Eugene Robinson, a columnist for the Washington Post, watched the Iowa debate between Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, sparing the rest of us of that burden. He reported on their despicable dodge about the recent killing of a sixth grade student in the school cafeteria.
He wrote:
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley did not just lose Wednesday night’s debate. They have lost their way.
At Perry High School in Iowa last week, 17-year-old Dylan Butler shot and killed a sixth-grader, wounded five other students and staff, and then killed himself. Surely, the Republican presidential candidates discussed the tragedy during their debate in Des Moines, right?
Wrong. Neither said a word about a school shooting that had happened just days earlier and barely 40 miles away.
Anyone still searching for a meaningful difference between today’s Democratic Party and the GOP need only take note of their very different reactions to this latest tragedy.
Deadly shootings, even in our schools, are an inevitable feature of our daily lives — according to the Republican Party. In comments and appearances before the debate, the leading GOP candidates all reacted to the Perry shooting by washing their hands of any duty to act. And, of course, by offering thoughts and prayers.
DeSantis, the Florida governor, said during an interview with NBC News and the Des Moines Register that while officials have a responsibility to guarantee safety at our schools, the federal government “is probably not going to be leading that effort.” As though to underscore the point, he later said, according to Reuters, that as president he would sign a bill eliminating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Haley posted her condolences on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the shooting, saying in part that, “My heart aches for the victims of Perry, Iowa and the entire community.” Later that day, the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor said that “we have to deal with the cancer that is mental health,” called for more security officers at schools and went ahead with her campaign schedule.
Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump — expected to trounce DeSantis, Haley and all other comers in Monday’s Iowa caucuses — addressed school violence during a campaign stop on Friday.
The callousness was breathtaking, even for Trump.
“I want to send our support and our deepest sympathies to the victims and families touched by the terrible school shooting yesterday in Perry, Iowa,” he said in Sioux City. “It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it, we have to move forward.”
Get over it. Imagine the comfort that must have brought to the family of 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff, who was killed in the shooting.
The Republican Party’s lack of empathy after a tragedy such as this gives the country a real chance to see why that matters for our country’s leadership — and what a real difference the Democrats offer.
On Thursday, the day after Republicans’ dismal debate, Vice President Harris visited a middle school in Charlotte to join a roundtable discussion on gun violence with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. That’s where she announced the administration’s plan to invest a new round of funding ($285 million) for schools to find and train mental health professionals, per a White House official.
Harris shared her reaction to the Perry shooting on X the day it occurred, highlighting some of the proposals Democrats have been trying to pass:
“As we begin a new year, we must resolve to finally end this epidemic of gun violence that has become the leading cause of death for children in America. We know the solutions: making background checks universal, passing red flag laws, and renewing the assault weapons ban. Now, Congress and state legislators across the country must have the courage to act.”
Open the link to read the rest of the column.
Are there any Republicans running for office or still serving after being elected that can be trusted with our freedoms as defined in the U.S. Constitution, and who will also honor the oath they took to defend that Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic?
I do not think so. The ones that might have honored that oath are too afraid of Traitor Trump and MAGA threats/violence to do so. Cowards!
Every Republican candidate for any office should be asked this question at town hall meetings:
Who won the 2020 Presidential election?
I regret that no one asked that question during the GOP debates.
See below.
Diane: I keep thinking: These are the people who want to ban social and emotional learning (SEL) from K-12 education . . .it’s a “woke agenda”?
Anyone connect (1) the ABSENCE of SEL from the curriculum, coupled with (2) the over-emphasis on STEM/loss of history and humanities, and (3) TV and Movie Gun Murders with (4) gun shootings in school? CBK
I don’t think “Pathetic” adequately describes these two individuals. I find them to be absurd, almost laughable if their actions and words were not so destructible, and pitifully inferior and will never able to serve the people of this nation as they should be if elected. DeSantis has proven his inability to properly serve the people of Florida time and time again.
Does putting faith in the statements of candidates,
require belief in electoral saviors?
Does calling them public servants stop them
from being public masters?
What electoral master savior freed the nation
from the rule of money?
Top 10 Questions to Ask Repugnican Candidates, 2024
by Reporter on the American Political Farce Bob Shepherd (with material from a meme by Wajahat Ali)
Who won the 2020 Election?
–Donald Trump won the 2020 Election, but it was stolen from him by the Democrats and Venezuela.
What issue tore the country apart in the mid nineteenth century and caused the Civil War?
–In the mid nineteenth century, the United States was ripped apart by a disagreement over federal government overreach.
Why are CRT and DEI the only subjects taught in universities now?
–Because the administrators and professors are all a bunch of Marxists who hate America and want to destroy it.
Just how good was slavery for black people and in what ways?
–It was great for them. They got to sing about Jebus and dance all day, when they weren’t learning important skills like bending over and toting.
Putin said that he didn’t interfere in the 2016 election, so why doesn’t Marxist fake new media believe him?
–Because they hate and want to destroy America.
Is climate change real?
–Climate change is a Chinese hoax created to ruin the best economy in the history of the world, which we had before Biden stole the election, and the hoax is perpetrated by a cute bot named Greta jointly developed by George Soros and the Chinese government, as well as by scientists wanting to bilk the government of your tax dollars.
Should the remaining school librarians, along with drag queens, be locked up to prevent more grooming?
–School librarians and drag queens are the greatest threats to America today after Hunter Biden–even worse than teachers’ unions. They should be dealt with accordingly.
When exactly because of course it’s happening any time now is President Trump’s healthcare plan coming? (which is much better than Obamacare which used to be Romneycare who is the worst DIN0 if you want to know the truth, coming)
–The greatest healthcare plan in the history of healthcare plans is coming any day now and you won’t believe how great it is people call me up and say Mr. President, you should have been a doctor, this is such a great plan, but ofc I’m smarter than doctors, just look at how much money I have I’m like loaded I have so much because you see it’s like racehorses or models some are winners and some are losers and I’m a winner.
What other great models of leadership exist in the world today aside from Kim and Putin and Donald Trump?
–OK. This is a trick question because you got it all wrong. There is only one person who can solve the problems the world and America are facing today and that person is Donald Trump. So, greatest leader? Donald Trump or Jebus and who knows these might be one and the same person.
And what about Hunter’s laptop?
–Finally, someone mentions the most pressing issue of our time. Hunter’s laptop. When I am elected again, I will deputize the military to lock up everyone who did not actively work to prosecute the Biden Crime Family because of the actual evidence on Hunter’s laptop just ask Rudy. That will include almost all of the Democrats.
I think it was Fauci who used the Soros money to commission the Chinese government to develop Greta Thornbug to perpetrate the climate change hoax which is like the Russia hoax and the classified documents hoax and the rape hoax and the insurrection hoax and the falsifying financial statements hoax to stop the greatest economy in the history of the Earth which we had before the Democrats and Venezuela stole the election from your favorite president who could have negotiated away the whole Civil War thing, which would have kept the Continental Army from having to capture the British airports, if you want to know the truth.
Both DeSantis and Haley are ambitious politicians that are afraid of alienating anyone in their base. DeSantis is worse as he has no empathy for anyone, and authoritarianism runs in his veins instead of blood. If put in charge of the federal government, he would attempt to drown the federal government, with the exception for the military, in a bathtub. There would be little to no regulation of anything while he privatizes everything he can.
What he has done in Florida is an example of his lack of management skills. He would appoint incompetent cronies to key positions and allow them to plunder the commons. Haley is correct about DeSantis’ wasteful spending. He would cut taxes for wealthy and corporations and gut the social safety net. Empathy would not even be a consideration for him. He would run up the deficit and pick fights with anyone that disagrees with him. He would also abandon Ukraine and let our allies fend for themselves. After all the years of waste and harmful policies in Florida under DeSantis,
he would inflict more dissension and chaos on our already divided nation. Common sense gun control would not even be a consideration under DeSantis.
So what do his supporters hear when Donald Trump says something like “we will have to get over it?” What does personal crass insensitivity not ruin this political entity?
I think his supporters see him as a truly sympathetic leader when he says that. It is not that they lack empathy themselves. It is not that they would refrain from helping anyone they know. What it means is that they have accepted Trump’s world view statement ( note I did not say Trump’s world view). They see the world around them generally broken, and school shootings support this feeling. Into this feeling of personal helplessness, they see Trump as the major sympathetic voice of their frustrations.
This is why he can say anything he wants to, and they will interpret the statement within the framework of his status as savior of their day.
Trump has the ability to feign empathy. After all, he worked in reality TV, but don’t expect him to actually do anything meaningful to address social problems. While Trump has been running ads against Haley’s interest in raising the retirement age of Social Security, he is no defender of the program. As late as 2020, Trump hatched his own defund Social Security plan. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trumps-plan-defund-social-security/
Trump has the ability to feign empathy.
You mean when he met the Gold Star Mothers and talked to them about what a great job he was doing?
They believe him because he is a cult leader and they belong to his cult.
Roy,
Substitute Germans for this, and would you be as kind?
“I think Hitler’s supporters see him as a truly sympathetic leader when he says that. It is not that they lack empathy themselves. It is not that they would refrain from helping anyone they know. What it means is that they have accepted Hitler’s world view statement (note I did not say Hitler’s world view). They see the world around them generally broken, and the Reichtag fire supports this feeling. Into this feeling of personal helplessness, they see Hitler as the major sympathetic voice of their frustrations.”
There was a reason that the aftermath of the Holocaust, there was a tacit understanding in this country, western Europe, and in Germany itself, that when a country embraces fascism and leadership that prioritized the most efficient way to easily annihilate over 6 million civilians, many of them children, the WORST thing to do is to make the people who embraced that evil leader feel justified and understood and absolve them of their complicity in what happened. The best thing to do is emphasize Hitler supporters were wrong and emphasize that their support for Hitler made them complicit in all the evil he did.
Trump supporters are complicit. For 8 years now they have heard nothing but validation about why their support for the leader of the birther movement – a leader who spewed racist and xenophobic attacks and fomented hate – is understood and normal. The NYT presents Trump voters as people whose opinion should be frequently solicited, and they regularly gather a group together to make sure Trump voters understand that even the liberal media values and respects them and their views are important. When they vote to enable Trump’s fascism in 2024, it will be because “even the liberal media” has made it clear there is nothing wrong or shameful about supporting Trump; it was just an expression of very good people’s beliefs about what will be good for the country. Instead of criticism, the ONLY thing they hear — “even from Democrats” — is validation.
What surprises me is that anyone wonders why Trump voters continue to support him, and why the country is in even more danger today than it was 4 years ago. Why would anyone stop supporting Trump when they keep hearing that their support for Trump is understood and valid.
If the Germans who voted for Hitler had only heard how their support of Hitler was perfectly reasonable and understandable, it wouldn’t be long before they voted for the next fascist leader. The Germans (perhaps because of American intervention) made a concerted effort not to present German Hitler supporters as very good people who just wanted to make Germany better. Their support of Hitler was widely accepted as something to be ashamed of. Regardless of whether there were later efforts to understand the appeal that Hitler had for them, the first and foremost undisputed truth was that their support of Hitler was shameful and morally wrong.
Why would a Trump voter feel shame, when they keep hearing that even many Democrats don’t believe there is anything morally wrong with them supporting Trump. It’s just a difference of opinion. Just like many of us have a difference of opinion with those Germans who were so happy to vote for Hitler.
I did not think I was being kind. Pointing out that people respond to fear appeals is more of a statement of fact as I see it.
This is why Eisenhower decided he must run the German faces in the reality of the Holocaust to break the spell of the savior who had promised to save his people from the other ones. Fear is a strong motivation.
I just noticed you didn’t say anything critical of Trump supporters. The accepted truth is that they are good people.
It’s part of why we are in such a dangerous time – we have all (and I include myself) been brainwashed and it takes a great effort and a recognition of this not to use right wing framing when we discuss these issues.
I think Marcy Wheeler at Empty Wheel presents a much better framing which doesn’t start with an unspoken but very clear message that most Trump supporters are good people.
” I included a rubric I’ve increasingly used to try to understand why Republicans adopt Trump’s fascism. Because folks in comments are discussing similar ideas, I thought I’d include it.
When we talk about Trump supporters, we need to talk about it in these terms. Which of these are the reasons that the Trump supporters you know are so drawn to Trump and his message?
If they aren’t Christian nationalists willing to sacrifice democracy to create the Christian nation of their dreams, and they aren’t rabid adherents of fascism, then it is possible that they are simply the people conned by his grift. They are the same as the people who were conned into giving Trump tens of thousands of dollars to enroll in Trump University.
Frame it like that. They are no different than the people who gave Trump $10,000 to learn to be rich. Before the media got brainwashed, they didn’t spend a lot of time analyzing whether Trump got people to enroll in Trump University because they believed the system had let them down, or because they had big hospital bills from lack of health insurance.
We didn’t waste time analyzing whether those who paid Trump to attend Trump U. wanted to get rich so they could feed as many poor people as possible, or pay their medical bill, or whether they wasted their money to attend Trump U so they could buy themselves a Porsche and show off to their friends. Because it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that they were all easy to con. That’s what they have in common. That they are easy to con. Sometimes it is because they are greedy, but sometimes because they are kind. It doesn’t matter. They are easy to con.
If those Trump supporters you know aren’t Trump supporters because they are just like the Trump University students and are easy to con, then one of the other even less flattering reasons explains their support of Trump:
Cowards afraid of his retaliation
So, unless it is one of the other reasons, it’s because they are easily conned.
To sum up – lots of people “see the world around them generally broken, and school shootings support this feeling.” A lot of people feel personally helpless. And a lot of people just want to be able to impress their friends by driving an expensive car. A lot of people just want a good education.
But that’s not why SOME of those people support Trump or enrolled at Trump University. The ones who support Trump or enrolled at Trump U. are simply easily conned. Or if they aren’t easily conned, then one of the other 4 reasons above explains it.
No one will admit to attending Trump U. anymore, because it is embarrassing to brag about being an idiot who was fooled into giving Trump their money because they thought he was giving them something that they desired so strongly.
I imagine that people conned into attending Trump U. feel shame.
The Republican Party, not just Trump, has to be soundly defeated in November if there is to be any hope that issues confronting our citizenry are to be addressed. I hope we soon see ads declaring the incompetence of the Republican Party along with Democratic intentions to govern.
Empathy?
The only lives anyone in that party cares about are unborn ones. After that, it’s pretty much Lord of the Flies meets Atlas Shrugged meets 451.
Empathy is not in their vocabulary and they must have missed the hundreds of sermons they claim to attend on “thy brothers keeper.”
Why?
Diane said it. It’s a cult. Watch fox news, worry obsessively, blame someone, and keep peering out the window. And blindly support their savior-leaders
who claim to defend their grievances against society.
They are convinced…
The public schools want to indoctrinate their kids with liberal thoughts and feelings.
The NIH is hiding information about diseases.
The democrats are coming for their income to redistribute to people in poverty.
Their news broadcasts are “here’s bad news and here’s who to blame for it”
The other guy always gets the break
They know regulations are choking their income, their corporations, and rights to run a red light without a camera or carry a gun to church
Panderers? Yes.
All politics, er, fear is local
So they figured out how to communicate to the masses – the easiest of easy targets Through Public education and liberal colleges. There are thousands of them in every town and village in America and they are out to get your kids.
Donald Trump and others of the current Repugnican death cult have empathy for themselves. Period.
Trump is a classic malignant narcissistic psychopath. He is incapable of caring about anyone but Donald Trump.
I just read Sean Hannity’s Twitter feed, and it was sad. Tweet after tweet ridiculing Biden as mentally deficient, a do-nothing fool, a stumbling bumbling idiot, a dictator, an old idiot who wears diapers and smells bad. A doddering old fool who wants power. Projecting much?
lol
in the heartland
Christian nationalists, a group that includes powerful right wing Catholics and evangelicals care about controlling women. The fetus, in vitro, dead or alive, takes precedence over the life of the woman. If a fetus was valued, there would be Catholic support for in vitro fertilization.
The court cases against Trump were a means to inform the public about his corruption. Mueller and others who were charged with bringing cases when warranted, created the opportunity for further conning by Trump. Justice delayed is justice denied. One blog commenter here advances the point that the cases have to be airtight. The corollary is, “perfection is the enemy of progress.”
Trump holds the winning card, if he’s elected, the court cases….?