About What Happened in Butler, Pa.
It's time to ask some serious questions.
Let me start by saying that I am glad that Donald Trump is all right. I am sad that an attendee at his campaign rally is dead and that at least one other attendee was injured. Whatever my politics, I would never wish what happened Saturday in Butler, Pa., upon any politician or anyone who was simply there to support a candidate.
I am, however, shaking my head at the way so many people are reacting after Saturday's events. Namely, the way certain media outlets held off on identifying the situation as what it became evident within minutes after: This was an assassination attempt against Trump.
Trump is a former President and the 2024 GOP Presidential candidate, and once information made it clear (again, within minutes) that there was no drive-by shooting or gang activity, it's not difficult to draw the conclusion that this was an assassination attempt. There was more than enough information to call it what it was and there is certainly no need, in this situation, to wait for "official confirmation."
There can be claims out there that have yet to be supported by evidence, but when it comes to what the shooting actually was, everyone in the media should have been calling the spade a spade.
As for other claims that are out there, I'm not going to speculate on everything. In some cases, things that are being reported don't really tells us anything. In other cases, it's just speculation. However, there are some things that need to be examined.
For one thing, what exactly was Secret Service doing? There is evidence that some people who were in the area noticed the shooter before Secret Service took action. There is also evidence that Secret Service may have noticed the shooter but didn't act to protect Trump before shots were fired.
Here's the thing: If you want to understand why people come up with the theories that they do, it's because they observe agencies who are tasked with specific duties and fail to exercise them. It's also because reports surface that agencies had evidence of something and failed to take action.
I have often chalked up the failure to, at the very least, take extra precautions or track down people for questioning to arrogance on the part of those in charge (as in, they believe there is no way something like that could happen). However, when you witness agencies fail to perform their duties, time and time again, it's hard not for one to go down the rabbit hole, looking for explanations.
The reality is that trust in our agencies is at an all-time low. I can't think of a single agency or individual who I believe could investigate what happened with the Secret Service and have the public's trust. That's not something you can blame on the public; that blame falls on the shoulders of those in power who are behaving in a way that ensures they lose trust.
Truth be told, there are plenty of agencies out there who have behaved so poorly, I couldn't trust them to tell me what time it is.
And for those who want to keep pointing the finger at the "right wing conspiracy theorists," listen to what Tucker Carlson had to say earlier this year. People who were waving a dismissive hand at Carlson don't look so credible now.
Furthermore, the time has come for us to stop invoking Hitler simply because one doesn't like a particular politician. Doing so reduces Hitler from being an historical figure to a talking point or an insult. And, no, calling Hitler an historical figure isn’t praise. Historical figures can be those who had a negative impact on the world and are not exclusively those who had a positive impact.
Additionally, playing the Hitler card against Trump is absurd. This country already went through four years of Trump and, while it was far from being a paradise, it wasn't a dictatorship, either. If anything, it was a Republican boilerplate that involves passing a tax cut, appointing court justices who you think will favor Republican policy, wring your hands about immigration but do little about it lest you upset donors who want their cheap labor and continue onward with the interventionist foreign policy that the military industrial complex demands.
I am not convinced that, if Trump wins the 2024 election, we'll see real changes this time around; only more Republican boilerplate. However, that does not equal a dictatorship and it's certainly does not equal Hitler.
And the current invoking of Hitler, dictator and other such language isn't mostly the result of the fringes on the Internet who draw that mustache on the politician they hate the most. This is happening in mainstream outlets. I mean, look at this:
On the left, you will see an image from The New Republic, a mainstream outlet that backs the Democrat Party, doing more than just drawing that mustache on Trump. And on the right, you see exactly the kind of rhetoric certain Trump critics have displayed. This is Trump Derangement Syndrome in action.
Keep playing that game and you shouldn’t be surprised somebody not named Trump takes things too far.
No, I don't want any of this Trump Derangement Syndrome contingent censored, deplatformed and certainly not arrested. I recognize they have a First Amendment right to what they say and write.
But exactly do they think they are accomplishing here? How is this rhetoric going to persuade somebody their opinion is valid? How is this rhetoric going to do anything but further convince people that those currently in power are not trustworthy? Most of all, how does this rhetoric do anything but fuel fear in some people, to the point they take actions similar to what happened Saturday in Butler, Pa.?
Trump has said some things that I don't agree with and, at times, has used rhetoric that failed to persuade me of his point. However, in a moment in which it could have been easy for Trump to lay blame, he instead took this approach:
What Trump has to say in the coming days is another question, but for those who are insisting people need to lower the temperature, it's the 2024 GOP Presidential candidate who is doing more to address that than said people insisting upon it.
Lastly, while I want to make sure a proper investigation into what happened takes place, I do not want this to be an excuse for our institutions to seize more power. Our elites, Democrats and Republicans alike, continue to back the security state almost without question, with the exception being when something doesn't mesh with their politics.
While I want the Secret Service to do its job, I do not want this to turn into an excuse to simply give agencies more power, more money and less oversight.
I can understand concerns about safety, but that Benjamin Franklin quote comes to mind. Again, a proper investigation must take place, but that does not mean increasing the power of agencies who have enough of it as it is and, furthermore, don't have the trust of much of the American public.
And, with that, off my soapbox I go.
(Edited to correct a typo.)