What Must End…NOW
On Wednesday morning, a radical leftist and former campaign worker for Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign, one James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, IL, open-fired on twenty-five Republican House and Senate members as they were engaged in an early morning baseball practice in Alexandria, VA. The Republicans were in the midst of their final practice for the annual Republican vs Democrat benefit baseball game, slated for Thursday night at Nationals Park in Washington DC. After ascertaining from Rep Jeff Duncan (R-SC) which party was engaged in practice, Hodgkinson returned to the ballfield with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire, severely wounding the House Republican Whip, Steve Scalise (R-LA), two Capitol police officers who were part of Scalise’s security detail and a congressional aide. After firing more than fifty rounds at the defenseless amateur ball players, Hodgkinson was fatally wounded by shots fired by Capitol police officers in a gun battle which then took place. Had Scalise not been present, there would have been no security, and an outright massacre would have ensued as a result. The fact that the only fatality was that of the assailant is a miracle, considering all that took place. This attack was only the latest in what has become a string of increasing violence, perpetrated by the radical left, in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.
Predictably, Virginia’s Democrat governor, Terry McAuliffe- a one-time Clinton aide and former head of the Democratic National Committee, seized on the opportunity to call for stricter gun control, in a public statement at the very scene of the assault, later that morning. In true “Clintonista” fashion (“never waste an opportunity to exploit a tragedy,”) McAuliffe thus followed in the footsteps of the late Saul Alinsky in his book, Rules for Radicals. At very least, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), minority leaders in their respective chambers, had the decency not to tread on such opportunistic ground and instead call for bi-partisan unity in the wake of such tragedy. Apparently, the Virginia governor lacks such decency, so there it is…
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats, blinded by their insatiable desire to find anything and everything they can to bring down the presidency of Donald Trump, once again took it upon themselves to slander Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trying to portray Sessions as a racist supporter of the Ku Klux Klan during his confirmation hearings in February, they have now continued their attack on the former senator from Alabama- first accusing him of colluding with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 Presidential Election and then accusing him of obstructing justice by refusing to answer questions concerning private conversations he had with President Trump about the firing of former FBI Director James Comey…in a word, character assassination. It has been the longstanding policy, going back to the beginnings of our republic, that a president, any president, can “keep his own counsel” from members of his cabinet. If such a policy was not in place, it would severely weaken the presidency and skew the balance of power as enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.
Showing their own sheer hypocrisy, vis-à-vis their silence when Barack Obama’s first Attorney General, Eric Holder, refused to answer questions concerning Operation Fast and Furious (thus becoming the first and only Attorney General to be charged with contempt of Congress) Democrats suddenly voiced outrage concerning Sessions’ refusal to divulge details of private conversations he had with Trump. Democrats continue their reticence to summon Obama’s second Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, for her overt obstruction of justice in interfering with the FBI Investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a private server and her felonious destruction of evidence regarding the same. This was evidenced by James Comey’s recent revelation that Lynch had assured members of the Democratic National Committee, in a June 2016 memorandum, that Clinton would never face indictment- well before her secret meeting with Bill Clinton on the weekend before Comey announced his refusal to proceed with a criminal referral against Hillary Clinton. Lynch further obstructed justice by insisting that the FBI investigation be referred to as a “matter” rather than an “investigation” so as to be in lock-step with the Clinton campaign.
So while Senate Democrats take a break from their quest to unseat the president by any means possible, it has become ever clearer that the radical left will stop at nothing to bring down President Trump, either by character assassination of a former colleague (Sessions) or the fabrication of criminal activity on the part of the president.
Failing to show, in order, that the Election of 2016 was rigged by the Russians, that the Russians were in collusion with Donald Trump and his campaign to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was part of this alleged collusion by participating in secret meetings with Russian officials which did not take place, and that President Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey in May, it begs the question, “What next?”
Assuming that the words of the former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi ring true- (that she “prays for the success of President Trump,”) the time has come for the end of this nefarious witch hunt, and to get on with the business of a nation who has elected these legislators to serve the will of the people. Furthermore, it should be the purview of all Democrats to condemn the fruits of their own partisan rancor and put a stop to the leftist extremism that is taking place in our country, by living up to the promise of their own service…and they must do so NOW, before such tragic events like the one in Alexandria VA repeat themselves.
-Drew Nickell, 14 June 2017
© 2017 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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