Last week I wrote about the divide between the two U.S. political parties that is threatening their abilities and performance, which became vindicated this week after a series of 13 bombs were mailed to 11 different prominent democratic voices.
The prestigious list of targets ranged from former President Barack Obama, to former Vice President Joe Biden, to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Prominent political speakers like Robert De Niro and George Soros also received packages that were determined to have potentially dangerous devices in them. A package was sent to former Director of the CIA, John Brennan and delivered by courier to CNN’s offices at the Time Warner Center in New York. The entire building had to be evacuated while the newsroom was live on-air.
On Friday, authorities arrested and charged Cesar Sayoc, a registered Republican who has a history of arrests that includes a previous bomb threat in Miami-Dade County in 2002. This type of activity, less than two weeks prior to the midterm elections, begs the question of an emerging trend. With the two-party system more polarized than ever, the rising trend of frustrated constituents and radical outbursts of danger by extremists like Cesar Sayoc may come to fruition.
We are playing a very dangerous game in Congress that is starting to purvey unto civilians’ lives and well-being. Acts such as these ought to demand the utmost gravity from our justice department, and justice must fall swift as an axe; for when behavior like this begins, the blame game is only exacerbated. This policy has been employed this past week when prominent high-profile conservatives deemed the bomb threats a “false flag” attack coming from members of the democratic party seeking to gain solicitude and support in the coming midterm elections. Several Fox News guest analysts suggested that the threats were “false flag” attempts as well.
While in this political state of uncertainty, one thing we can be certain of is the continued incoherence of our political system and the perpetuation of “fake news.” The ability, or inherent lack, of political parties to combat “fake news” claims is only a continuance of the blame game that is exhausting our ability to respectfully debate, as well as crippling the gleam of hope that so many constituents have lost sight of due to inadequacy and political ruin.
Nick Shook is a senior studying political science pre-law at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you agree? Let Nick know by emailing him at ns258814@ohio.edu.
