JaxPolitix

POST 1213

With Sad and Angry Regret, John Lewis

Nope, we’re not better than this.

There have been political assassinations here since before we were a country. Multiple presidents have been shot. Sandy Hook happened and we were all so sad; then we continued killing one another as though those little kids were still alive and in their 1st grade classrooms.

Until his murder I knew next to nothing about Charlie Kirk. Had I known more about him likely I wouldn’t have agreed with him about any of his views,* which, of course, is not the point. The point is that someone wanted to murder him and did so quite easily.

Click me and read the whole text.

Now President Trump plans to give Kirk our highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kirk didn’t cure a terrible disease. He didn’t carry people out of a burning building. He didn’t risk his life saving church or synagogue members from a would-be assassin. He didn’t stand a post anywhere to protect our freedom and our democracy or serve We The People in Congress. No, he was just a political activist. Trump gave drug addict Rush Limbaugh the PMoF, so with the flipping of one of those medals soon to Kirk’s next of kin, Trump is continuing to debase what was once a richly deserved, high honor.

Vice President Fauxbilly Vance has gone to Utah to retrieve civilian Charlie Kirk’s body and casket, plus his family, and fly them to Phoenix. In Air Force Two. On our dime. For a political activist. Not for a head of state. Not for a hero. For just a political activist,

Kirk was a supporter of Trump, so of course Trump has ordered flags at federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff. Do you suppose he’d do the same for any progressive activist who was shot? Or for any of the “suckers” and “losers” buried at Arlington National Cemetery?

Click me

Jennifer Rubin from before the arrest of the alleged perp:

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, Donald Trump has chosen to politicize [Charlie] Kirk’s murder, blaming the rhetoric of the “radical left”—all before anyone has been identified, let alone [convicted or even} arrested for the murder.

Sadly, he and the MAGA troops reserve outrage only when Republicans are targeted (compare the near-silence when [Democratic] Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was targeted, the mockery when [Democrat] Paul Pelosi was nearly killed, and the snide remarks when two Minnesota Democrats were assassinated).

In each of these cases Trump demonized the left or practically ignored others’ tragedies, both of which encourage more violence.

So, don’t even think of both-sidesing this idiocy.* Only one side promotes violence to get their way. Only one side encourages hatred of the other side, although I confess to speaking ill at times about the violent ones, the willfully ignorant ones and the hateful ones.

Only one side adores a convict president who regularly urges them to violence. Only one side has a leader who promoted violent, murderous, treasonous insurrection and then pardoned the criminals, leaving them to believe that they can get away with maiming and killing. Only one side continues to pervert the Second Amendment from solely encouraging a stand-by militia for an at-risk fledgling country to promoting a universal right to own and use modern weapons of war. Only one side stockpiles arsenals of weapons and ammunition encouraged by puff-up slogans, like  “from my cold, dead hands,” and other pitiful macho, tough guy excuses. They give goose bumps to those angry guys who need to show they’re tough guys. And they give excuse to do violence to others.

We have always been a violent society. Ask Blacks whose people were whipped and lynched. Ask Native Americans who were massacred as state policy in order to take from them what we promised to leave to them. Ask any parent of a school child, anyone living in a drive-by kill zone – ask anyone.

So, no, John Lewis, We aren’t better than this. This is exactly who and what we are. We are violent, self-excusing murderous perps. In fact, I’ll take this one very dangerous step further.

We’ve Seen This Awful Movie Before And We Know How It Ends

In 1933 shortly after Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany in a free and fair election, there was a mysterious fire in the Reichstag building, where the German parliament met. Here’s a pretty good explanation from Wikipedia:

The Reichstag Fire Decree . . . officially the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State . . .  was a decree issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 28 February 1933 in immediate response to the Reichstag fire. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With the Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered “friendly” to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians as one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany.

One mysterious fire and fingers of blame – scapegoating – were invoked and all semblance of democracy and freedom were lost for a very long, murderous time.

Now consider this over-blown, over-played, over-politicized murder of Charlie Kirk. A super “conservative” guy was shot by someone who disliked his views. You don’t suppose that Trump will call that “radical lefty” violence and brand all liberals as traitors, do you? Oh, wait: he already has.

It’s time to suspend your explanations, your self-protection schemes against the evils of Trump’s authoritarianism and recognize that even if this murder isn’t the sole justification claimed by Trump, truncation of your liberty is sure to follow.

This ain’t bean bag.

Be sure to read Charlie Sykes’ post, Weaponizing the Murder of Charlie Kirk. The attacks on our freedoms are flying fast with fantastical hatred – aimed at you.

Many thanks to pal FL for his contributions to this post.

The Deconstructing Trump Corner

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• I believe that deliberate, conscienceless mendacity.
• the acceptance of falsehood and hypocrisy,
• is the most dangerous of all sins.
• Tennessee Williams, 1957
• The biggest liar in the world is They Say.
• [Or, “People are saying” – JA]
• Douglas Malloch, 1978
• 
• _____________________________________________________

* Blurb from the Thom Hartmann piece, The “Both Sides” Scam: How False Balance Fuels Extremism:

” .  .  .  in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination — the guy who downplayed slavery, demonized Black and brown people, promoted the racist, antisemitic Great Replacement Theory, attacked queer people, made degrading comments about women, said gun deaths were fine because that’s the price we must pay for the Second Amendment .  .  . “

I guess Kirk paid his share of the “price we must pay” for the constantly misused and abused Second Amendment, contorted by macho wannabees and the NRA. Like I said, “Had I known more about him likely I wouldn’t have agreed with him about any of his views.” Nevertheless, he should not have been murdered, even as Trump promotes violence against the left. That hateful leadership will fuel the next murderers who think they are the true patriots doing Great Leader’s bidding.

Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
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