Would-be shooter accused Trump of being "awful," a "traitor" and retweeted Trump was able to fake assassination attempt

[pat_k]

2. He got a lot of his diagnosis right, but went totally off the rails on the response.

As far as "probing any connection Allen may have had to left wing groups."

They have it SO BACKWARDS!

Being connected to activist groups and joining with citizen lobbyists who are finding ways to work together to redeem our national soul is the path AWAY from violence.

We are NOT helpless. It is NOT hopeless. Engaged citizens are powerful. Violence is NEVER the answer.

They will undoubtedly find that he has no connection to activist groups because if he had, he would NOT have gone off the rails.

You have be stuck in a destructive, overwhelmed, hopeless, cynical, tape-loop of powerlessness to start planning to "solve" the insanity of this regime by trying to kill people in it.

Who knows how he was radicalized? Some internet rabbit hole? Targeted for radicalization in the service of the counter-resistance? Who the fuck knows?

What I DO know is that he was not radicalized through connection to the groups the regime points to as "ANTIFA" -- groups like Indivisible, SPLC, or Defiance.

What I DO know is that if he had found a home in a progressive group like Indivisible or Defiance, he would have seen good people in action, making a difference. If he had connected with centers of hope and action like Hopium Chronicles, he would see people working to get resolutions of condemnation passed at the local and state level. He would have seen interviews with incredible, hope-inspiring candidates, he would have heard what Democratic Party Chairs across this country are accomplishing.

I think it is almost guaranteed that it is his LACK of connection to such groups that left him vulnerable to the particular brand of insanity that brought him to that dinner, armed to the teeth.