Political Violence: Bullies always back down

I started this newsletter with a brief discourse on liberty because, hopefully, such an entry will provide context for the political violence we see every day. Antifa, confrontations in restaurants, and violent protests in cities around the country do not serve the political process well. And when people kill others, or try to kill others, that is no longer political confrontation—those are acts of terrorism.

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All of us, particularly those in the media, want to make sense of senseless acts. We want to assign blame. We want to pin the rose on the President or on a particular party or with a particular generation. This type of thinking is not helpful and, truth be told, is merely a form of rationalization that assuages guilt and deflects the hard task of looking into why we have lost all sense of comity in our political interactions. The men who tried to bomb their perceived threats or who killed innocent people celebrating a religious rite are criminals They don’t speak for me, act for me or represent me. They took those actions and now they will have to suffer the consequences of their actions. No one is to blame but them. I would never dream of walking up to someone in a restaurant or coffee shop and confronting them about their politics. They have their right to believe as they do and I expect the same in return. If one is so incensed by political views that differ from one’s own, then perhaps one should seek professional help. A few months ago, I had someone approach me publicly and wonder out loud, for all to hear, why I was not in prison for my actions related to Russian collusion. I smiled, stated how sorry I was that they felt that way and that I was not going to prison for anything I did on the campaign. I stated I wasn’t sure what the outcome might be if they insisted on embarrassing themselves further, however. Bullies always back down.

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