REPUBLICANS HATE WHAT THEY HATE MUCH MORE THAN THEY LOVE WHAT THEY LOVE

Republican presidential candidates still haven't said anything about the Colorado Planned Parenthood shootings, with the exception of Ted Cruz (in a tweet, as I noted in my last post) and now John Kasich:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the other GOP contender to discuss the attacks, offering his prayers for the affected families and saying "senseless violence has brought tragedy to Colorado Springs."

This seems odd:

The Republican candidates' silence is even more remarkable given that a police officer was killed and several more were wounded.

— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) November 28, 2015

@mattdpearce the police officer was also a Christian pastor with a wife and two small children

— Liam Stack (@liamstack) November 28, 2015

That's right:

Garrett Swasey, 44, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer who was shot and killed while responding to a shooting at a Planned Parenthood office, was described by his fellow church members and friends as a courageous man and loving father who drew strength and inspiration from his Christian faith.

He was married, with two young children, and had been on the campus police force for six years. He also spent seven years as a co-pastor at Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. “Here’s a guy who worked full time as a police officer, and then gave a great amount of time to his local church and didn’t get a dime for it,” said Scott Dontanville, a co-pastor who knew Officer Swasey for 15 years. “He did it because it was the thing that he felt he needed to do.”

But if we think that should matter to Republicans, we're making the same error we made when we thought insulting John McCain was going to end Donald Trump's presidential campaign. We thought at the time: McCain's a veteran! He's a war hero! He suffered for years in a brutal POW camp run by commies! Surely Republican voters will be appalled! But Republican voters hate immigrants, and McCain has been a sometime advocate of immigration reform. McCain has also been a RINO on campaign finance reform. And he lost to the hated Barack Obama in 2008.

So hatred of McCain trumped love for veterans of anti-communist wars.

In this case, Republicans hate abortion and hate Planned Parenthood. They hate gun control, and the shooting has already led to another call for new gun laws by President Obama. These hatreds are much more important to the right than love of the police, even when the dead police officer was also a Christian minister. In this case, blue lives don't matter, and this wasn't part of the war on Christianity. The killer wasn't a member of any group conservatives hate, and his main target was a group conservatives absolutely hate.

So hate wins. Therefore, the right is never going to denounce this incident with any enthusiasm.