ARE WE THE SAME?
I remember many years ago, when Barack Obama was in the White House, a very illustrative movement took place in conservative forums in reaction to what was going on in the media. I can’t remember the specific year, and it was long ago, amongst forums that have been deceased and erased, so you’re going to have to trust my memory. It’s not a lie I could make up, anyway.
The reaction happened when, all of a sudden, it looked like an order went out to all the MSM— “Compare Barack Obama to JFK! Do it now! Push it hard!” And they did.
At the time, I read the full spectrum of political discourse. The response in conservative circles was, basically, “OMG! They’re about to assassinate him so they can make him a martyr, blame it on us, and start a race war and political pogrom!” (This was before the Soros-financed “NGOs” paid armies of goons to go onto conservative forums and make vile, racist posts to try to discredit them.) The immediate sentiment was, “If there is the slightest possibility that this is true, we have to try to stop it from happening!” There was talk of going to Obama’s public appearances and keeping an eye out for anyone who might try to kill him.
I don’t know if anything came of all the talk, though I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that some followed through on it. But I was very surprised that so many conservatives had that reaction.
I was no fan of Barack Obama, but if I was at one of his rallies and saw someone trying to approach him with a gun, I would have jumped on the assassin without thinking. Would I have taken a bullet for Obama, to stop a hundred cities going up in flames and conservatives being blamed for it? I don’t know if I would have been that brave, but the sentiment was there.
Even if you think that the conservatives on those forums were ignorant dupes for believing it was possible for some super-secret, all-powerful cabal to order the manipulation of the public and the murder of a president, that’s not the point. The point is their reaction. They did not want it to take place, and believed it should be stopped, even if they despised the person who was supposed to be the victim.
So— no matter what your political persuasion— if you were at that rally where Kirk got shot, and you saw an assassin just before he pulled the trigger, would you have done your best to keep Charlie Kirk from being killed? If you had the chance to jump on the assassin, or throw something at him, or— God forbid— at least think about getting in the way of the bullet to stop or deflect it, would you have done that?
If you would not have, then we are not the same. And you are certainly not as good a person as any of those anti-Obama conservatives who were willing to invest time and perhaps their lives to keep harm from coming to him.