My Two Common Sense
Two phrases began battling for supremacy in my mind on Saturday evening after news of the shooting at a Pennsylvania rally for Donald Trump.
One was “What else did you expect would happen?” and the other was “threat to our democracy.”
The first one, many of you will remember, was one you dreaded to hear from anyone as you were growing up, from parents to teachers to pastors to babysitters, grandparents, etc., when the result of some poorly planned event backfired spectacularly.
Usually this amounted to a feat of derring-do such as building a homemade bicycle ramp or holding a bottle rocket while it was lit, resulting, usually, in some injury to the body or, just as bad, to the ego.
Once the blood and gravel were removed, and sufficient Kool-Aid was applied, the phrase was brought out as a way of admonishment, and hopefully, correction.
After Saturday’s events, though, it’s hard to only say that.
The chief weapon against the candidacy of Donald Trump, going back for eight years now, has been reviling the man at every opportunity. He’s continuously labeled as Hitler, as a threat to democracy, a tinpot dictator in waiting, a serial philanderer, a thief, a traitor, and even an insurrectionist.
The national news media has becoming torch-bearing Chicken Littles, describing any and every thing Trump does as proof he is a fascist sealclubbing, puppy punching climate denier, and of course, their adamantly uneducated followers have been whipped into a frothed frenzy.
So, after the shots were taken, and the nation was taken aback, I think to myself, “what else did you expect would happen?”
Even after the event, as information began trickling in, the left wing of politics, including the national media, kept their collective feet on the gas. CNN’s first headline claimed Trump was rushed off-stage after a fall; MSNBC claims Trump is safe after popping sounds were heard at a rally; even the Associated Press claimed the former president was rushed off the stage after loud noises were heard.
A sitting Senator from Tennessee, London Lamar, claimed the shooting was caused by MAGA extremism; even President Biden had said that his main purpose in running again was to get Trump, saying “… it is time to put Trump in a bull’s eye.”
As part of the concerted effort to erase Donald Trump from public existence, he constantly has been called the second phrase, the ridiculous “threat to our democracy.”
This is clearly done only to ramp up the hysteria about candidate Trump, mostly because it is a completely nonsensical, false statement, since the United States is not now, nor has it ever been, a democracy.
It is a republic. Moreover, it is a republic of the people, by the people and for the people.
What that means, in a nutshell, is if the people want to attend a Trump rally, and if the majority of people — and states — want to place Trump back into the White House, then that is precisely their right. It is not now, nor has it ever been, the place of the current elected lemmings to stop it.
So, if there ever was a threat to democracy, or correctly the republic, it’s the incitement of a people to commit heinous acts, instead of using reason, debate and compromise to do what is best for all.
In the current landscape, I bet you can see that very real threat.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing. com.
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