As the economists say, correlation doesn't prove causation. But correlations sometimes make you stand up and take notice and this is one of those times.
Trump says the first thing he does when he gets into the White House is end gun free zones. Today for a brief moment the White House lawn was a gun free zone. Is Mr. Trump pleased with the results.
"Donald Trump gave a nationally televised speech today in which he aimed to rile up paranoid gun addicts and convince them that Hillary Clinton and President Obama are trying to take their guns away. Moments later, the Secret Service had to take down a man who had pulled a gun “on or near the White House grounds” according to CNN. What we don’t know yet is whether one of these events triggered the other, or if this was merely a haunting coincidence. But here’s the scary part: what if this really is what’s happening?"
"We’ve known since at least 2008 that the most conservative one-third of Americans have been eager for someone to come along and give them an excuse to go off the deep end. Sarah Palin didn’t create these monsters; she merely brought them out of the shadows. These are, at the risk of overgeneralizing, the underperforming white people who are really upset that they’re not as big of a majority as they once were, and are really fearful that they won’t be able to hack it in society once their white privilege levels off further."
"The catch for these types is that because the “angry unsuccessful white person” demographic is shrinking, they can’t win a national election anymore. And they seem to instinctively know it, which is why they bypass the candidates who just might have a narrow shot at winning, and instead jump straight to the candidates who can act as conduits for their rage. The more nonsensical the message the better: That black guy who’s done nothing to try to take your guns away after seven and a half years in office? Don’t worry, he’s still somehow coming for your guns, and everything you’ve ever screwed up in your life is his fault, so feel free to continue blaming him for your own personal failings in life."
"Ever since the paranoid rage white-privilege conservatives first came out of the closet, my question hasn’t been whether they could get one of their demagogue leaders into the White House. Instead my question has been what would become of them as one demagogue after another steered them ever further toward the lunatic fringe to the point that they ceased caring about their own well being at all, and concluded they had nothing to lose."
"In this election we’ve already seen one paranoid conservative gun nut resorting to domestic terrorism against Planned Parenthood simply because republican candidate Carly Fiorina purposely filled him with rage toward the group. So it’s not overly presumptive to ask the question of whether Donald Trump’s speech today, which was specifically crafted to send gun nuts into a rage toward Clinton and Obama, was the cause of the White House shooting that came just minutes after."
"On a personal level, I’m hoping today’s shooting was unrelated. I’d like to think that Trump’s words don’t have that kind of violent power. Because if they do, then we have a bigger problem than the faint odds of him winning: what happens to these monsters that he’s turned into even bigger monsters once he loses? What happens after another conservative demagogue drags them into even more violently insane territory with an inflammatory losing campaign four years from now? And how are we ever going to walk this back?"
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/did-donald-trumps-pro-gun-paranoia-speech-today-trigger-a-white-house-shooting/24854/
For more on Trump's NRA speech today, see Paul Waldman.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/20/donald-trumps-corrupt-bargain-on-guns/
Trump says the first thing he does when he gets into the White House is end gun free zones. Today for a brief moment the White House lawn was a gun free zone. Is Mr. Trump pleased with the results.
"Donald Trump gave a nationally televised speech today in which he aimed to rile up paranoid gun addicts and convince them that Hillary Clinton and President Obama are trying to take their guns away. Moments later, the Secret Service had to take down a man who had pulled a gun “on or near the White House grounds” according to CNN. What we don’t know yet is whether one of these events triggered the other, or if this was merely a haunting coincidence. But here’s the scary part: what if this really is what’s happening?"
"We’ve known since at least 2008 that the most conservative one-third of Americans have been eager for someone to come along and give them an excuse to go off the deep end. Sarah Palin didn’t create these monsters; she merely brought them out of the shadows. These are, at the risk of overgeneralizing, the underperforming white people who are really upset that they’re not as big of a majority as they once were, and are really fearful that they won’t be able to hack it in society once their white privilege levels off further."
"The catch for these types is that because the “angry unsuccessful white person” demographic is shrinking, they can’t win a national election anymore. And they seem to instinctively know it, which is why they bypass the candidates who just might have a narrow shot at winning, and instead jump straight to the candidates who can act as conduits for their rage. The more nonsensical the message the better: That black guy who’s done nothing to try to take your guns away after seven and a half years in office? Don’t worry, he’s still somehow coming for your guns, and everything you’ve ever screwed up in your life is his fault, so feel free to continue blaming him for your own personal failings in life."
"Ever since the paranoid rage white-privilege conservatives first came out of the closet, my question hasn’t been whether they could get one of their demagogue leaders into the White House. Instead my question has been what would become of them as one demagogue after another steered them ever further toward the lunatic fringe to the point that they ceased caring about their own well being at all, and concluded they had nothing to lose."
"In this election we’ve already seen one paranoid conservative gun nut resorting to domestic terrorism against Planned Parenthood simply because republican candidate Carly Fiorina purposely filled him with rage toward the group. So it’s not overly presumptive to ask the question of whether Donald Trump’s speech today, which was specifically crafted to send gun nuts into a rage toward Clinton and Obama, was the cause of the White House shooting that came just minutes after."
"On a personal level, I’m hoping today’s shooting was unrelated. I’d like to think that Trump’s words don’t have that kind of violent power. Because if they do, then we have a bigger problem than the faint odds of him winning: what happens to these monsters that he’s turned into even bigger monsters once he loses? What happens after another conservative demagogue drags them into even more violently insane territory with an inflammatory losing campaign four years from now? And how are we ever going to walk this back?"
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/did-donald-trumps-pro-gun-paranoia-speech-today-trigger-a-white-house-shooting/24854/
For more on Trump's NRA speech today, see Paul Waldman.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/20/donald-trumps-corrupt-bargain-on-guns/
It's certainly tough to see what happened today and think we need more guns but this is Donald Trump's Republican Party.
Good post Mike.
ReplyDeleteTK Tom. I have a new post inspired by that Sumner post you mentioned before.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump is anything sooner than he's 'politically incorrect'
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/05/donald-trump-is-as-politically-correct.html