I have to be very careful with this post, because the next person I want to see in my Ring Doorbell camera is the Amazon delivery person with my tennis bag, and not a Secret Service agent.
Anyway, the felon is always comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, and this past weekend he almost got his wish in ways that I am sure he did not want. For the record, I do not in any way condone political violence. I am a win at the ballot box, not by the bullet kind of guy. I do think it's ironic, though, that the man who has introduced a level of mean spiritedness never before seen in our politics is now the object of our pity. Also ironic, is the fact that the shooter is not one of the people he likes to demonize, but a young man who looked just like all of his supporters in the crowd. He could have been one of their sons.
My hero, Malcolm X, would have called Saturday's event in Butler, Pennsylvania, a chickens coming home to roost moment. I call it America's gun culture and politics of hatred and division coming together in a way that was inevitable. It's sad that one of the felon's supporters had to lose his life. (As of me writing this post, he has still not reached out to personally offer his condolences to the man's family.)
The felon was lucky this past Saturday. He has hinted that the experience has changed him. That's left to be seen. I suspect that he will be back to business as usual really soon. He will be back to sowing seeds of division, and demonizing all those who are not a part of the MAGA cult. The cult is already fundraising off the tragic event, and the felon was more concerned with getting a good picture of himself and making sure that his shoes (can't have the world seeing those lifts) were on in the aftermath of the tragedy.
In closing, let us all hope that the rest of this political season will be a peaceful one.
*Pic from AP images