In the span of a few weeks, two crazed Bernie Sanders supporters have committed acts of violence against innocent Americans.
In May, Jeremy Christian stabbed and killed two men after berating two Muslim women on a Portland, Oregon, train.
On Wednesday, James Hodgkinson opened fire on a congressional Republican baseball practice and wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others.
The big difference between the two events is that only one was seized upon as a disturbing example of the rising political violence in the nation — the incident the media was able to pin on the Right.
Christian’s stabbing was depicted as a deliberate act of white supremacist terror — despite the culprit’s past support for left-wing causes, his desire to murder all Trump supporters and Jeff Sessions and the fact his victims were fellow white males. (RELATED: Portland Killer Is An Anti-Circumcision, Bernie Sanders Supporter)
President Trump was inevitably blamed for the violence and was even castigated for taking too long to condemn it. The apparently insufficient condemnation was so infuriating to journalists that they used the president’s reaction to the London Bridge jihadi attack to revive their fury over Portland.
Meanwhile, many of these same folks in media and politics are now strongly urging all Americans to not politicize an avowed leftist trying to assassinate Republican politicians. Suddenly the people who whip up outrage any time a story pops out that fits their narratives transformed themselves into simply wanting social harmony and decency after an attack — a response we usually only see after Islamic terror.
Please, don’t politicize the awful congressional shooting https://t.co/Cx06sDwUi8 Or the one at UPS in SF.
— Virginia Postrel (@vpostrel) June 14, 2017
I guess we have our answer to the question: who will be the first to politicize this? https://t.co/NprRsB8Jrd
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) June 14, 2017
Hope most folks realize we have a toxic political culture and that attempting to exploit today for political gain will only poison us more
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) June 14, 2017
It’s remarkable we see these responses such a short time after the media politicized Jeremy Christian’s act of violence, which had, at best, tenuous political motives.
In spite of the protestations that journalists and pundits urged restraint because they worry about the country’s toxic political climate, the real reason is that they have been pushing the narratives that likely shaped the shooter’s worldview.
Left-wing media has pushed the story that Trump somehow sold the nation to Vladimir Putin. They’ve called the president a fascist and compared Republican lawmakers to Nazi collaborators. Major outlets have repeated over and over again that there’s a wave of hate crimes engulfing the country and placed the blame for that phenomenon on Trump.
Journalists have cheered on aggressive townhall demonstrators who show up and scream at Republican lawmakers, instantly turning these folks into internet heroes. There were also prominent voices who legitimized political violence against supposed “Nazis,” which invited everyone to dive down the slippery slope and define everyone on the Right as a descendant of Hitler. (RELATED: The Left’s Embrace Of Political Violence Backfires In Berkeley)
Judging by his social media, Hodgkinson fully believed these and other narratives about Republicans, likely influencing his decision to pick up a gun and take aim at congressman. But we’re not likely to have this discussion because those who determine the discourse don’t want to take the blame for their role. (RELATED: REVEALED: The Political Persuasion Of The Guy Who Shot At GOP Lawmakers)
It’s similar to how the media has refused to show any contrition for promoting a whole host of fake hate crime hoaxes in order to attack Trump. Notorious examples of that attitude are the bomb threats and vandalism directed at Jewish community centers this year.
Without any shred of evidence to connect Trump to these actions, nearly every powerful outlet made that dubious connection and demanded a strong condemnation from the president. Eventually, it turned Trump and his supporters had nothing to do with these anti-Semitic acts, and the only two individuals charged for the bomb threats are a left-wing failure at journalism and an Israeli teen.
However, there were no apologies from prominent journalists for pushing the narrative that Trump was inspiring anti-Semitic intimidation.
The demands that no one politicize an obviously political attack is another sign the establishment media is operating as an institution serving its own interests. The media wants to bring down Trump and push a progressive agenda. An anti-Republican shooting trips them up, but a stabbing they can blame on Islamophobia and right-wingers moves the agenda forward.
America has a toxic political climate due to many factors, and one powerful element is the establishment media. It’s all but guaranteed that after a few days of declaring we’re all Americans now and this is no time to push politics, they’ll find a tragic story or violent act to browbeat Republicans with.
We should’ve expected journalists and activists to react to this shooting in this manner — they are a disingenuous crowd.
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