Assassination Attempt of Steve Scalise
- Don Juice
- Jun 28, 2017
- 2 min read
If you didn't hear about it, two weeks ago Republican Majority house whip Steve Scalise was shot at a baseball game by a Bernie sanders supporter named James Hodgkinson. Other people that were shot were were Zack Barth, a Congressional aide; Matt Mika, a Tyson Foods lobbyist; and Crystal Griner, a Capitol Police officer assigned to protect Scalise but they all will be okay. The attacker James Hodgkinson had a history of violence and may have had mental issues. Scalise was in critical condition but has been upgraded to serious and as of June 23rd he has been released from the intensive care unit . With that being said many people on the right and even on the left have attempted to blame the progressive wing particularly Bernie Sanders who came out and strongly spoke against the shooting. My opinion is this, Political rhetoric calling for violence is unacceptable. With that being said, the calling out of people and criticizing them should be done because we can’t live in a society where we limit free speech because some crazy person may take violent action. To attack Bernie Sanders is absurd when this man since his younger days has advocated nonviolence and always talked about fighting on the political level. When Bernie Sanders talks about the oligarchy that has corrupted our political system with greed he is spot on. To call Trump policies like the healthcare plan and tax reform disastrous and dangerous does not mean one should go out in an attempt to do harm to these people. Saying things of that nature is telling it like it is from a certain perspective, which a lot of these individuals who claim to be free speech warriors seem to like. There should never be a situation where you need to assassinate a political opponent because you disagree. But these smear attacks by Republicans and Corporate Democrats on progressives are a way to silence the growing true left populism. These attacks are opportunistic and it gives them an excuse to shun the progressive movement that they hate. Hopefully Scalise makes a speedy recovery and we can get back to talking about the important issues that are affecting the country.
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