No End to Partisan Warfare

It didn’t take long for conservatives in the media to blame liberals for the horrific shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and others at an Alexandria, Virginia, park. Admittedly, there’s little doubt that the shootings were politically motivated. The shooter,  a Bernie Sanders supporter,  had been posting rants against Republicans and Trump for months. Furthermore, he asked a representative at the park, where Congressional personnel were practicing for a friendly game of baseball, whether those on the field were Democrats or Republicans.

Despite those facts, members of both parties on Capitol Hill, as well as President Trump himself, called for unity and prayers for the victims of the horrendous attack. There was a call for Democrats and Republicans to put aside their differences out of respect for Rep. Scalise, other government officials, and law enforcement officers injured in the shootout.

But in the news media, Sean Hannity immediately blamed the incident on the left for their hateful rhetoric against Trump and his Republican administration. Other media personalities and newspaper columnists echoed Hannity’s sentiments. All of them conveniently ignored the upsurge in racist violence that occurred after Donald Trump’s election in November.

My first reaction to news of the shooting was that this is how far partisan politics has descended. It was bad enough to see figures of Barack Obama being lynched or burned in effigy on the one side, a fake likeness of Donald Trump’s bloodied and severed head on the other. But partisanship has gotten so bad that it has incited people to actual violence and physical harm of others.

There has to be a way to get beyond the hatred and blame that has characterized American politics in the past decade. We can strongly, and even stridently, disagree with each other without resorting to name-calling, mockery, and outright assault.

But here’s the rub: Such flagrancy makes headlines. All the major news outlets and now the world wide web of sensationalism have a stake in encouraging anger and outrage. They make for good ratings. Early on in the Republican primaries, the media loved Donald Trump. His outrageous statements and behavior were constantly being covered by the likes of CNN, whose management admitted that their ratings skyrocketed with the Trump coverage. The American thirst for drama has brought out such horrible characters as Milo Yiannopoulos and Alex Jones, who spew their hate to an adoring audience. On the left are less famous characters who took to Twitter and actually celebrated the fact that Scalise, a supposed racist, was shot.

The Congressional baseball game, an event for charity, will go on as planned tonight, no doubt with enhanced security. The fact is that the Democrats and Republicans who work together on Capitol Hill are actually often good friends. Let’s hope their good example, as evidenced by their bipartisan remarks today and their coming together for America’s favorite pastime, can actually prevail and start to reduce the divisiveness that is making partisan politics not just unpleasant, but downright dangerous.