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, 2015That'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.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.
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.”
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.
The last two paragraphs are absolutely brilliant. The silence truly is deafening on the right, and will remain so.
ReplyDeleteThey will never attach responsibility for this where it belongs, any more than they did for the Church killings in Charleston. The most we'll get from them are lunatic charges that it's all really Obama's fault (the devil made the shooter do it?) or the predictable lie that "both sides" are somehow to blame.
Please notice that Ted Cruz's tweet (we pray for the victims' families, we praise the first responders) could have been used, word-for-word, in response to a natural disaster. It makes no acknowledgment at all that this was a deliberate act of murder, let alone that it targeted abortion providers.
ReplyDeletePretty much all they know how to do: hate.
ReplyDeleteA conditioned response.
Ten Bears,
ReplyDeleteImo, in some, it's not a conditioned response.
I think some were born hateful, and nothing in their conditions led them to correct their hateful ways.
'If you have nothing even semi-intelligent to say, say nothing at all."
Maybe the conservatives have learned at least that twist on the old proverb about if you can't say anything good...
And yeah, they'll try to somehow put the blame for this on Obama. That may be another reason for the sound of crickets, instead of at least saying something - no matter how incoherent it may be.
Since when is coherence a job requirement to run in the GOP, or to appeal to the incoherent, hate and fear filled base?
Republicans don't give a shit about Cops, in the same way they don't give a shit about Veterans. However, they know that by appearing to be the Law & Order and homeland Defense party Cops and Veterans thus tend to be Republican.
ReplyDeleteBut, the GOP will gladly sacrifice any of their followers to advance their agenda and they have no problem using the dead to gain political power. And woe be unto the Veteran and Police Officer who does not adhere to the Conservative Values of Oppression, Intolerance and Adulation of the Rich, that Veteran/Officer will be villified and cast out.
So, yes Republicans are more than willing to sacrifice a few pawns and break a free eggs in order to advance their Neo-Feudalist Agenda of Corporate Bondage and Wage Slavery.
Define "a few." Three? Three hundred? Three thousand?
ReplyDeleteThe truth is out there.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to John Kasich, who has made what passes for Republicans as a bold statement, this was not an example of "senseless" violence. The National Abortion Federation counts 8 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings, and 180 cases of fire by arson against abortion clinics and providers since 1977. There is a reason- an effort to intimidate- for this criminal activity, which renders it more ubiquitous and of greater tactical value than if it were "senseless."
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/28/9810572/abortion-attacks-planned-parenthood-colorado
Some of our Best and Brightest were sacrificed to the God of War...Iraq, Afganistan, and other unnamed areas of conflict...the sons and daughters of the American people...What we have left over are the dregs of the republican party...the cowards who would not face their war...the corrupt who would not face the economic penalty of unlimited warfare...and the weak minded who are easily lead astray on bogus legislation...that is the republican party...made up of the leftovers of a once great and proud party...
ReplyDeleteAnd this morning reports are beginning to trickle out indicating that this indeed was an anti-abortion act by a right-winger; CNN is reporting that the killer spoke of "baby parts" when being taken into custody; a neighbor in Colorado states that the guy had given him some anti-Obama pamphlets once.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, expect continued silence or mealy-mouthed evasions from the GOP on this.
Wait- right-wing people love things?
ReplyDeleteI have yet to see the base love very much at all, except hating "liberals".
*and, of course, by "liberals", they mean this mysterious demonic cult that wants to take their stuff away from them, but still somehow keeps paying their bills.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete