Bipartisan calls for national unity in the face of two recent incidents are likely to fall on deaf ears, as both parties try to assign blame for the Florida bomber threats and Pittsburgh shooting 10 days away from the midterms.
"No one should be politicizing what happened this week," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Ben Lujan said during a Fox News broadcast on Sunday. "We should come together as a country. This should not be a political response, but rather a response at how we can further bring us together."
Lujan’s direct counterpart, Steve Stivers, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, responsible for selecting candidates for the upcoming vote, agreed with him live on-air.
"I want to say that Ben is not my enemy. Democrats are not my enemy. They are my opponents, and while we have different visions for the future of America, different directions, we are all Americans first," Stivers said.
"We need to come together and do what’s in the best interest of America. No matter who wins in 10 days I believe we can come together and make that happen."
Cesar Sayoc, a 56-year-old Trump supporter, was arrested this week, after a handful of leading Democrats and liberal institutions, including Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and the New York Times received suspicious packages. On Saturday, Robert Bowers, a man who said on social media he opposes the president, reportedly gunned down 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, after declaring that “Jews are the children of Satan.”
While both men were described by those close to them as unstable even before developing fanatical obsessions with radical politics in recent years, Stivers acknowledged that the vitriol of recent public discourse may have pushed them over the edge.
“I think we all bear some responsibility, and we need to try to clean up our act and try bring civility to our congress and frankly to our dialogue,” Stivers said, adding that less "finger pointing" was required.
But there was a sea of finger-pointing in all directions and little civility, particularly after the earlier of the two attacks, which was squarely blamed on Trump by almost every liberal media outlet, and thousands of Democrats online.
The right responded by accusing Democrats of opportunism, hypocrisy, or in the darker corners, of conjuring up a false flag attack.
The second incident is harder to pin down, as for all the Nazi accusations, Trump is perhaps Israel's biggest international supporter abroad, even as some among the alt-right who view him as a shining beacon still circulate anti-Semitic rhetoric. The left, however, has its own issues with anti-Semitism, with its close alliance with many pro-Palestinian forces who do little to hide their desire to end the existence of Israel.
The issue is also complicated by the US-bound migrant caravan that is currently passing through Mexico, which the Republicans have criticized, and which apparently proved to be the final straw for Bowers.
Still, the hot takes keep coming, as they will until November 6.
If you like this story, share it with a friend!