AP Photo/Jeff Martin
Say what you will about Stranger Things, horror movies, and the new Sabrina show, but the biggest scares this Halloween seem to have come from Washington.
Numerous Democratic officials and outspoken Trump critics received packages containing pipe bombs last week, including Hillary Clinton, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, Barack Obama, Robert DeNiro and CNN. 14 packages in total were sent, allegedly by Cesar Sayoc, who was arrested Friday and made his first court appearance Monday. Sayoc, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, could be sentenced to up to 48 years in prison.
On the one hand, this marks a rather disturbing development in the increasing polarization between the two parties. In response to the threats, some on the far-right (including Rush Limbaugh and Mr. Infowars himself, Alex Jones) pointed the finger at the Democrats, claiming liberals sent the packages to drum up fear among the left. The packages are believed to have been more of a scare tactic than a legitimate assassination attempt. Intimidation has always been an effective form of dissuasion.
While Mike Pence and other Republicans have condemned the threats, Trump's approach has been less than consistent. He attempts to call for unity, seemingly out of obligation, and then turns around and blames the media for aggravating partisan divides. As the New Yorker points out, Trump refuses to accept any responsibility for contributing to the rhetoric that leads to polarization and the acts of violence (as also seen in Pittsburgh) that can result. He might not condone it, but he is certainly enabling it.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/nyregion/bomb-explosive-device.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/us/politics/bombs-sent-cnn-obama-clinton-soros.html?module=inline
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/us/politics/trump-bomb-cnn-obama-clintons.html?module=inline
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/25/politics/bombs-suspicious-packages-what-we-know/index.html
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/25/18022376/pipe-bomb-targets-packages-democrats-clinton-obama-soros-de-niro
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/nyregion/clinton-obama-explosive-device.html
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-donald-trump-cant-stop-attacking-the-media-over-the-pipe-bomb-packages
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/pipe-bomb-suspect-doj-letter/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/clintons-obama-suspicious-packages/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/26/politics/suspicious-packages-arrest/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/25/politics/bombs-suspicious-packages-what-we-know/index.html
6 comments:
I'm worried that this might spark a wave of partisan violence. We've seen the congressional shooting last year and this, but violence partisan acts haven't really been a regular in the news cycle. Hopefully, the harsh repercussions and the lack of effect on lawmakers dissuades any future would-be bombers.
The package incident is not only evidence of the polarization of our country, but it also seems to be furthering the trend. People across the political spectrum are pointing fingers at the other party and trying to place blame instead of looking for solutions to fix the problem and prevent this from happening. As the leader of our country, Trump should be more willing to condemn the attacks and try to unify the people instead of placing the blame on the media, which will only divide our country even more. Even though the perpetrator has been found and detained, the underlying issue of polarization has not been addressed and I can easily imagine something like this happening again in the near future, especially as we get closer and closer to election day.
This is undeniably a result of Trump. Perhaps this man has always been a white supremacist. But Trump has given racist, homophobic, xenophobic and antisemitic people a voice -- these beliefs, which have been silenced by society (for good reason) for years have begun to surface.
The bomber's van is beyond unsettling: it's plastered with pictures of Trump and covered in many of his sayings: "Lock her up!" "CNN sucks!"
This is bigger than the polarization we've seen in the past few years. The "Unite the Right" rally, the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, these bomb scares -- they are evidence that Trump's Twitter rants and inflammatory comments have real-life consequences beyond Congress. His Tweets don't only have a word count: they have a body count.
Which each new target (the media, Hillary Clinton) and each new disturbing alliance (Putin, Crown Prince of Arabia, Alex Jones), Trump creates a deeper, deadlier divide in our country.
The lengths that this person went to make an attempt at peoples lives shows the severity of the political climate in the United States. I agree with what Alex said about political violence not making it to the news as often but to the degree that this event has been it becomes a little unsettling about whether or not it will inspire more people to take extreme actions into their own hands. I also agree with what Jayla said about it showing the political polarization within our country. The fact that someone would go to such lengths and actually be able to have done so much damage to so many people shows how relentless and dangerous people can be. I feel this should have a large impact on the election but worry that people may ignore it if they find it doesn't fit into their own beliefs of Trump and don't find him responsible for these actions.
Right when I heard the news about the pipe bombs sent to Democrats, I immediately thought of Rand Paul earlier in October saying "I really worry that someone is going to be killed." Paul also cautioned politicians to tone down their rhetoric, as their words could incite violence - and now look what happened. No one should be persecuted for their political beliefs, and as for President Trump, I think he missed an easy opportunity to help ease our divisions through condemning the man who sent the pipe bombs. In similar lines with what Phoebe said, I don't think Trump supports the pipe bombs being sent to the Democrats, but he doesn't seem to have much interest in what happened, which is leaving the rest of the country to clean up the mess in an already tense political climate.
I agree with Alyce that this has been from the election of Trump, leading to each political party have more and more extreme beliefs. Republicans are getting more conservative while Democrats are getting more liberals, especially during the midterm With these extreme beliefs, many people will resort to violent means in order to prove their point or to prove the other side wrong. People are fighting fire with fire and aren't trying to seek resolutions for this polarization. Currently, It seems like we can't have a respectful debate between people with different values.
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