Like the Democrats, who think they have a monopoly on compassion and mourning, conservatives are heartbroken and disturbed by the recent mass shootings.  Unlike the Democrats, conservatives wait for families to mourn and law enforcement to piece together the evidence before rushing to judgment.  But Democrats couldn’t wait to spout off, politicizing the shootings moments after they happened, intending to capitalize on the carnage by laying blame at Trump’s feet, as well as yours and mine -- while bodies were still warm. Have they no shame?  

Falsely connecting Trump’s policies to hate and murder is so heinous and poses such a serious threat to the stability of this country that it is time for the President to address the nation from the Oval Office, calling out the Democrats and media -- by name, headline, and quotation -- and denouncing their attributions of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia to him, his administration, and the good people of America.  Rather than allowing Democrats to throw opportunistic chum to their base to hype up the feeding frenzy, the President should take this opportunity to speak of unity and the need to focus on uncovering the underlying causes for these massacres.

The root causes for these mass shootings comprise more than guns and hate.  We have to sift through a dizzying volume of material to find the commonalities that allow us to profile the killers.  After separating out gang-, Islamic terror-, family-, employment-, felony-, or PTSD-related shootings as well as those targeting one or a few individuals where multiple bystanders are shot, we are left with a patchwork of motives, perpetrators, and locations that don’t easily fit into a neatly packaged criminal profile.  One glaring pattern to emerge, however, is the majority of domestic mass shootings involving three or more fatalities (the FBI standard) that do not fall into the categories above, are perpetrated by white males age 20-50 years. But the Democrat talking point that they kill because they are white haters of the Other, is an oversimplification. 

A paper available on the American Psychological Association site suggests that 25% of adolescent shooters had previous mental health help, 50% of adult male shooters had previous psychiatric help, and a significant majority of school shooters had suicidal thoughts, even attempts.  Prevalent among these shooters is a high incidence of depression, social isolation, and narcissism.  The left tells us we have to understand the anger and marginalization of Islamic terrorists but aren’t willing to consider factors like mental illness for white, domestic terrorists -- no, their motivations must be based purely on the color of one’s skin and hate.  

How can this help in terms of prevention? Although most adolescent school shooters display feelings of social alienation or loneliness, not all white males in high school who feel lonely or isolated become mass murderers.  We cannot monitor or take action against every white male who gets counseling, seeks treatment, or expresses these thoughts or feelings.  A better approach might be to change existing laws that prohibit concerned family members from getting mental health treatment for loved ones who are over 18 years of age or create legal procedures to temporarily confiscate arms or delay a permit if the family can demonstrate their loved one poses a threat.    

We cannot prevent it all.  We cannot confiscate all weapons, identify and heal every depressed soul, monitor every online game or post.  Dangerous people will fall through the cracks.  Even if we could achieve 100% accuracy with sophisticated, predatory, privacy-hacking predictive policing, we’d be living in a dystopian Hell where any of us could be punished for a fleeting thought, for a crime that never was and had no victim.

A more potent disinfectant is to encourage people to speak openly about differences, prejudices, and fears.  Stifling speech and thought will only drive people underground, guaranteeing confusion and ignorance that, coupled with mental illness and shored up by comradeship on the internet, will exacerbate feelings of isolation, betrayal, injustice, and anger… leading to more bloodshed.

If we are supposed to put ourselves in the shoes of a young black male wearing a hoodie, or a gay man who isn’t allowed to marry, or an illegal immigrant desperate for a better life, shouldn’t we do the same for young white males?

When we do, a different picture emerges than the white privilege that fills the airwaves and classroom.  The Democrat-Media Complex incessantly dumps on white males as the creators of the country’s ills from racism to global warming.  They are blamed for slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation even if their forebears had nothing to do with it.  Somehow, Caucasian men are responsible for the plight of urban blacks living in longstanding Democrat-controlled cities, even if they are Republicans, don’t vote in that district, and live elsewhere.  From pre-school to graduate school, white males are passed over for opportunities not because they lack qualifications or talents but because of their “privilege.” They are not accorded  special consideration for their gender or race. They drop out of college at higher rates than women, the majority of Masters and PhDs are awarded to females, it’s harder to get a job because white men don’t fill diversity quotas, and they are reviled, belittled and made to look imbecilic in the media. Instead of America’s transgressions being part of its history to remember and learn from, the sins of her past are revisited upon people who’ve done nothing. 

Which brings us to the Democrat mantra du jour that Trump’s racist rhetoric about blacks and immigrants triggers white supremacist males to go postal.  Interestingly, my examination of an article in   LA Times reviewing rampage shootings reveals that only two of the eighteen since 2015 involved white males who slaughtered racial or religious minorities consistent with white supremacist ideologies: Pittsburgh in 2018 and Oregon in 2015.  Three, if we include El Paso, although the suspect’s manifesto is a mixed bag: he aligns with the Christchurch massacre, is against mixing races, fears an illegal immigrant invasion for which he blames Democrats, Republicans and corporations, claims corporations control the government and ruined the environment, expresses concern about automation, and states that his ideology predates Trump. 

The links to Trump just aren’t there.  He is not a Manchurian President with dog whistles, triggers, or code words.  He has never advocated killing minorities, his stance on controlling the border is a national security and enforcement of existing law issue, he has no problem with legal immigration of people from all over the world, and he has never called for violence against non-whites.

If anyone is responsible for creating this monster, maybe the Democrat-Media Complex should look in the mirror.  Maybe they’ve gone too far with their racist rhetoric against whites and their sexist rhetoric against men.  Maybe scared, young, white men with depression and anxiety have been triggered by Democrats’ refusal to secure the border and enforce laws that keep us safe, instead giving sanctuary, free medical care and education to illegal immigrants while neglecting legal residents and citizens.

We must learn from our past so as not to repeat our mistakes, but at some point we have to let go in order to move forward.   The anger Democrats encourage against white males is more toxic than masculinity ever was: it eats away at the core of our humanity while tearing apart the fabric of our country.  It is the Democrats who must dial it back.