Peddling lies has a price. This was evident this morning when Republican congressman Steve Scalise, a congressional staffer, and members of the congressional police force were shot by a leftist who, as another GOP representative put it, “was there to kill as many Republican members as possible.”
The scene was a practice for the GOP congressional baseball team in Alexandria, Virginia. The shooter is identified as James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois. Scalise, the third-ranking member of House leadership and majority whip, was shot in the hip. He underwent surgery this morning and is currently recovering from the attack. Hodgkinson was hit by the Capitol Hill Police’s return fire and later died from his injuries.
Hodgkinson was a leftist who, reports the Smoking Gun, “posted a link to a Change.org petition in late March that included the notation that, ‘Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.’”
His Facebook page bespeaks of this radical leftism. The page’s header is a large picture of socialist senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, to the left of which is written, “DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM EXPLAINED IN 3 WORDS: ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ Since 1776.” Here’s the image:
Moreover, in Facebook “posts from last August, Hodgkinson wrote, ‘I want Bernie to Win the White House’ and ‘Bernie is a Progressive, while Hillary is Republican Lite,’” the Smoking Gun further informs. He also belonged to a number of leftist Facebook groups, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
He decided to try and become that terminator, and it’s said that only the on-site police officers prevented a massacre. As Representative Mark Walker (R-N.C.), put it, “Gunman was there to kill as many Republican members as possible. Grateful to Capitol Hill Police.”
While it’s not currently known how heavily armed Hodgkinson was, it’s reported that he targeted the Republicans with some type of semi-automatic rifle (one shot released with every trigger pull), spraying the area with multiple rounds. As Senator Rand Paul stated, as reported by Breitbart:
I can tell you, that I think with absolute certainty, nobody would have survived without the Capitol Hill Police. They saved everybody’s life. Incredibly brave and deserve everyone’s praise, because, with this guy, who knows what his — how heavily armed he was, but nobody else had a weapon. So, he was just killing everyone — he would have.… They deserve our gratitude for saving — it would have been a massacre without them.
Responding to this crime by one of his ardent supporters, Bernie Sanders said, among other things, “We’ve got to stop the violence.” Frankly, though, this is empty rhetoric.
Stopping the violence is impossible without first stopping the lies — the lies that enrage and divide. For months Democrats have been pushing the false notion that President Trump colluded with the Russians to “steal the election”; they appear poised to continue in this vein, even though disgruntled ex-FBI director James Comey, who has an axe to grind against Trump, stated under oath last week that Trump was never under investigation for such a thing and that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump administration and the Russians.
Moreover, liberals have brought incivility to a new level. High-ranking Democrats have taken to using profanity from the stump and in interviews, even leading vulgar chants such as “F*** Donald Trump!” Just as significantly, even substantive, purely intellectual conservative disagreement is routinely met today with knee-jerk ad-hominem name-calling. “Racist!” “Homophobe!” “Hater!” “Bigot!” and “Misogynist!” are just some of the labels hurled.
It’s impossible to, on a societal level, effectively seek truth and sort out differences when one side simply refuses to debate rationally. Also note that name-calling is often a precursor to violence; if you witness two men hot-headedly cursing at one another in the street, you know fists may fly at any moment.
And they have been flying, from sea to shining sea, for a long time now. We’ve seen this in the violent leftist protests, the vandalism, the obstruction of conservative speakers on college campuses, and the attacks on Trump supporters. And now, finally but unsurprisingly, an angry leftist expressed himself with a firearm.
The violence won’t stop until the media, Democratic Party, and establishment in general stop peddling violence-stoking lies. When people cannot talk things out, all they can do is fight things out. Somewhat more reasonable leftists ought to consider this very carefully before treading further down this road and taking us to a place they may regret having gone.
Photo of Senator Jeff Flake: AP Images
