If you start running with conspiracy theorists on one topic -- vaccines, UFOs, flat Earth, elections -- you throw open the door to all of 'em. The "conspiracy mindset" rarely goes for just one thing. Few people embrace every far-out notion, but the overlap between, say, people who think the Moon landings were fake and people who believe in Bigfoot is pretty large.
Unfortunately, this includes people who are dangerous as well as the merely eccentric. There have now been two attempts on a Presidential candidate, and in each case, the malefactor has not been a cold-eyed fanatic -- nope, they've been flakes. People whose politics are all over the map, people who dream of fame and glory but lack the talent or dedication to achieve it. The Secret Service is rational, cautious, methodical (and have been known to take a little too much for granted -- look for that to change, and fast). And that means erratic people, people who are unmoored from reality, have an advantage. Every attack after Lincoln that has done harm or come close has been perpetrated by someone who was behaving irrationally.
That's a problem. Unpredictability is an asset. And the more a campaign has catered to the unmoored, the more it has been unwilling to turn away the fringe, the greater the risk.
Normal people don't do this kind of thing -- no matter who they vote for. Yes, your loudmouth Republican uncle and your bleeding-heart Democrat niece are normal Americans. They might be annoying but they're not out for blood, no matter how awful their choices of politicians, policies and positions.
But when you open the door to crazy, you open the door to all the crazy. Expect the Secret Service to wield an even heavier hand around all the candidates from here on in.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
3 comments:
I agree with you. I pray that every one of the folks running, die when The Creator wills it, my preference being after a full allotment of years, peacefully, in bed, surrounded by people who love them. And, undramatically.
"But when you open the door to crazy, you open the door to all the crazy. Expect the Secret Service to wield a heavy hand around all the candidates from here on in."
As well they should. When I was a younger cop, I was involved in security for a couple of Ronald Reagan visits to the area. The effort was, to my mind anyway, massive and carried out with all the sense of humor of a Dragnet episode.
And sometimes, the crazy is after people for no real fault of their own other than being famous. Consider poor Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, stabbed by an anarchist nutter when his first target had left Geneva.
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