Weaponization of an atrocity invites atrocity

Past leaders sought to unite Americans in times of tumult; Trump is using tragedy to further his aims.

By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist

When gun violence occurs, Democrats point to easy access to lethal weaponry; Republicans point to, well, anything else, and nothing changes.

This time, though, following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Trump and his accentuators trod new ground, demanding wholesale retribution against “them.” They’ve always scapegoated everything wrong with everything, but this is different.

“It’s time for the Trump administration to shut down, defund, & prosecute every single Leftist organization,” wrote Laura Loomer, Trump’s new-favorite autocracy specialist, before knowing anything about the assassin. Implicitly calling for eradication of liberalism, his other favorite, Stephen Miller, called it “an ideology … which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved.” J.D. Vance has been conflagrating ever since it happened (tinyurl.com/JD4theloss). Asked on Fox “news” about toning it down, Trump, who once mocked the attack on Paul Pelosi and who pardons violent felons, said, truthful for once, “I couldn’t care less.” The public, yes. But America’s government has never been so intentionally malignant.

“You own this,” raged Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., to Democrats on the floor of Congress. (Who owns Minnesota’s former Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman’s and her husband’s assassination, Nancy?) Later, atop a pre-beaten horse, she fingered university brainwashing. The killer spent one online semester before enrolling in tech school.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-weaponization-of-an-atrocity-invites-atrocity/