Hey all, I’m frustrated with this last week. The news of this week demands recognition, but I honestly don’t have the heart or patience at the moment to give this moment a full, level-headed analysis. Because of this, this week’s post is more of a rant with some links than a fully fleshed out analysis. If that’s not your thing, no worries, we’ll hopefully get back to more normal programming next week! If it is, here are some quick thoughts on what might be the most frustrating week in politics to a classical liberal like me.

Donald Trump was shot, and everyone ran to their partisan corners

I remember exactly where I was when the second plane hit on September 11, 2001. I sat at the edge of my parents’ bed, tying my shoes, looking up at the TV placed in the corner of their bedroom as I got ready for another day of first grade.

But that’s all I really remember about that day and the following weeks. Those younger than me likely remember even less. An entire generation of Americans is unable to conceive of having an answer to the question that starts: “Where were you when”.

No adult American has to wonder what that feels like anymore.

But while those other events—the Challenger exploding, 9/11, assassination attempts on other presidents—were moments in time that drove unity among Americans, it seems that the attempt on Trump’s life has sown more and more division.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, politicians and pundits ran to their corners, blaming each other for the shooting or spreading conspiracy theories. A sitting congressman posted this:

While popular political accounts tweeted stuff like this:

In the aftermath of what could have been one of the most disastrous events of the decade, we refused to unify; instead, we pointed fingers at one another.

We blamed the “rhetoric” of the other side for motivating the shooter: Republicans claimed that Democrats’ rhetoric about Trump was responsible, while Democrats claimed that Trump’s rhetoric motivated someone to oppose him with violence.

In reality, neither of these appear true. The shooter doesn’t even appear to be opposed to Trump; he was a registered Republican who wore the shirt of a prominent gun YouTuber as he shot at Trump, and was seen as weird by his classmates.

The reality is that this shooting was the action of a mentally unwell individual who shouldn’t have had access to a firearm.

And this rot extends beyond the shooter himself. During the shooting, one man in the audience was fatally hit. Joe Biden and the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shaprio reached out to his widow to offer condolences.

She refused to talk to either of them. From this interview:

But did Donald Trump reach out? No:

Trump was literally playing golf the day after the shooting. Rather than call the widow of the man who died at his rally, he played golf. But of course, it’s Biden who isn’t welcome.

This is just one example of the awful state of our politics.

Cancel culture and double standards have reared their ugly heads

In May of 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.

Since then, Floyd’s memory has been a vehicle for some on the right to peddle offensive, cruel, racist jokes. Those on the left have rightly decried this behavior. Some even went to lengths to get those making said jokes fired from their places of employment.

This caused outrage from the right, with many crying “free speech!” This type of behavior was even one of the reasons Elon Musk initially decided to purchase Twitter.

But in the aftermath of the shooting, the right has been headhunting for anyone who dares to make a joke about the would-be assassination.

In March, controversial Twitter user Chaya Raichik, better known as Libs of TikTok decried cancel culture:

You can also see her awful, inhumane rhetoric about George Floyd here. Amidst all of her controversies, she also has repeatedly decried reporters like Taylor Lorenz for “doxxing” her.

Except now she engages in that very doxxing and cancel culture she claims to loathe:

Suddenly, those who defended awful speech by crying out “free speech!” are working to get others fired for nearly identical awful speech.

Dom Lucre is another controversial user on Twitter due to his spreading of conspiracy theories, repeated usage of slurs, and literally sharing of videos including child sexual exploitation.

That last bit got him banned, but “free speech warrior” Elon Musk unbanned him, because “free speech”.

What has Dom done with his second chance on Twitter? You guessed it, try to get others banned or demonetized for similar behavior:

We have become an infantilized country; rabidly defending our own right to act like jerks while whining and crying the second anyone else does something we don’t like.

I feel like it shouldn’t be difficult to ask for just a modicum of consistency here. But that’s probably asking too much of the political grifters of the world.

The GOP has been fully remade in Trump’s image

J.D. Vance is officially the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States of America, cementing the party of Reagan as dead.

The GOP is now the party of Trump, and nobody else.

The Republican nominee for President is a lifelong Democrat, and his running mate is a pro-government Elizabeth Warren acolyte:

This is in addition to the fact that Vance is perhaps one of the most notorious flip-floppers in modern politics, once criticizing Trump as “noxious” and “an American Hitler” before suddenly singing his praises when it became politically convenient:

Vance is not the nominee because he brings in additional votes. He is not the nominee for principled conservative reasons. He is the nominee because he will do whatever it takes to appease Trump. Where Mike Pence stood his ground on January 6th, J.D. Vance will bend the knee. That’s all that matters to the MAGA camp.

If the Vance nomination wasn’t enough of a slap in the face of traditional Republicans, the rest of the convention should do more than enough to show you how little the party cares conservatism. For example, the speaker lineup for the convention includes the progressive, pro-Bernie Sanders president of the Teamsters’ Union, as well as pro-gun control, pro-universal healthcare sex worker Amber Rose:

I’m normally an optimist about things like this. And I think in my heart, I still am optimistic for the future of the Republican Party and the country at large. But I can’t be pollyannaish: it is incredibly disheartening to see the party that I worked to build up throw away all of its ideals over one of the weakest men to ever hold the office of the President.

We are signing away decades of political power as well as any semblance of consistent principles in order to appease the tiger on which we ride. But eventually, the tiger gets hungry and you find yourself in its jaws no matter what you do. When Trump is bored of you or finally asks too much of you for your conscience, you will still end up as political roadkill.

The only solution is to get the hell of the tiger while you still have a chance.

Just ask Kevin McCarthy.