Who is to blame for political violence?

As a kid growing up in Jamaica, I had a front row seat to real political violence and the horror it can bring on families and communities.

In Jamaica, as in most Third World countries, politics is literally a life and death business. For far too many people, if their party loses an election, their family might not eat, they might not have a job---- and depending on the political make-up of the neighborhood that they live in, they might have to move away against their will.

Here in America we are supposed to be so much better than that. We live in a "true democracy", and we are united as a people regardless of our political beliefs and party affiliation. Presidents come and go, but it doesn't affect our lives, our jobs, or where we live. We trust our government and our Constitution to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Sure we will argue politics all day amongst each other, but we would never act out our dislike or hatred for each other in the horrific ways that we have come to expect from folks living in the Third World.

But lately, things have changed. Today a deranged man did a very Third World like thing by shooting at politicians he disagreed with while they practiced on a softball field.  He is not the first of course, and he will not be the last. Just a few weeks ago, a man of a different political persuasion attacked and killed two men on an Oregon train, because they tried to stop his xenophobic rant against a young Muslim woman.

Of course we all saw this coming. Social media, cable news, and other forms of media have become extremely balkanized, and everyone always invariably retreats to their own echo-chamber to hear the same rhetoric over and over again from like minded people.

And now, as is to be expected, the blame game  will begin.  Some on the right have already started.
They are pointing fingers at the left and the left's hatred for Donald trump. Eric Bolling, who spewed hateful words at the former President non-stop, actually had the nerve to say that words matter and that we should be careful what we say when talking about the current president.

It took me seven paragraphs, but here we go: The current leader of these divided states of America built his campaign on hatred and anger. He encouraged his supporters to beat people, he openly bragged about sexually assaulting women, he had a man over at the White House who threatened to kill a former first lady, and one of his strongest  supporters (who was just elected to Congress) physically assaulted a reporter for simply asking him a question. Oh, and he promised to pay the legal fees of his supporters who beat up reporters.  And yet his supporters-- and those in his political gang--- have the nerve to point fingers from their huge homes with the spectacular views because they are all built from glass.  Anyone who doesn't understand why this current political climate exists
have not been paying attention.  It exists because the current leader of our country acts more and more like an autocratic and totalitarian leader from  a Third World country than the man who should be leading the greatest democracy on earth. 

When leaders act like Mr. trump, the people that they lead tend to do horrific and despicable things.

"I can only hope that the Democrats do tone down the rhetoric," Collins told WBEN. "The rhetoric has been outrageous ... the finger-pointing, just the tone and the angst and the anger directed at Donald Trump, his supporters."

Yes, the rhetoric has been "outrageous", but it has been coming mostly from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

*Pic from nbcnews.com