can resolve our differences’……. That’s so refreshing and wholly disingenuous.
What’s spurring on this sentiment is that it hit too close to home and they
realize that if someone on the left target someone on the right that those
roles could easily be reversed next time and that is downright terrifying to
them. Prior to today it was all rhetoric, today it is reality. Welcome to the
world you have created.
My fear is that we have crossed a
line that we cannot undo. It’s like opening Pandora’s Box and then lamenting
how we should have left it closed. Too late.
The first shot in anger is always
the toughest, the second and third become much easier. I pray that won’t
happen, but the odds are not good. What needs to be done is for the folks to
step back and apologize for the daily doses of enmity that they have been
dishing out. They need to apologize to the American people that they have been
fanning the flames for their own gain, not for the people, but that would take
personal responsibility and I don’t think they are mature enough for that.
I pray that this was a one-time
event, but in my heart I truly believe this was just the opening salvo.
Kudo's to the men and women of law enforcement who prevented this from being a massacre, by doing what they do everyday: putting themselves in harm's way and protecting the innocent.
Barnes & Noble Book Signing (Springfield, Illinois)
