CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

What Makes a Man Shoot Serial Killers: On Refusing to be Shocked by Political Violence

So, another motherfucker took a shot at the president; another bored kid with a gun and an iPhone looking for immortality in all the wrong places. The desperate details are less important than the fact that this was the third attempt against our current and former president since his last presidential campaign less than two years ago. The man seems to attract bullets the way he does rape allegations and even some of his committed enemies are beginning to freak out. The general consensus among both Dempublicans and Republicrats alike is that everybody needs to tone down the dialogue. That, and “such acts of political violence have no place in civil society!”

I might be tempted to agree with them if we lived in something resembling a civil society and I’m not talking about the rhetoric. As bombastic as these gasbags in the political class have become in a desperate attempt to improve ratings on that failed reality show they call a government, young folks aren’t popping off politicos because of what other politicos said. Even if that was how violence worked, that makes no sense considering that even the vilest rhetoric isn’t enough to get this demographic out of bed to vote, let alone attempt murder. The reality is that we live in a violent country and we always have. For the political class to expect to be immune from this harsh reality is absurd, especially when you consider how goddamn violent they are.

Everybody seems to be really fixated on the dialogue but very few talking heads seem to be willing to point out that the one place where Washington isn’t all talk is when it comes to murder. Donald Trump is a lot of awful things but the worst among his many evil deeds is probably the........

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