I believe that a mobster occupies the highest post in the land. I believe that he reveals his mob roots with the tweets he writes, the lurid threats he utters, the lies he concocts and, especially, his administration’s brazen corruption
And I see this culture spreading across America like a deadly infection.
An all-too-obvious symptom is the coarsening of the nation’s language. Words that once were never heard in polite discourse pepper the media. Topics that were once reserved for private discussion are minutely examined in the most public forums and flaunted even in TV and internet commercials. (Google Peyronie’s disease commercials if you doubt me.)
You may dismiss this – even welcome it – as healthy candor. But you cannot possibly condone the accompanying acceptance of violent behavior.
In today’s America, disagreement is being expressed not only in thuggish language but also in thuggish actions.
Here’s an example, from today’s Miami Herald:
Parkland shooting survivor turned anti-gun activist David Hogg (photo) avoided another potentially deadly incident Tuesday — after police armed with assault rifles kicked down the door of his family home. Broward County sheriff’s officials were responding to a call that Hogg and his family had been taken hostage by an assailant armed with an AR-15.
That call turned out to be false.
The Herald concluded that while it looked like one of those sick “swatting” pranks that have become so common, this was really attempted murder.
The Herald elaborated:
We live in a country where police can and do kill citizens if they feel threatened. Sending police into a home invasion scenario — facing down an AR-15-toting hostage taker — was well calculated to create a justifiable threat. That Hogg has become a lightning rod for controversy, drawing the ire of pro-gun activists in particular, only made the threat more plausible.
Is this the country you want to live in?
As for me, I refuse to accept the new norms. And I intend to make my feelings clear in November by voting against the craven politicians who are enabling the thug that I blame for the ugliness.
