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By Paul Bean
Senator Bernie Sanders last week released a statement and video condemning the assassination of Charlie Kirk and his concerns over the increasing rise of political violence in America.
“Freedom and democracy are not about political violence,” said Sanders. “It is not about assassinating public officials. It is not about trying to intimidate people who speak out on an issue. Political violence, in fact, is political cowardice. It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force. Every American, no matter what one’s political point of view may be, must condemn all forms of political violence and all forms of intimidation.”
His full statement appears below and is posted on X:
“Dear Fellow Vermonter,
I thought you might be interested in reading a statement I made the other day regarding the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk.”
“I want to say a few words regarding the terrible murder of Charlie Kirk — someone whom I strongly disagreed with on almost every issue but who was clearly a very smart and effective communicator and organizer — and someone unafraid to get out into the world and engage the public. My condolences go out to his wife and family.
A free and democratic society, which is what America is supposed to be about, depends upon the basic premise that people can speak out, organize and take part in public life without fear — without worrying that they might be killed, injured or humiliated for expressing their political views. In fact, that is the essence of what freedom is about and what democracy is about. You have a point of view, that’s great. I have a point of view that is different than yours, that’s great. Let’s argue it out. We make our case to the American people at the local, state and federal level, and we hold free elections in which the people decide what they want. That’s called freedom and democracy. And I want as many people as possible to participate in that process without fear.
Freedom and democracy are not about political violence. It is not about assassinating public officials. It is not about trying to intimidate people who speak out on an issue. Political violence, in fact, is political cowardice. It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force. Every American, no matter what one’s political point of view may be, must condemn all forms of political violence and all forms of intimidation. We must welcome and respect dissenting points of view. That’s what our Constitution is about. That’s what our Bill of Rights is about. That, in fact, is what freedom is about.
The murder of Charlie Kirk is part of a disturbing rise in political violence that threatens to hollow out public life and make people afraid of participating. From the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, to the attack on Paul Pelosi, to the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to the murder of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband, to the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, to the shooting of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson and the shooting several years ago of Rep. Steve Scalise, this chilling rise in violence has targeted public figures across the political spectrum.
Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. We all remember the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Senator Robert F. Kennedy, John Lennon, Medgar Evers and the attempted assassinations of President Ronald Reagan and Alabama Governor George Wallace.
This is a difficult and contentious moment in American history. Democracy in our country and throughout the world is under attack. And there are a lot of reasons for that, which need serious discussion. But, bottom line: If we honestly believe in democracy, if we believe in freedom, all of us must be loud and clear. Political violence, regardless of ideology, is not the answer and must be condemned.”
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Categories: Media, National News, Public Safety
Firstly, the USA is not a Democracy, it is a Constitutional Republic. Secondly, isn’t it an oxymoron to get lectures on democracy from a Socialist?
Would have been wonderful for Charlie to debate the man who not only subverted Burlington, but our fine Republic, known as the green mountain state.
Any representative that does not know and openly state we are a republic is not fit for office, and to think he was almost our president. Thankfully he took the money and let the DNC put in Hillary Clinton, talk about rigged elections.
He’s a great talker, for sure. He’s also done a great job of ruining Vermont too! Look at church street Burlington and you’ll see the Bernie legacy. Look at the homeless, the unaffordabilty in Vermont, gee thanks for all that Bernie!
Grifters are gonna grift.
No, not really. Socialism and the Totalitarian representtions of the concept aren’t synonmous. That being said, “democracy” is a way of life which, however flawed, our representative democracy, our Republic, provides for us.
Never thought I would agree with Bernie, on this I support his call to calm and reason 100%
He is stating the obvious here, but dont be fooled…it’s just the usual posturing and virtue signaling to cover his behind.
Even some of the more radicalised might be getting scared. They have created a monster and eventually it will come for them.
When Bernie Sanders repeatedly calls the president (or anyone for that matter) a “pathological liar and a fraud”, Its the “Bern” who has contributed to this problem.
tis a standard practice to simply state that trump has lied thousands of times. Literally. Argument by assertion.
Why are those who have been long silent in the face of comments & the overt actions that have incited violence for years now like those by Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, the crazed mob that attacked Rand Paul & his wife, the 2 billion dollars’ worth of damage to public & private properties in 2020 & beyond by antifa and the left, the police killed by anti-law enforcement leftist radicals, Donald Trump’s TWO near assassination attempts last year, Nicholas Roske who was set to murder Brett Kavanaugh outside his home, etc. etc.
Why?
ONLY because these anti-constitutionalists & Marxists finally fear conservatives & traditionalists (oh the horror….those who espouse traditional viewpoints) have finally had enough.
Might people shoot and begin to otherwise fight back in self-defense? Might the broken-hearted widow of Charlie Kirk ensure that her promises to not merely restore, but reinvigorate & strengthen the Turning Point Organization actually be underway? Might conservatives organize in the manner as does the left & appear intimidating? Might those who have encouraged such bravado and subsequent vile & violent acts be met with the same somehow, somewhere, sometime?
This is simply self-preservation in the face of the anarchy you have “inspired”. It is not spoken to illicit true tolerance or obeyance of law or to reinforce the tenets of this Republic everyone was once instructed of in elementary school.
It is fear. Fear of your words that might come back to bite you. Insincere and likely far too little, too late.
Sounds like an apology for fostering this kind of hateful rhetoric over many years. But will he change?
Hypocrisy runs amuck on the left, double standards appear to be their norm.
Bernie delivers his usual rant about freedom of expression and “toning down the rhetoric”, like so many other democrats/liberals in the wake of LATEST politically-motivated violent attack perpetrated by an adherent of the tranny/furry/antifa extremist agenda…and just like the rest of his rotten ideological followers, after the funeral will go right back to calling our President Hitler, nazi and fascist. If it weren’t for double standards, leftists would have no standards at all.
Not to mention the previous President, while in office making a speech in Philadelphia standing with ghoulish, devilish lighting flanked by active duty USMC members who said ‘Donald Trump and MAGA members are the biggest threat to this Country’, it appears to be a deeper problem with decades of anti right rhetoric
Still waiting for the rest of the story about the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Comment from Richard Day.
So, says the man whose rhetoric and ideology promotes violence. It was one of his supporters because of his words shot up the Congressional baseball practice that almost assassinated Rep. Steve Scalise. It is Bernie and his ilk that call people Hitler, Nazis, Fascists and threats to our democracy. They have succeeded in convincing the sheeple that follow them to commit violent acts. The progressive communists have created these people thru propaganda and psychotropic drugs that a man can be a woman, and a woman can become a man. Well Bernie tell me how many conservatives have assassinated a progressive activist. How many NRA members shot up a school. How many conservatives rioted and burned up cities. How many conservatives lit Tesla dealerships on fire. The Communist Progressives that call themselves the Democrat Party even protested a prayer on the floor of the House of Representatives for Charlie Kirk.
No Bernie I do not accept your condemnation of violence. YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF IT.
WIELDERS OF THE GUN
1. Uvalde TX – AR-15 –Mentally Defective – Guns legally purchased.
2. Buffalo NY – AR-15 – Gun legally purchased but shooter had illegal 30 rd magazine.
3. Boulder CO – AR-15 – Mentally Defective – Gun legally purchased but shooter had 10 illegal 30 rd magazines.
4. Orlando FL – AR-15 – Islamist on FBI radar. Purchased guns legally.
5. Parkland FL – AR-15 – Mentally Defective. Purchased guns legally.
6. Nashville TN – AR-15 – Transgender – Purchased guns legally.
7. Las Vegas NV – AR-15 –All guns purchased legally.
8. Sandy Hook CT – AR-15 – Mentally Defective. – Purchased guns legally.
9. San Bernardino CA – AR-15 – Islamist – Guns illegally transferred and modified.
10. Midland/Odessa TX – AR-15 – Guns illegally purchased.
11. Colorado Springs CO– AR-15 – Non-binary – Prohibited from owning firearms.
12. Poway Synagogue CA – AR-15 – Gun legally purchased but shooter had 10 illegal 30 rd magazines.
13. Tree of Life Synagogue PA – AR-15 – Anti Semite – Purchased all guns legally.
14. Lewiston ME – AR-15 – Mentally Defective. Purchased guns legally.
15. Lakewood TX – AR-15 – Transgender Illegal Alien. Gun acquired illegally.
16. Washington DC – SKS – Socialist – Acquired guns legally.
17. Denver CO – AR-15 – Transgender – Acquired guns legally.
18. Philadelphia PA – AR15- Transgender – Acquired guns legally.
19. Orleans County VT – Auto Pistols – Two Transgender Illegal Aliens – Acquired guns illegally.
20. Minneapolis MN – AR15 – Shot Gun & Pistols – Transgender – Acquired guns illegally.
21. North Orem UT – 30/06 Rifle – A man having a relationship with a transgender person assassinates Christian conservative Charlie Kirk. No knowledge of how the gun was acquired.
Is 16 in Washington DC the Bernie supported attempting to assassinate the entire GOP Congressional leadership at their annual baseball game?
This should be a time to deescalate the rhetoric. There is reason to blame those across the political spectrum for spreading hate. However, regular contributors to this forum even now continue to name-call. I would ask the guilty parties, “Why don’t you try to state your position without referring to those who disagree with you as “Communists”, “socialists”, “rotten ideological followers”, “leftists”, “Marxists”, “anti-constitutionalists”?
Sure. Because when leftists try to silence FREE SPEECH (as the Biden White House did during his tenure as testified and evidenced by founders/CEO’s of those companies under Congressional subpoena – via demanding opposing voices & commentary on Twitter AND Facebook be censored) – that is the definition of being an anti-constitutionalist, as but one example. Political violence is but one more.
The legions who now state they are advocates of socialism – such as Bernie’s entire party & movement – ARE Communists and Marxists. All three are the same & differ merely in minor ways to achieve the platform, as once was routinely taught in U.S. public schools prior to indoctrination.
Ayn Rand: “There is no difference between socialism and Communism, except in the means of achieving that ultimate end: Communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism by force. The difference between murder and suicide.”
Try relocation to Venezuela or Cuba or China. Not pretty.
The term “leftist” refers to “left of center” & has long been utilized by leftists themselves – it is a word contained within the Dictionary, actually.
I’ll add one more though – “baby killers” – but only because they advocate for the killing of babies.
Over 95% of biologists concur life begins at conception. The Dictionary states a fetus is a developing baby in utero. Abortion is the DELIBERATE (not a miscarriage thereby) termination of a human pregnancy. Synonyms in the Thesaurus/Dictionary of abort are: halt, terminate, to end, to void. A baby is a human. To abort a baby therefore is to murder a baby.
Photographs of aborted babies taken at all life stages of gestation are available for perusal online.
Communism & socialism & Marxism & abortions are not “rhetoric”. They are dangerous political/social movements and/or actions contained within history books and movements now increasing and vocally espoused by minions within this country.
Abortion, much like assisted suicide is a medical procedure that causes imminent death – it is NOT “healthcare” – yet ANOTHER leftist oxymoron.
Bernie Sanders & others in Congress, sadly, are socialists. Self-proclaimed & proud socialists. To claim such is “name-calling” is detachment from reality.
And that’s why my opinion will continue to contain those accurate and historic words.
Now that deflection is over, back to why there is a war against conservatism and conservatives and religious in this nation.
One should turn the other cheek, but not turn a blind eye to pure evil
Interestingly enough, Bernie and the current NYC nominee for Mayor are self proclaimed Socialists, they called themselves that positions title, Bernie in the 1980’s ran for Mayor or Burlington Vt as a member of the Communist Party on the ballot. So they follow the ideology by their own admission
You are what you is. You is what you am. – Frank Zappa
Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, haven’t you called President Trump a Fascist and an Authoritarian. In fact, haven’t you and say, Becca Balint, and our other non-representative fueled the fires of where we are in America today. President Trump is doing his best to clean up the mess that the corrupt Congress and government has created the last few decades, and doing a rather fine job of it. What would be nice is if the rest of the government would get behind him for the betterment of the country rather than the divisiveness our politicians and bureaucrats have flaunted the last many decades.
Bernie got in a few shots that I thought were below the belt. The J6 comment I find issue with. I saw police/security holding open doors to the Capitol and grandmas who entered were prosecuted (persecuted). There is hopefully still more answers and debate on who really was the instigator on January 6 and if it was a set-up by the party he (Bernie) caucuses with.
Centurion 98 stamped CENTURION 98 SPORTER CIA ST> ALB. VT. USA 3006 is on the barrel of the rifle I bought from Century Industrial Arms over thirty years ago when they were located in St. Albans City Vermont They are now in Georgia Vermont. This firearm has been in the closet for the last thirty years and I took it out to look it when Charlie Kirk was shot. Comment from Richard Day.
Correction. Century International Arms. Comment from Richard Day.
The Zizians. Need I say more?
At this moment Bernie is conspiring to remove RFK, and stop the movement of creating health in a sea of criminal poisoning of Nature and of constitutional rights. His rebellion against the United States has already removed him from office, his dual citizenship has already removed him from office, these are self exercising clauses.
I’m sorry, this condemnation falls on deaf ears. I have listened to Bernie vilify, lie and dehumanizing the right with the best of them. In fact I believe it was a Bernie comment that triggered a shooter that nearly killed Steve Scalise at a congressional baseball practice. I say the message needs to be….
NO MORE. Thank you.
This is rather hollow, coming from the guy who has built his million-dollar fortune by promoting class warfare.