Political violence is not new in America. I will say in some respects, you can say Political Terrorism is not new in America because I feel all political violence is meant to terrorize.  We have now witnessed political violence in Minnesota. Saturday. A man, Vance Boelter, disguised himself as a police officer and shot and killed Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at their home. He then drove over to State Senator John Hoffman's home, shot the Senator and his wife, seriously injuring them. He then fled the police, which resulted in a two-day manhunt until he was taken into custody. From what I have read, he had a manifesto with a lot of names he intended to kill.  I have also read he had visited other elected officials in Minnesota who were not home at the time, so that the carnage could have been much worse. It has also been reported that the shooter was a conservative and huge supporter of Trump.

After the shooting, Mike Lee, the Senator from Utah, posted a picture of the killer stating, “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.” In another post, he wrote “Nightmare on Walz Street” as a way, in my opinion, of blaming the Democratic Governor of Minnesota. He also posted that Marxism is a “deadly mental illness,” again, as a way, in my opinion, to blame the Democrats by claiming that they are Marxist. People have been shot dead, and he is posting false and very misleading posts that could be an attempt to further malign the Democratic Party. It is posts like the ones he has written that can lead to more violence. The shooter was not some Marxist (communist) person who wanted to wreak havoc on the government. He was a full-blown conservative and a Trump supporter. He was also an anti-abortion advocate. He was targeting Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, and posts like the one that Lee posted just enhance the flames of hate.

Trump has many times posted things advocating violence, and sometimes he was pointing right at the Democrats. He has called Democrats the “enemy of the people”. He has implied, after his State of the Union Address, that Democrats who didn’t applaud him may have committed “Treason”. While talking to Police Officers, Trump said, “Don’t be too nice” as a way of sanctioning police violence. He has suggested we shoot immigrants crossing the border. He told the Proud Boys to “Stand Back and Stand By,” suggesting violence that eventually happened on January 6^th, 2021. He said he would like to punch a heckler in the face. Besides the racism and bigotry that Trump brings to the table every day, he has also brought threats of violence. Right after the shooting, Trump condemned the attacks, saying, “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God bless the people of Minnesota, a truly great place. The following day, he has a different tone. He called the shooting “a terrible thing”, but then called Walz “a terrible governor” and grossly incompetent person” like he was shifting the blame to the Democrats.

Even our holier-than-thou Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has gotten into the act. He stated they should “Tar and Feather” the Governor of California. That is something that should not be said by any Representative of the People, let alone the Speaker of the House. That is not a statement that the person who is third in line to the Presidency, let alone what any decent Christian should say. Since the shooting, the Republicans have been trying to blame the Marxist Left for the shooting. Johnson has said that there is a Marxist Left movement of anti-Semitism here again, trying to blame the violence on the Democrats. I will remind you that those people carrying torches and screaming “Jews will not replace us” were all white conservative Trump supporters that Trump would not condemn. Jesus was non-violent, but Johnson is not, and his hypocrisy is there for the entire world to see.

Laura Loomer alleged that the Minnesota shooter had ties to the “No Kings” movement without a shred of evidence, just using the shooting as another attack on the
Democratic Party. ‘No Kings' protestors, of which I was one, were very peaceful, and the “No Kings” movement will probably grow. Elon Musk shared a tweet from a pro-Trump account that read, “The left has become a full-blown terrorist organization.” Musk also posted a reply to Senator Lee's post stating, “The far left is murderously violent.” Both comments were not true and were meant to deflect the threats of violence that their entire Republican Party brings to the table to hide that fact that they are pushing bad legislation that will benefit their billionaire owners but not the American people.

Throwing the blame on groups that had nothing to do with the shooting just divides the country more. By using the shooting to try and demonize the Democrats just divides the country. Intentionally dividing the country with lies and misinformation just weakens us. Political violence is growing in America, and it is the lies and misinformation that are helping it grow.