Week in Review: The Politics of Tragedy

Week in Review is a SubOptimal look at the past week’s political and cultural news that comes out every week between Friday and Sunday.

Everyone Strikes Out

**At this point, I am pretty sure anyone reading this post has heard the full details of the shooting at the GOP congressional baseball practice so I will not take the time to dive into the details of the event**

The coverage of the media was a combination of every pundit and politician a time of coming to together then proceeding to point fingers at the other side of the political spectrum to cast blame for the attack. People on the right claimed that it was the radical rhetoric of the left that incited this Bernie Sanders supporter to shoot up GOP Congressmen. The left tried blame lack of gun control laws or violent statements from Donald Trump for the attack. A few points on this mind-numbing stupidity from the media pundits on both sides:

• There is absolutely no one to blame except the obvious mental illness of the psycho who committed this atrocious attack. It is not the fault of the rhetoric of the left or the right. It is not the Donald Trump’s fault. It is not Bernie’s fault. The problem was not that any individual said something that should not have been said. The problem was this man that shot Steve Scalise and the others lost his mind a long time ago and his psychotic view of reality made him think this was a good idea. Did rhetoric from people on some side of the political isle have an effect on the shooter’s thinking? It is definitely possible that something a political pundit or political leader said had an impact on his decision but that does not really matter. No one should edit their political speech to ensure that the psychos of society misconstrue their statements as a reason to do violence against others. We all have the responsibility to think twice before we hit the tweet button to make sure we are not intentionally inciting violence. Passionate advocacy for one’s vision of how things should be is necessary for a successful republic, so we should not seek to tame our passions unless we step down to the level of inciting violence.
• The golden rule for using a tragedy to push one’s desired political agenda is pretty simple: DON’T. It does not matter whether your political goal is to destroy the left, ruin Trump’s presidency, or push gun control. I really despise when anyone does this from any side. I slammed Obama for running to the site of every shooting during his presidency so he could stand on the graves of the shooting victims to advocate for gun control. I slammed Trump for using the bombing in Manchester as an opportunity to push his desired travel ban policy. If you need to use the aftermath of a tragedy to garner support for you policy objectives, you are either a really crappy politician or whatever policy you are advocating for sucks.

Kamala Harris is Running for President

You do not have to watch too closely to see the field for the 2020 Democratic Presidential race starting to take shape. There’s always a few clear signs that signal when someone is preparing for a White House run. The first is setting up a Political Action Committee (PAC) as Joe Biden has done recently. The second is releasing a book that strongly resembles a thought out policy platform such as Bernie Sander’s Our Revolution and Elizabeth Warren’s The Fight is Our Fight. Lastly, you can look at senators and governors who begin to make every time they are in public an event where they can grab national media attention. It is not a coincidence that the list of longest filibusters in the United States Senate over the years preceding the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary included names like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

Filibusters are commonly used to gain some attention but stirring up trouble in committee hearings is much more popular. Corey Booker started it off in 2017 by testifying against Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General, a man had stood by and praised for his work in the Senate just months before. California Senator Kamala Harris took her turn this week as many members of the administration related to the Trump/Russia investigation testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator Harris barrating the people testifying and then being told to be courteous was immediately glorified as a bold action against corruption that was thwarted by evil white males. The headlines from different news sites say it all: “White Senators Can’t Stop Interrupting Kamala Harris” (Yahoo) “Kamala Harris Was Interrupted By Her Male Colleagues- Again” (Fortune) “The Universal Phenomenon of Men Interrupting Women” (New York Times). I am sure the Senator from California is hating all of this attention.

Hail the Right-Wing Snowflakes

On Friday night, a couple Trump supporters decided it would be a wonderful idea to run on the stage of the showing of “Julius Caesar” in New York’s Central Park to disrupt the controversial play. The play had received national media attention for remaking the classic play to make Caesar clearly resemble Donald Trump. Everyone knows what happens to Julius Caesar in the end and the same fate falls upon the character resembling Donald Trump. These Trump supporters ultimately were arrested and shut down the showing of the play for the night. This is equally as egregious of an act as all the students we call snowflakes that shut down right wing speakers on campus.

You cannot claim to be an advocate of free speech while supporting protesters shutting down the performance of a play with which you do not agree. This was not boldness from Trump supporters standing up to the left. Disrupting the showing of “Julius Caesar” was actions of right-wing snowflakes who could not handle their candidate being criticized.