PrintBernie fan narrowly thwarted in attempt to mow down GOP Congressional baseball team
A gunman now identified as James Hodgkinson attempted a massacre of members of the GOP Congressional Baseball Team, practicing for a planned charity game against the Congressional Democrats Thursday night. The only reason the entire contingent of reps and aides were not slaughtered was the presence of a security detail of the Capitol Police, guarding a member to the majority leadership. Their armed response, which wounded both, staved off Hodgkinson’s intended killing spree (he shot more than 50 rounds), presumably pinning him down until police arrived a reported few minutes later.
It is most unfortunate for the Left that Hodgkinson is reportedly a Bernie fan, self-identified progressive. But it is evident that this was a crime of opportunity, not a well planned operation. Reportedly, Congressman Ron DeSantis was leaving early and encountered the man, who asked him who they were. He answered that it was a Congressional baseball team. Hodgkinson asked, “Which party?”
Hodgkinson is from Illinois, and it is not known why he was in Washington. But he seems to have traveled with an armory of sorts, which must have been in his car's trunk, parked nearby. Now, why would a deranged rabid progressive bring a lot of ammunition and at least one gun to the nation's capital? Doesn't it seem reasonable to wonder if this was just the first opportunity he got to enact violence against a target the Left agrees is evil: the GOP?
According to the UK Telegraph:
Hodgkinson was vociferous on social media about his dislike for Donald Trump and reportedly volunteered on political campaigns for Bernie Sanders.
Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St Louis, told the Washington Post he met him during a campaign in Iowa.
“He was this union tradesman, pretty stocky, and we stayed up talking politics,” he said. “He was more on the really progressive side of things.”
So we can conclude that a rabid progressive, perhaps inspired by the level of hate and the sanctioning of violence against President Trump in art and in the media, found a chance to act out his hatred in a big way.
I cannot help but note that senator Chuck Schumer, who spoke on the Senate floor movingly on the need to de-escalate, has remained silent about the depiction of President Trump as an assassinated Julius Caesar in the renowned Central Park Shakespeare in the Park series, even though it takes place in his home city, and is supported by the cultural establishment of that city, a group which no doubt generates generous donations to him, as well.
Now, it is not fair to blame Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, or the people Hodgkinson supported. But it is quite fair to note that a huge number of people actively or passively support what Monica Showalter calls “pornoviolence,” borrowing Tom Wolfe’s word.
A lot of people on the Left went on the record about the horrendous effects of Sarah Palin using some crosshairs on a map of congressional districts, after Gabrielle Giffords was shot. I have not noticed many condemning the nonstop hate fest from the Left.
Update: Peter Barry Chowka sends this sample of post-Giffords commentary:
In Gabrielle Giffords shooting, many on left quick to lay blame
Commentators on the Gabrielle Giffords shooting cite 'tea party' rhetoric and inflammatory speech, sparking a fierce online debate.
January 08, 2011 LA Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/08/nation/la-na-giffords-shooting-media-20110109
Jared Loughner and 'violent rhetoric'
Alex Slater Jan. 10, 2011
The Guardian
Excerpt: The reality is that it is far too early to be making such inferences. Jared Loughner may have had political interests, but they were far from coherent, let alone consistent with Tea Party doctrine, as suggested by many in the mainstream media. His social media pages cited favourite documents as Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto – hardly political volumes consistent with a coherent ideology.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/10/gabrielle-giffords-shooting-media
Gabrielle Giffords shooting: inflammatory rhetoric draws real blood
Jan 9 2011
Telegraph UK
Excerpt: As Miss Giffords lay fighting for her life, Clarence Dupnik, the Democrat sheriff of Pima County, gave an emotional press conference that only just stopped short of making a direct link between the cultural bomb-throwers of Fox News and talk radio and the shootings on his doorstep. "We need to do some soul-searching. It's the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business. When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous."
Meanwhile, Markos Moulitsas, founder of a liberal blog, the Daily Kos, tweeted: "Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin."
