Louder Than Bombs

So now there are bombs being sent to noted liberals all over the place: George Soros, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Robert DeNiro, Joe Biden, and probably more to come.  None of them have reached their target, none of them have harmed anyone... yet, but this is yet another widening gyre of a culture war run amok and the casualties in the long run will not be minor. This is not Donald Trump's doing, at least not directly, I don't think even he would sanction this sort of terrorism, but the response to it is, once again, deeply disturbing.  The Fox News contingent is fainting and hand-wringing, all the while muttering under their breath about "false flags," and how this is just another conspiracy to make Trump look bad or sway the election.
At some point though, when your only explanation for things is a bizarre conspiracy theory, you might have to admit that perhaps you're not on the right side of things. When your explanation for everything unfavorable to you is a result of "the media" spinning things in a certain way, you might at least acknowledge that perhaps there is some truth contained in the overwhelming corpus of what can still feasibly be called journalism. Journalists and opinion columnists do sometimes see things clearly.  For instance, this piece appeared in the NY Times today.  No doubt, Trump apologists will say that it's just liberal propaganda or fake news, but it makes a balanced point about the rhetorical practices that have taken over our political arena lately.  It does not blame Trump for the pipe bombs, but it does blame the fear mongering and violent tone of his rhetoric for creating a scenario where an unhinged individual becomes more likely to act out.
The guy who opened fire on Republicans playing softball last year, shows us that the same thing can happen on the left as well as the right, however, I do not recall Democrats making excuses for that or blithely ignoring it as though it was just inevitable and moving on to other things.  Trump, as usual, postures as a tough guy, and in doing so feeds into precisely the sort of zeitgeist that catalyzes this sort of thing in the first place.  All of the people on the bomb list are people who are frequently blamed for the imaginary ills of our society, and we have seen other examples of this: Soros is secretly funding the refugee caravan coming from Honduras, Barack Obama is a secret Muslim who wants to institute Sharia law, Hillary Clinton... I don't even have time to list everything that Hillary Clinton has been accused of, so let's just say Benghazi and leave it at that.
My point is that irresponsible rhetoric has been setting the stage for this sort of thing for years now, and honestly both sides have a hand in it, but one side is more red (take the implication for what it's worth).  Part of this is simply a function of identity, conservatism has a built in reactionary streak that sees change as bad and which always seeks to maintain the status quo.  Conservatism is the favorite haven of those who are already doing well, those who have the power, the money and all the "rights" they want.  Liberalism, at least in the classic sense, looks towards improvement of the status quo, sometimes it even gets around to being altruistic, so that it seeks improvement for everyone.
Honestly, a healthy, functioning society would have both impulses at work, but we do not, at present, have a healthy, functioning society, we have a large scale version of the Jerry Springer show.  Right now, the Liberal side of things is hanging by its fingernails to some idea that civility might be possible. It is a very diverse body though, encompassing everything from libertarians to communists, and within that diversity there are many who think, as Eric Holder expressed last week, "when they go low, we kick them."  That's a bad idea, because if we do that, we let the bully win.
Trump, and by extension, the entire GOP have become bullies, they have the power, and they are not afraid to use it.  People who haven't had the bully's fist aimed at them often look on with approval or disinterest.  Very rarely will anyone stand up to a bully on behalf of someone else.  Trump seems to have only one very narrow sort of self awareness: he knows who to target.  Soros is an easy target for the MAGA crowd to hate: he's rich, he's a New York Elite, he's a known liberal, and to top it off, he's Jewish, for any of the latent anti-semites in the gang.  Hillary is demonstrably hate-able to large swaths of the population.  Obama and Biden? Well, I have a bit of a hard time finding any explanation to dislike those two other than flat out racism, I mean disagree with them maybe, but dislike, or even hate them?  That's tough, but not apparently impossible.  Which is the point, when you can convince people that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are dangerous enemies, unless your last name is Bin-Laden, you have crossed into Jim Jones territory. Robert DeNiro? Fughettabahit.
But this is where we are, I have a feeling it's going to get worse.